001Formative assessment is an important part of the district 230 instructional framework and is present in classrooms throughout the district. As part of the district 230 professional learning series, we are working collaboratively to unpack the best practices related to formative assessment. You will see this present in classrooms like strength and conditioning and PE, special services, math, and art. I define formative assessment as checking for understanding, making sure that our students know why they are doing what we are doing in class and being able to build off what they are doing to monitor their progress and their growth within the semester. >> We see um students producing target trackers, progress monitoring forms. We see students giving each other feedback from peer-to-peer activities >> throughout the semester. Students are tracking their progress. We have a rubric in here
002that they can identify what it is that they are needing for when they are reflecting when they are doing the packet. They can look back and see what targets they need to meet. >> Uh we write down our our weights in the packet. And so every week we'll progress 5 to 10 lbs and that's how we kind of track our weight. A lot of these kids are new to weightlifting and we do peer assessments to start the semester off. So with their partner, they are going through the lift and checking off whether their partner is doing it correctly or not. >> She checks to see if everyone is knows something by peer assessing. So one one classmate will go with the other and you'll you'll kind of write down their technique and form on a
003paper. What we're seeing in our instruction is teachers providing uh very robust rubrics and working through them with the students so that students have a very good understanding of what the expectation is at the end of a product. >> Today was a mid project critique. So, what they're looking at doing is give each other advice based on what's called their SI, their sustained investigation, which they need for their AP portfolio, and kind of giving them some ideas or tips or guidance as to what they might want to do next in the project to kind of finish it up. And then the students can take that advice or leave it. It's up to them. >> I think that it's a really good way to grow. I love getting feedback and I love giving it cuz I
004feel like a lot of my best ideas came from feedback from other people. So, it's really helpful. I try to take it as a very positive way. Like we don't have to implement the critiques, but I really like I like it cuz then I can really it helps me move forward in my art cuz sometimes I do get art block and I do not know where I'm going to go next. And these critiques really do help me. In order to become comfortable with the rubric, we had to start very beginning of the school year talking about what the rubric is, what's expected, um what's needed to get the highest scores in order to get a four or five on the portfolio. >> Um he showed us like the rubric one time like over everything. And
005then after that, he kind of broke it up into little chunks so it wouldn't be like an information overload. So that way we kind of understand it a little bit better and we'd understand like what the rubric is looking for and how to even like grade or help out our peers. I think it creates more connections between the students and within the teachers so we can grow together instead of a more competitionlike state and we can improve each other and we can all get fours and fives. >> It is uh going to help in the long run. uh not only are they using the rubric to grade each other, it reinforces what they need to do for their own work and then when we get to the end of the school year when they have
006to submit, they sit down with the rubric and they score it themselves. So they have a pretty good idea of what their score should be when they submit it. >> Um one thing that we're really focusing on is kind of the metacognition behind that. So students and teachers really considering how am I understanding what the learning process looks like and then using that in my progress towards mastery. >> They are able to do those on their own then. And I always tell my students and my staff like this is you time. You tell me what you know. You show me what you know. And then I take those slips or activities at the end of class and I basically highlight where we went wrong. And a lot of times most of my students went wrong
007in the same place which helps inform my instruction. I've done Google forms where students select what what they were learning about what their data was, how well they did, and how they felt about it. >> I feel confidence to keep learning about sometimes I a little worried and I proud that I got a good report for October. Another element that we're looking at uh has to do with providing feedback that is impactful and will move learning forward as opposed to potentially shutting it down, which um our teachers are engaged in meaningful conversation, challenging work. um to ensure that that the information and and the product that they're producing and giving to students is is helpful both in the moment but also for parents and support systems to be able to understand where students are and
008how they're going to move forward. >> So the whiteboards are like crucial in my classroom because when the students are able to write their answers and show all their thinking on the whiteboard, I can quickly walk around the room and see what they know, what they don't know, what misconceptions they have. if they're making a mistake and it's just so visible to me and also to others. So, it helps them be like, "Oh, hey, like this student has something different. Let me take a look and have that conversation." So, not only are they like looking at each other's work, but I'm able to look at their work and really quickly assess like, "Yes, they got it. No, they didn't." And then where that mistake is. Maybe write down right now if I had a mapping
009diagram and I said it was one to one, what would that look like? Let's see. The whiteboards do so much. Um, we have these whiteboards here and I also have some that are just sticky on the wall and all of the whiteboards in the room help engage the students so much. They feel like they can take more risks with the whiteboards because they can quickly erase their answer and it's not set in stone and um, and it just promotes so much more engagement and conversation with the students. Do you guys agree? >> They all pass the vertical line test. >> Yes. >> Asking you guys, what do I think? Yeah. Okay, if you think that they are all functions, knock on your table. >> You got a lot of support in here. Amazing. Okay. >>
010An important theme in all five PLES has been about a partnership with students. We're trying to empower students. Uh, and we do that by making them partners in the process.