November, 2014
Teaching and Learning Newsletter
2014 ~ 2015
Message from Heidi...
Assessment Field Test
2
EdcampLO
2
This first term has absolutely flown by. It is so true that every year goes faster. I hope you have had a great first quarter to the school year.
Teaching Vocabulary
3
Math News
4
There continues to be a lot happening in the Teaching and Learning Department. Please take a few minutes to catch up on the latest happenings.
Ten Tips for Writing Common Formative Assessments
5
As always, do not hesitate to contact me with questions, concerns, comments, ideas, and/or praise!
NEWSLETTER
TEACHING AND LEARNING
Dear Staff,
attachments 1.
K-12 Common Assessment
Heidi Mercer Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning
MIDDLE SCHOOL ELA
2.
Assessment Overview
3.
EdcampLO
4.
Psyched Up!
5.
LOCS Book Drive
COMMON ASSESSMENT REQUIREMENTS All teachers should have received
A lot of our middle school classrooms are already taking advantage of NewsELA. Here is yet another article outlining what a great resource this is for our students and how well it is aligned to our reading workshop philosophies. http:// hechingerreport.org/content/tailordifficulty-school-text-childs-comfortlevel-make-sweat_17618/
the district common assessment requirements by level.
The pur-
pose for these requirements is to provide consistency and validity. As you read the requirements, you should note that essentially these are just
good teaching
practices. If you have questions please contact Heidi Mercer.
ATTACHMENT 1
Teaching and Learning
Page 2
LAKE ORION ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS PARTIICIPATE IN MICHIGAN INTERIM ASSESSMENT FIELD TEST Blanche Sims, Orion Oaks, Paint Creek, Stadi-
be administered in spring 2015. Students had
um Drive, and Webber Elementary Schools re-
the benefit of taking an online assessment in a
cently participated in the K—2 Michigan Interim
low-stakes setting and practice using common
Assessment Field Test
online assessment tools (calculators, highlighters,
196 grade 1 students completed the Grade 1 ELA Assessment
241 grade 2 students completed the Grade
261 grade 1 students completed the Grade 1 Math Assessment
The district will also earn TRIG incentive
funds in the amount of $3.00 per assessment completed. Teachers will receive an invitation to
2 ELA Assessment
etc.).
provide feedback and recommendations for improving the testing process. An iPAD/Chromebook Pilot for the K—2 Interim Assessment will also be held this fall. Currently, plans are being made for Paint Creek to partici-
232 grade 2 students completed the Grade
pate in this pilot using iPADs.
2 Math Assessment The Fall 2014 Field Test provides an opportunity for schools to test bandwidth capacity and student scheduling for online testing prior to the state summative assessment which will
FROM THE SPECIAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT LAKE ORION will be offering an EdCamp on 4/18/15 from 7:30 a.m.—12:00 at
Please see the attachment, Psyched Up!
Oakview Middle School.
It includes information on working memory
EdCamp is an
“unconference” designed specifically for teachers and their needs. EdCamp has
and long-term memory.
an agenda created and presented by the
The attachment also includes 11 ways to
participants. See the attachment for
improve students’ memory.
more details and registration information.
ATTACHMENT 4
ATTACHMENT 3
TEACHING AND LEARNING DEPARTMENT REQUEST Email Heidi with something that has been on your mind regarding the Teaching and Learning Department, district, etc. It can be a question, comment, concern and/or praise. Your email will enter you into a drawing for this T & L Newsletter edition prize!!! You must email by 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 2nd to be eligible.
Page 3
TEACHING VOCABULARY WORDS TO MEET CORE STANDARDS
Many children who enter Kindergarten with a low vocabulary are at risk of not being able to close the gap between what they know and the increased requirements for vocabulary from the Common Core Standards. Vocabulary is the single best predictor for school success.
“Children’s oral language competence is strongly predictive of their facility in learning to read and write….
Listening and speaking vocabulary sets boundaries as to what children can read and understand no matter how well they can decode.”
One can’t understand what you read until you have the language to understand it.
“Prior studies suggest a student needs to hear a new word 28 times on average to remember it. The more sophisticated the more important it is for students to have opportunities to recall the word, use it, and understand how it relates to other, similar words...”
Research has also shown that teaching vocabulary in context is most beneficial.
Resources:
Greenhalgh, K.S., & Strong, C.J. (2001). Literate language features in spoken narratives ofchildren with typical language and children with language impaorments. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 32, 114-125.
Sparks, Sarah D. (2013) Students Must Learn More Words, Say Studies. Education Week.
Allen, J. (1999). Words, Words, Words: Teaching Vocabulary in Grades 4-12. Yourk, ME: Stenhouse.
Beck, I.L., McKeown, M.G., & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing Words to Life. NewYork; Guuilford.
Stahl, S.A. & Nagy, W.e. (2006). Teaching Word Meanings. Mahwah, N.J.: Erlbaum.
Classroom Strategies: Focus on teaching strategies instead definitions.
Drawing relationships between words: compare and contrast, graphic organizers, and word maps. Vocabulary Word walls that correspond with content areas (social studies, math)
Grouping words into similar categories. For example: people, places, and things, similarities and differences, and synonyms and antonyms.
Expanding vocabulary from one use into a broader context. For example, if a child is reading a book about trains, the teacher can expand on the broader context of transportation.
Teaching and Learning
Page 4
MATH DEPARTMENT NEWS News
Puzzle of the Month th
Elementary - November 4 is coming up fast. Please remember our district PD will be at Paint Creek starting at 8am. We will start with a keynote speaker in the cafeteria and then you will be able to attend three sessions and take away math instructional ideas to implement in your classroom. Lunch will be available for $5.00 and will include Jets Pizza (2 slices), salad, drink and dessert. You can pay at the door. More info on sessions will be headed your way from your administrator.
The Wheel Shop sells all types of bicycles. They have a different number of bicycles, tandem bicycles, and tricycles in the shop. There are a total of 135 seats, 118 front handlebars (that steer the bike), and 269 wheels.
Middle Level – November 3rd is coming up fast and we will be working on pacing, assessments and MathXL. We will also look at the new and improved CMP website and all it has to offer you and parents. http://connectedmath.msu.edu High School - Do you want your students to graph parabolas with ease? Grasp vocab quickly? Check out The Free Graphing Calculator app (Jockusch 2010). This app helps visualize the key terms and provides a strong conceptual background. A second free app, Skitch (Evernote Corp. 2012), can be used to compare and contrast quadratic equation families. Students take a screen capture of their graphed equations and insert it into Skitch. This will allow them to label appropriate parts of the parabola and compare roots, symmetry, and vertices.
How many bicycles, tandem bicycles and tricycles are there in the Wheel Shop? For more problems of the month K-12 (differentiated), go to http:// www.insidemathematics.org/problems-of-themonth/download-problems-of-the-month
Book Club idea: Re-Thinking Homework: Best Practices That Support Diverse Needs by Cathy Vatterott Is homework an essential component of rigorous schooling or a harmful practice that alienates and discourages a significant number of students? The debate over homework has gone on for decades, but schools and families have changed in many ways, and, as author Cathy Vatterott notes, "There's a growing suspicion that something is wrong with homework." Rethinking Homework: Best Practices That Support Diverse Needs examines the role homework has played in the culture of schooling over the years; how such factors as family life, the media, and the "balance movement" have affected the homework controversy; and what research--and educators' common sense--tells us about the effects of homework on student learning. The best way to address the pro- and anti-homework controversy is not to eliminate homework. Instead, the author urges educators to replace the "old paradigm" (characterized by longstanding cultural beliefs, moralistic views, the puritan work ethic, and behaviorist philosophy) with a "new paradigm" based on the following elements: * Designing quality homework tasks; * Differentiating homework tasks; * Deemphasizing grading of homework; * Improving homework completion; and * Implementing homework strategies and support programs. Numerous examples from teachers and schools that have revised their practices and policies for homework illustrate the new paradigm in action. The end product is homework that works--for all students, at all levels.
Page 5
From the CENTER FOR TEACHING QUALITY
Ten Tips for Writing Common Formative Assessments One of my favorite books about assessing student learning is Common Formative Assessment: A Toolkit for PLCs at Work (link is external) by Kim Bailey and Chris Jakicic. In 140 pages, Bailey and Jakicic succeed in making a process that is fundamental to driving student learning -- and yet fundamentally intimidating to teachers -- approachable. Each chapter is full of essential background knowledge and practical suggestions that helped me to feel more comfortable about what formative assessment should look like in my classroom.
Here's ten tips that I pulled from Common Formative Assessment that might help to strengthen the assessment practices of your learning teams : Remember that getting information quickly and easily is essential. Assessment data is only valuable if (1). you are actually willing and able to collect it and (2). you can act on it in a timely manner. That simple truth should fundamentally change the way that you think about assessments.
Write your assessments and scoring rubrics together even if that means you initially deliver fewer common assessments. Collaborative conversations about what to assess, how to assess and what mastery looks like in action are just as valuable as student data sets.
Assess ONLY the learning targets that you identified as essential. Assessing nonessential standards just makes it more difficult to get -- and to take action on -- information quickly and easily.
Ask at least 3 questions for each learning target that you are trying to test. That allows students to muff a question and still demonstrate mastery. Just as importantly, that means a poorly written question won't ruin your data set.
Test mastery of no more than 3 or 4 learning targets per assessment. Doing so makes remediation after an assessment doable. Can you imagine trying to intervene when an assessment shows students who have struggled to master more than 4 learning targets?
Clearly tie every single question to an essential learning target. Doing so makes tracking mastery by student and standard possible. Your data sets have more meaning when you can spot patterns in mastery at the target -- instead of just the question -- level.
Choose assessment types that are appropriate for the content or skills that you are trying to measure. Using performance assessments to measure
the mastery of basic facts is overkill. Similarly, using a slew of multiple choice questions to measure the mastery of complex thinking skills is probably going to come up short. #sheeshArne
When writing multiple choice questions, use wrong answer choices to highlight common misconceptions. The patterns found in the WRONG answers
of well-written tests can tell you just as much as the patterns found in the RIGHT answers. Fill your test with careless or comical distractors and you are missing out on an opportunity to learn more about your kids.
When writing constructed response questions, provide students with enough context to be able to answer the question. Context plays a vital role in
constructing a meaningful response to any question. Need proof? Find the parents of a teenage daughter who asks, "Can I go to the mall with some friends tonight?" How much you want to bet that they are going to ask a few questions before saying yes? I know I will! #sorryReecie (link is external)
Make sure that higher level questions ask students to apply knowledge and/or skills in new situations. A higher level question that asks kids to apply knowledge in the same way as they have practiced before becomes a lower level question really quickly. The beautiful part of all of these tips, y'all, is that they are easy to understand AND easy to integrate into your process for developing common formative assessments. So whaddya' waiting for ? Posted by Bill Ferriter on Friday, 04/04/2014
No ads for items or services were turned in prior to the distribution of this edition of the Teaching and Learning Newsletter. Please don’t forget this as a source for selling, buying, renting, advertising, promoting, or just getting
a message out there. If you intended to send something to me and just didn’t do it in time, it will be in the next edition. We should have at least one more edition before the holidays. HAPPY FALL FROM TEACHING AN D LEARNING!!!
K-5 Common Assessment Requirements
Each test question must be aligned to appropriate standard(s).
Common Assessments must be given and scanned in the scheduled window as it appears on the curriculum map, assessment calendar or assessment answer form. If circumstances arise to change the window, it will be discussed and communicated to all buildings.
IEP/504/ELL students may only receive the accommodations according to their respective plan.
Familiarize yourself with the assessment prior to the course/term/unit. This will help you understand what your students are expected to know, understand, or be able to do. All District will administer MCAP to 5th Grade (Winter/March) and include in Pearson Inform as untimed (hand enter total score).
Suggested Review Materials will be added to each answer document. This was added to discontinue the use of review tests that mimic the common assessment.
District Common Assessments CANNOT be used as a pre-test or used in place of instructional material.
If constructed response question(s) are part of the assessment, the score from the response must be scanned or hand entered into Inform.
ELA
Math
10/27/2014
ATTACHMENT 1 page 1
Assessments may not be changed to eliminate standards or change the wording. Accommodations are only used to remove the disability allowing the student to demonstrate knowledge of the information presented. IEP/504 students will obtain the information presented with their grade level, receive appropriate accommodations and the IEP/504 should address the standards not mastered. Students 3+ grade levels behind, such as a student in a categorical program, do not need to participate in the district common assessment. Students at this level should be determined case by case and approved by building principal.
K-2 - may be administered as whole group, small group, or individual.
3-5 - students who normally have tests read to them may have the common assessment read to them.
Common Assessment data must be used as one of the pieces in determining student achievement on report card.
The assessments may be sent home with students after the assessment window (with MCAP as the exception).
The Common Assessments are to be used both summatively and formatively. At this time there are no retakes.
Science
Social Studies
6-8 Common Assessment Requirements
Each test question must be aligned to appropriate standard(s).
Common Assessments must be given at the end of each unit and scanned according to the date on the curriculum map, assessment calendar or answer form. If circumstances arise to change the targeted date, it will be discussed and communicated to all buildings.
IEP/504/ELL students may only receive the accommodations according to their respective plan.
Familiarize yourself with the assessment prior to the course/term/unit. This will help you understand what your students are expected to know, understand, or be able to do.
Review Materials can review concepts/standards but must not be a “practice test” version of the common assessment.
Students are not allowed to use class notes or notebooks on the common assessments.
If constructed response question(s) are part of the assessment, the score from the responses must be scanned or hand entered into Inform.
The assessments may be sent home with students after the assessment window and after all students have taken the assessment (with MCOMP/MCAP and Algebra 1 exams as the exception).
The Common Assessments are to be used both summatively and formatively.
In the event a teacher offers a retake:
Common Assessment data must be used as ONE of the pieces in determining student achievement/grade for the report card. Math
Assessments may not be changed to eliminate standards or change the wording. Accommodations are only used to remove the disability allowing the student to demonstrate knowledge of the information presented. IEP/504 students will obtain the information presented with their grade level, receive appropriate accommodations and the IEP/504 should address the standards not mastered. Students 3+ grade levels behind, such as a student in a categorical program, do not need to participate in the district common assessment. Students at this level should be determined case by case and approved by building principal
District Common Assessments CANNOT be used as a pretest/growth measure or in place of instructional material (effective Fall 2015). Refer to District Appropriate Growth Measures document.
ELA
ATTACHMENT 1 page 2
10/27/2014
A student must receive re-teaching opportunities The re-take is created with different questions or numeric values (same standards) The re-take is approved by the district department chair The re-take is scanned into Inform using a different code from original assessment The re-take score may override original score in the gradebook
Science
Social Studies
ATTACHMENT 1 page 3
9-12 Common Assessment Requirements
Each test question must be aligned to appropriate standard(s).
Adjustments to the common assessment/exam must be approved by district department chair (if there is no district chair, then building department chair and administration approval).
Students are not allowed to use class notes or notebooks on the common assessments/exams.
IEP/504/ELL students may only receive the
accommodations according to their respective plan.
Common Assessments/Exams must be given at the end of each unit/term and scanned according to the curriculum map or assessment calendar. If circumstances arise that may lead to a change in the date, it will be discussed and communicated to the department.
Familiarize yourself with the assessment prior to the course/term/unit. This will help you understand what your students are expected to know, understand, or be able to do.
Common Assessments/exam data is to be used as one of the pieces in determining student achievement/grade on report card.
The assessments/exams must NOT be sent home with students.
If constructed response question(s) are part of the assessment, the responses must be scanned into Inform.
Review Materials can review concepts/standards but must not be a “practice test” version of the common assessment/exam.
ELA
Math
Assessments may not be changed to eliminate standards or change the wording. Accommodations are only used to remove the disability allowing the student to demonstrate knowledge of the information presented. IEP/504 students will obtain the information presented with their grade level, receive appropriate accommodations and the IEP/504 should address the standards not mastered. Students 3+ grade levels behind, such as a student in a categorical program, do not need to participate in the district common assessment. Students at this level should be determined case by case and approved by building principal
10/27/2014
Science
Social Studies
ATTACHMENT 2
ATTACHMENT 3
ATTACHMENT 4
ATTACHMENT 5
FREE GENTLY USED BOOKS Donated to Lake orion Community Schools
LOCS BOOK DRIVE! for more information on this event contact Kate DiMeo at kdimeo@lakeorion.k12.mi.us
LOCS K-12 teachers are invited to “shop” for Free books for their classroom on Monday, November 24th from 3-6PM on the CERC stage. In the past, teachers have selected high-interest books of all Levels and genres. Teachers usually leave with about 25 books each!
2014
Bring Your Own Bags!