Common Formative Assessment Book Study Chapter 9
Chapter 9 - Sustaining the Work
Why is celebration important? What critical questions can you use to identify your successes with common formative assessment? How would you answer them? What successes have you had?
Celebrating successes make us feel as if we have accomplished something in our PLC. Being an effective team makes the team stronger. A good critical question for us is "What have we learned as a team?", my PLC grew into excellent standard, driven common assessment making machine. The formative assessments we have used resulted in more engaged students giving us a better understanding of what our student truly know.
ReplyDeleteFastest Tiger int the West! I am celebrating you completing your book study.
ReplyDelete"Why is celebration important? What critical questions can you use to identify your successes with common formative assessment? How would you answer them? What successes have you had?"
ReplyDeleteIt is important to celebrate the little things instead of beating up on ourselves over our shortcomings. We have huge learning gaps to overcome, and every ounce of improvement helps bridge those gaps.
One question I would pose to our PLC is, "How engaged are our students in the process?" Last year, our students wrote more often and with more focus than ever before. I do believe most students at the 6th and 7th grade level engaged in meaningful writing that they wanted to compose to the best of their ability. They created multiple pieces that could be shared with pride.
It is important to celebrate because, " sharing success builds shared knowledge" and shows "how the use of these powerful measures is making a difference in the students learning". In other words it gives more confidence and creates a more positive environment. This is why it is so important to create visible, small, realistic and measurable goals.
ReplyDeleteCelebration gives people momentum to master even more milestones whether it is in learning, fitness, home projects etc.
The critical questions I could use to identify successes would be:
did more students demonstrate this proficiency compared to last year?
How engaged were the students in the process?
I would answer them using data from last year's STAAR results, Aware data and CBA results.
I don't call the successes I have had in the past year's of teaching reading, my own successes, they were the students' successes really. In order for the students to really become proficient readers they really had to take charge themselves. Reading Intervention is really a Jerry Maguire "help me , to help you" type situation.
Right now I am just celebrating the fact that I can type captcha phrases now with no mistakes- the first time. Also, that I am indeed - not a Robot! Did anyone else's ask them that?
As the text states, celebration is important because the work is hard, but rewarding. Celebration allows teams to stay motivated through the process. Working cohesively in PLCs helps educators build shared knowledge while producing material that will help students succeed.
ReplyDeleteCritical question: How engaged are our students in the process? Answer: I noticed more engagement with my students when they took ownership of assignments, such as participating in debates (they are responsible for creating responses and rebuttal) and Socratic Seminars.
Hey, it's late!!! At this point and time, I will say I agree with Tiffany. I noticed my students took control when I told them to teach a lesson in a unit we were reviewing. Instead of answering review questions, they felt more confident to take the role of an instructor and teach what they learned. They were motivated, engaged, and ran with the opportunity to be the teacher. They loved that I played the role of the student. Yes, it got loud, but that's something that can be controlled. Mr. Goodwin popped his head in one day wondering what the excitement was. The excitement was that they were learning, and it was cause for celebrating their achievements; especially when they were explaining stem changes in the preterite and present progressive forms.
ReplyDeleteI too am celebrating because I had to prove I was not a robot after 3 tries. It's 2:00 A.M. :)
I am so glad that you are not a robot either!
DeleteLooking forward to celebrating the accountability rating and distinctions. Way to go HMS!
ReplyDeleteQuestion 1: Celebrating successes builds shared knowledge.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 2: Are we focusing on why? Does this assessment inform me about my interventions?
Formative + Plan Do Study Act = Summative Learner: is it working?
Question 3: Continuous Improvement!
Question 4: We had a successful PLC.
This message has not been sent.Chapter 9 #1-Celebration drives encouragement and motivation to "Keep Moving Forward". Students need to see their growth to motivate them to continue the hard work or to step it up. #2-How much has the student grown with this standard from the previous yearDraft
ReplyDeleteThis message has not been sent.ActionsClick here to continue working on this message.
To:MRussell, Jeffery
DraftsThursday, August 15, 2013 3:22 PM
Chapter 9
#1-Celebration drives encouragement and motivation to "Keep Moving Forward". Students need to see their growth to motivate them to continue the hard work or to step it up.
#2-How much has the student grown with this standard from the previous year or previous assessment?
#3-Continuous growth on some and not so much on others.
#4-It's always amazing to see the vast growth from the students starting from the beginning and seeing where they end. Not only do they improve academically, but mature as young people.
Why is celebrating important? We work so hard for 9 months for one test at the end of the year. If we don’t look back and get excited for all the hard work we put in all year it would make it hard to do it again. I think its important to celebrate the little things too. An example of this is a student making a great grade on an assignment or test. When it comes to formative assessment I think it is important to ask how many students understood the concept and to what level. I think as a whole we have had A LOT of success this year as a campus. I cannot wait to continue to prove HMS is awesome!
ReplyDeleteCelebration recognizes the hard work accomplished and work performed. It's also important to celebrate various aspects: effort, work, and also results. By the end of last school year, I felt our PLC was successful in generating assessment questions; much more so than the beginning of the year. I look forward to refining those,and adding to the "bank" we've begun.
ReplyDeleteCelebrating feels good, so it's important to celebrate...if we anticipate another celebration, we may do our best to receive that reward. (I love how our admin celebrates, too, rewarding the kids for grades and attendance!)
ReplyDeleteIn 6th grade reading, our proficiency was NOT as good as the previous year's. I think we would need to tweak the test questions some...maybe make them a bit easier? Give shorter tests? Build in more time for re-teaching?
Celebration rewards not only the kids, but also the teachers for their hard work.
ReplyDeleteWhat have we learned as a team?
We learned that common assessments are a great way to identify if all students are learning as we go and PLCs help provide time to review data and plan for intervention.
Our success came from working together to ask more effective questions so that the students had a better understanding of what they were supposed to know (TEKS).
Why is celebration important? What critical questions can you use to identify your successes with common formative assessment? How would you answer them? What successes have you had?
ReplyDeleteWe have to celebrate because it's hard work and it's the best thing to improve student learning! I think the most important questions are "What have we learned as a team?" "How many students...now demonstrate proficiency in learning targets that we know are absolutely essential?"
We have learned a lot as a team, but we have so much left to learn. The answer to the other question will vary from assessment to assessment.
We have been successful in learning to work together and figuring out what things are most important for our students to learn to help them be successful later on...in both 8th grade and high school.
I think we can get really caught up in the amount of work ahead of us or if we receive bad results. When we focus on the good, it helps us to "keep moving forward" :) When you're focused on the negative, you will live in the negative.
ReplyDeleteWe were really successful in collaborating as a team, communicating with each other, and supporting each other throughout the school year.
Ditto. The SS PLC was successful as a department and grade level. Sometimes celebrating one student passing a test or improving on a score is rewarding. I know students appreciate when we give them compliments on their work. It is the little things we celebrate that lead to bigger rewards.
DeleteWith all the hard work that is put in, it is great to celebrate the accomplishment made. It allows for us to see how far we have come and it also prepares us for the next task at hand with greater enthusiasm.
ReplyDeleteOur students became more engaged and increased proficiency in problem areas. As a team we learned to create better assessments, how to more effectively utilize our data and how to implement varying strategies to address difficult learning targets
Celebration = encouragement. Did student scores improve? Did we learn as a team? Yes – it’s a beginning that we will build upon.
ReplyDeleteCelebration is a concrete way to acknowledge our successes, creates bonding moments, and motivates for continued hard work.
ReplyDeleteDid more students demonstrate proficiency this year compared to last? Our ratings prove success.
The success our school has had overall is highly motivating to me on a personal level to make certain that our SE kids are part of that continued success.
Studies have shown that the best motivation is PROGRESS. We need to stop and recognize our own progress or we may not even realize we've made any!
ReplyDeleteThe most important question to me is how well have my students improved so far? (Especially in regards to their problem solving skills.) I can answer this for myself throughout the year using their work, their grades, and info from my own observation and student relationships.
My biggest success last year is that I only cried 3 times and connected with kids who are taller than me. (I was worried about gaining their respect!)
Why is celebration important? What critical questions can you use to identify your successes with common formative assessment? How would you answer them? What successes have you had?
ReplyDeleteCelebrating successes through PLCs, with other teams, across the campus, and across the district is important because it is encouraging to all of us and helps to motivate others.
Ch. 9 lists 4 critical questions that can be used to identify successes with common formative assessments.
1. How many students, because they were monitored and received corrective instruction, now demonstrate proficiency in learning targets that we know as educators are absolutely essential?
2. Did more students demonstrate this proficiency compared to last year?
3. What have we learned as a team?
4. How engaged are our students in the process?
How would I answer these questions? From a subjective standpoint, I would say a small number of students were able to master essential learnings as a result of formative assessments and intervention. I would like to increase that level of success this year. As a team, we have learned what works and what doesn't work with our students; although, this is an ongoing process. I believe that students were minimally engaged in this process last year. My goal is to get students more involved in the process, as in the previous chapter, so that they will take more ownership of their goals and subsequent successes.