Designing for Deep Understanding:

Supporting Effective Teaching, Learning and Leadership

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High School Learning Leaders

Review the following quotes from Embedding Formative Assessment:

“The research suggests that classroom formative assessment can have a significant impact on how much students learn. Indeed, the evidence suggests that attention to classroom formative assessment can produce greater gains in achievement than any other change in what teachers do.” (Wiliam, 2015, p.14)
“However, the most important takeaway from the research is that the shorter the time interval between eliciting the evidence [of learning] and using it to improve instruction, the bigger the likely impact on learning . . . the biggest impact happens in “short-cycle” formative assessment, which takes place not every six to ten weeks but every six to ten minutes, or even every six to ten seconds.” (Wiliam, 2015, p.9)

In light of what has been discussed so far and more specifically, the quotes above, what implications are there for the focus of your work as an instructional leader in your school?

Clarifying, Sharing and Understanding Learning Intentions and Success Criteria

Aspect of Formative Assessment Strategy 1 / What it looks like in practice / Further examples from
your table group
  1. Provocation/ Hook into the topic area:sometimes it is important to hook students into learning before sharing learning intentions
/ Physcial, play, prompt thinking, end game, leadership, sense of justice, emotions
  1. Sharing learning intentions and success criteria
  • Learn vs do, accessible, context
/
  • Learning targets posted
  • Learning intention on handouts
  • Saying to students “today we are going to learn about…”
  • Reminding them of the key learning that you introduced the day before “We are continuing on with this same target…”

  1. Clarifying learning intentions and success criteria
  • Exemplars and non-exemplars, inquire inot quality, rubrics
/
  • Unpack what key words in the learning target mean
  • Communicate quality by using exemplars and non exemplars first
  • Hold exemplars and non exemplars up side by side to inquire into quality
  • Use success criteria or rubrics to discuss quality with students
  • Students co-design rubrics

  1. Developing an understanding of learning intentions and success criteria
  • Unpack
  • Check in with students
/
  • Listen to students discuss in partners what they think the learning target means
  • Ask students to identify an example of what the learning intention is and is not
  • Asking a well crafted question to uncover anticipated misconceptions about the learning target
  • At the end of the a lesson, asking the students what they have learned
  • “What are you learning about today?”
  • “What does a good ..… look like?” (Timperley, 2011)

Clarifying and Sharing Learning Intentions

  1. Write down one thing that you will do over the next week to strengthen this assessment practice in your own classroom.
  1. How might you invite colleagues to strengthen this assessment practice? What evidence might you look for to indicate that colleagues are monopolizing on this strategy to improve student learning?

Reflection Checklist:

Clarifying, Sharing, and Understanding Learning Intentions and Success Criteria

I don’t do this yet / I do this sometimes / This is embedded in my practice / I could support someone else
I know what the learning intention of the lesson is, although sometimes I don’t tell the students at the start of the lesson
(I sometimes engage them in the topic first)
I ensure that the learning intention and success criteria have broader application beyond the specific lesson
I communicate quality by contrasting exemplars and non-exemplars
I ask students what they think they are learning to ensure it aligns with my learning intentions
I use specific assessment criteria or rubrics to discuss quality with my students
Other strategies/ techniques I use to help students identify:
- what they know
- how they know it
- how they show it
- what they need next

(Adapted from Wiliam, D. (2015)Embedding Formative Assessment)

Individual Reflection: Question Analysis

Sort the questions that emerged during your meeting into the following three categories.

Questions about teaching / Questions about students / Other questions

Into which column does the majority of questions fall? What does this tell you about the focus of this professional conversation?

Inquiring into our Leadership Practices

Individual Reflection

Please complete the chart below in light of the meeting when you recorded your questions. Which of the five enablers for professional conversations were present during that meeting? Keep in mind the meeting may not reflect all 5 enablers.

Enablers / Description of how it was present
Resources
  • in the formof tools and expertiseto help identify effectivepractice and relevantevidence

Relationships
  • Of trust, challenge and mutual respect to develop agency for improving outcomes

Processes
  • Clear purpose and structured processes that engage and test ideas and solutions about the possible causes of teaching and learning problems

Knowledge
  • Develop and use refined / revised / new actionable knowledge for practice

Culture
  • An inquiry-focused and problem-solving culture with collective responsibility for solving problems and making a difference

Inquiring into Your Leadership Practices

Leadership Question/ Challenge / Adjustment(s)
In one meeting, the conversation was focused on students, not teaching- how do we move the conversation towards teaching practices? / LL will ask after each piece of evidence brought forward ‘What teaching strategies might help us move these struggling students forward?”
The evidence brought to one meeting did not give enough information about student learning needs. How can we move towards stronger evidence of student learning? / “I wonder if we need to get a stronger sense of where our students are at. Perhaps next time could we all bring a pre-assessment that we are using to determine what learning gaps students have around this topic?”
The teachers identified that some students are struggling around an identified learning intention. How might we adjust our teaching to accommodate for these students? / “I wonder if we need to look closely at the scaffolding we are using to help students around this learning need. Can everyone bring forward the different ways you have scaffolded learning for students around this area? We can then look at our options together.”
Your Challenge(s) / Adjustment(s)

Leadership Discussion

Timperley, H. (2011). Realizing the Power of Professional Learning: New York, NY: Open University Press.

Timperley, H. (2015). Professional Conversations and Improvement-Focused Feedback: A Review of the Research Literature and the Impact on Practice and Student Outcomes, prepared for the Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership, AITSL, Melbourne.

Wiliam, D., Leahy, S. (2015). Embedding Formative Assessment: Practical Techniques for K-12 Classrooms, West Palm Beach, FL: Learning Sciences International.

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