I also felt that, for this particular learning goal, making observations of students during workshop was the most authentic and reliable way to assess their learning.
Agreed. Do you think that at some point students could assess their own growth? Did you ask students to reflect on the this process? Do they see value in it? Are they able to point to moments in the process where they might have realized "before you spoke to me I realized that I ...."?
(or no responses at all),
This is a challenge for me. I consistently have students who will not speak in class discussions, literature circles, or other group activities. There are work arounds for these students, but I am curious to know if you also have students who will not speak and what your response is.
that were related to, but not directly about, the learning goal.
This is terrific. It's necessary to include those norms or workflow or process pieces that support the learning but that aren't part of the learning goal. In fact, I wonder how often these related pieces become 1) the focus of the learning or 2) the reason why we don't use pedagogical approaches like workshop?
My process to do this worked as follows
I bet I'm not the only member of your PLN who would love to see this process, Brian. Every year I think about videotaping my teaching. The benefits would be many, but one think the videos would capture are those establishing lessons: The setting of routines, generating success criteria, and other foundational lessons that we later circle back to and build on but that can become invisible.
now I’ll say that without success criteria, I think it would be difficult to make focused observations. Without success criteria, I think it would be easy to be distracted by other things that might be connected, but not directly related to the focus of the learning.
So true. I have often considered the work we have done in the past eight years on success criteria as not only important for students to know where they are going, but equally important for teachers. Long before Growing Success (Ontario's Assessment and Evaluation Policy Document) made educators aware of the value of developing success criteria with students, I recall generating lists of criteria that I used when evaluating work so that I would evaluate the same things on each task. So, I would stay focused.
The assessment was based on students participating in writing workshop groups.
I am a big fan of student self-assessment; however, the skill required to assess oneself in speaking, presenting, and as a feedback provider needs to be highly developed. This is an area that students may not yet be able to adequately or appropriately assess themselves.
How would you use this text in your class? What writing moves would you teach with this text?
Annotate the text with your ideas, thoughts, connections, and questions.
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Asks effective questions to acquire knowledge (6)
Why use Hypothes.is?
Learns from and with diverse people (2), (5), (6)
Why use Hypothes.is?
Selects appropriate digital tools according to purpose (1)
Why use Hypothes.is?
Communicates using a variety of media (1), (5)
Why use Hypothes.is?
Respects a diversity of perspectives (2), (3)
Why use Hypothes.is?
Networks with a variety of communities/groups
Why use Hypothes.is?
Co-constructs knowledge, meaning, and content (1)
Why use Hypothes.is?
Learns from, and contributes to, the learning of others (1)
Why use Hypothes.is?
Learns the process of learning (metacognition) (1),(3),(4),(5),(7)
Why use Hypothes.is?
Makes discoveries through inquiry research (1
Why use Hypothes.is?
Makes connections and transfers learning from one situation to another (1), (6)
Why use Hypothes.is?
Engages in an inquiry process to solve problems (1)
Why use Hypothes.is?
Understanding what can and should be shared openly is a digital literacy, and it takes time to build.
Is this what makes the leap too risky? Not so much the time, but making mistakes along the way?
Open practice by senior leaders encourages the participation of the entire learning community, and helps all stakeholders in public education find their voice.
Helps to reduce fear, to normalize the practice, and opens up opportunity for conversation within the learning community that otherwise might not exist.
We should be continually asking the question, “can we make this public?” If that seems too radical, then a smaller step might be the question, “is there any reason why this shouldn’t be shared with everyone at the organisation?”
Doug suggests that bad things happen quickly. If we don't make things public, if we don't share with everyone in the organization, we run the risk of people doing their own thing, filling in the gaps with their own story. These are rarely good things for an organization.
Doug Belshaw has summarized the idea of working open in education here.
"Every time we don’t have the right people in the room to make a decision, every time we have to request access to a document, and every time we have to ask permission to make a positive change, we suffer friction." from http://dmlcentral.net/importance-working-open-education/
Great line.
Every time we don’t have the right people in the room to make a decision, every time we have to request access to a document, and every time we have to ask permission to make a positive change, we suffer friction.
100%. I appreciate the frankness of this statement. I think I often experience the friction and not truly understand what it is I am feeling.
CHARLIE WENJACK
This article, and story, can be confusing because the main character goes by two slightly different names: Chanie and Charlie.
Your brain is full of knowledge gathered throughout your lifetime.
Here it is. Now I am linked to the text. This is why we need to do things together.
My brain may be full, but I have trouble accessing it most of the time!
Always recall related knowledge actively when you’re learning new information.
This is making connections.
My brain may be full, but I have trouble accessing it most of the time!