Category Archives: Inquiry

How can technology enhance formative assessment?

Formative Assessment: The Cycle of Sharing

Formative assessment is an important part of the classroom and I have discovered the power of technology in the process of formative assessment. I have discovered that through video and photos my students and I can engage in a cycle of assessment together. For example, my students have been working in literature circle groups and to assess their oral reading I decided to use video to assess their reading skills. Instead of this assessment process taking five weeks where I had to visit each group and hear each student read it was done in one afternoon.

My students recorded videos of one another reading in their literature circle groups and I then uploaded those videos to Fresh Grade. I was then able to make comments on their reading based on the videos at a time when I was able to be relaxed and focused on the task. Before sitting down to listen to or assess my students reading, I had my students log onto Fresh Grade and reflect on their reading and participation in literature circle groups. I learned much more about my students, their reading abilities, and their participation in literature circles by reading their comments and listening to their videos.

I have found that Fresh Grade is an excellent platform for engaging with parents on an ongoing basis. I have shared pictures of their children learning and participating in classroom activities such as art. Parents can then have an opportunity to discuss school with their children in a meaningful and specific way.

I have used technology in other ways such as student response systems, using iPad’s to create an ongoing math project, and blogging online. I have also used a classroom blog space to help students complete a science project. This blog provides them with safe, limited, accurate websites from which to do their research. They are gaining and demonstrating an ongoing skill, researching.

Popsicle Stick Participation

Today I tried a new method for engaging all students in discussion. I have a great group of students who have a ton of ideas to share. I have noticed that sometimes, there a few quieter students who get lost in the mix because I have so many students who are willing to share and discuss. This technique involves giving each student 3 Popsicle sticks. By the end of the discussion each student must have given away one Popsicle stick. For students who have a lot of ideas to share, they can only share 3 times. This encourages quieter students to share and students with lots of ideas to think about what they are choosing to share. I found this technique worked effectively for my students. I saw students who like to share a lot stop to think about what they were going to share and make their sharing count. Some students chose to share comments that were not always on task and were disappointed when there Popsicle sticks were gone and they could not share anymore.

All students contributed to our discussion on explorers and exploration and the energy and excitement in the room was tangible. Towards the end of the discussion some students had not shared and I made sure to check in with them to see if they needed more think time. Giving these students think time allowed them to feel safe when sharing and also gave other students the opportunity to have another turn to speak. I was particularly pleased to hear some well-thought out answers from students who rarely share in a group discussion. I plan to use this strategy again because I think it is beneficial to all students. Students learn that there opinions and thoughts are valuable and add to the discussion. I hope to encourage the quieter students to share on their own as they become more comfortable voicing their opinions in front of the class. I also hope to help students who love to share think about using their Popsicle sticks to share in a meaningful way that enriches the conversation.

I found that from an assessment perspective this was a low-tech way to quickly check in with my students on their understanding of the topic. I was able to tell who was following the conversation and understood the questions. Once everyone had shared I felt confident that all students understood what an explorer is.

At the end I still had 6-7 students who wanted to share and still had Popsicle sticks left. There was not enough time to have all students share in a big group and I felt that our class discussion and yielded a rich variety of answers. I had my students quickly pair up and share their remaining thoughts on the topic with a partner. I was then able to engage with a few students close to me who had questions or who had a thought they wanted to share with me.

Through the Eyes of a Student

I am half way through my 10 week practicum and taking a moment to reflect on teaching. I recently realized that before the practicum started I was thinking about my unit and lesson plans through the eyes of teaching and a teacher. I have begun to understand that my thinking has shifted and I am more and more seeing my lessons through the eyes of a student. When I began to plan I had not been with my students for an extended period of time. I had begun to get to know them as students and people but I didn’t really know them that well. I planned all these lessons and units for people that I was trying to visualize. Now as I teach them daily I have gotten to know them on a deeper, more personal level.

I am constantly learning new things about them as learners and as I result I am slowly getting better at teaching this group of learners. My class is no longer a semi-abstract group of students. Every day we learn and grow together and I make changes to our day and our lessons based on their needs and interests. There are days when things don’t go well or a lesson flops but I always know that the next day is a fresh start and we can try it again tomorrow.

There are also days when things go well. I have had many of those moments when I can clearly see, hear, and even feel that students are engaged in their learning. Science has been a great opportunity to try many different things with my students including incorporating technology. My students have researched, experimented, discussed and thought about, and learned about landforms, erosion, and biomes. We have gotten dirty outside doing erosion experiments. This was one of my favourite moments for three reasons:

  1. One of the experiments did not go as planned and we had a 30 minute discussion afterwards about how the erosion was supposed to work and what we could learn from this experience.
  2. Students were able to clearly describe three types of erosion using drawings and words the following day.
  3. During student led-conferences students were excited to introduce me as the teacher with whom they did science experiments. They then demoed land erosion at the back of the classroom for their parents.

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Learning about biomes has provided many great “learnable” moments. Students had the opportunity to teach their peers about different biomes of the world. As a teacher I learned two important lessons:

  1. That students often need to be provided with detailed steps for various skills such as researching.
  2. Once they have those skills, they are able to soar far beyond my initial expectations.

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I was blown away by the presentations that students created. They had truly pushed themselves to learn about their biomes and to teach others in an interesting way. I was pleased to share this assignment with parents and students via Fresh Grade and to leave a few comments for students to reflect on. This gave me an insight into the value of a tool like Fresh Grade.

Students continue to learn about biomes in science this time with a focus on protecting BC’s biomes. I look forward to continuing to learn and grow through the eyes of my students.

Inquiry Synthesis

Inquiry Synthesis

Where I Came From:

When I first chose my inquiry topic, I chose it with the intention of researching and discovering more about the benefits and downfalls of Fresh Grade. I quickly discovered that there is much more technology to be involved in formative assessment in the classroom. My main focus continued to be Fresh Grade; however, it was only one piece of the puzzle.

I anticipated that technology is becoming an important part of 21st century learning; however, I discovered through personal experiences, scholarly research, and discussions with colleagues just how impactful technology can be. My inquiry journey took me far beyond my initial expectations. I will address each of my initial expectations, how they were confirmed or denied, and how my expectations were taken further.

Where I Am Now:

Expectation Number One: It is not a matter of if we will use technology for assessment but when and how.

Formative assessment has proven to help increase student learning and as a result technology has begun to catch up in the classroom. There are many different tools for formative assessment that are now becoming available for school districts and they need to be taken advantage of. In their article Technology and formative assessment Brown, Hinze, and Pellegrino state: “With technology, assessment can become richer, more timely, and more seamlessly interwoven with multiple aspects of curriculum and instruction (2008, p. 253).”

Edutopia blogger Monica Burns suggests four categories of apps or websites that can help teachers with formative assessment: Quiz Apps, Show What You Know, Mind Mapping, Miscellaneous Apps (2014, December 14). These apps can then be translated into use on Fresh Grade. Students can easily share the pieces of work they have created on these different platforms on Fresh Grade.

Expectation Number Two: Technology for assessment does not automatically mean students are engaged in the process.

Technology can help students be more engaged in their learning when it is used in a way that considers students interests and needs. Students often love using technology and have a lot of knowledge about it. Teachers need to consider the audience or age group, the goal of the assessment, and the type of formative assessment when selecting engaging technology. Ms. Lileana Rios has found that the use of Edutopia in her classroom increased student engagement and students who would not normally be engage in their learning are sharing ideas, videos, and thoughts related to the topics (2013, February 9). Student’s learning is more visible than ever before through the use of technology and digital portfolios. Now students can share their excitement about learning on a platform that can travel with them from grade to grade.

Expectation Number Three: Technology for assessment must be well thought out in order to be meaningful.

Research has proven that technology can have a strong role in formative assessment so long as teachers are willing to search for the right technology and the right use. While technology can enhance formative assessment it cannot replace a good teacher who has strong pedagogical practices in place. It would seem that teachers are the key to technology enhancing formative assessment.

Expectation Number Four: Technology is particularly important in formative assessment because it provides more open and immediate feedback.

Using technology for formative assessment can provide open and immediate feedback in two ways. First, teachers can use quiz apps or exit slips posted to a website such as Padlet to instantly know if students have grasped a concept. With this real-time feedback the lesson can quickly be adjusted based on the information. Second, teachers, students, and parents all have access to student learning throughout the year on a tool like Fresh Grade. Every stakeholder can see a student’s achievements and areas where they are struggling. Students can set goals based on formative assessment before the summative assessment piece comes.

Expectation Number Five: Technology helps students reflect on their journey as a learner throughout the year.

Students often display a sense of pride and ownership when they use Fresh Grade. Fresh Grade provides a platform for children to develop their self-assessment skills. Through a careful, ongoing process the digital portfolios can help give evidence of student learning, show their learning journey, and invite students to reflect on their learning.  The Early Childhood Research and Practice has found that instant video revisiting, which allows students to immediately view videos of themselves working and reflect alongside their teacher, has helped support student learning (Beyne, 2015).

Through writing, drawing, and video students can reflect quickly in real time providing an authentic look at their thoughts. Kelli Vogstad discusses the joy of watching her students using Fresh Grade stating, “It is exciting to watch and listen as students talk and write about what they did, and how they learned; what they struggled with, what was successful for them and how they know this is true. Through this language of reflection and analysis, students learn to monitor, assess, make decisions, and goals to move their learning forward (2015).”

Expectation Number Six: Summative assessment is a key piece in using technology for formative assessment.

While my inquiry project focused on formative assessment it has become clear to me that formative assessment is closely linked to summative assessment. Technology can help strengthen the process of student learning which has the potential to help them demonstrate their learning more clearly through summative assessment. This aspect of assessment is one that I will look forward to inquiring into in the future.

Where I Am Headed:

Armed with the knowledge of how technology can enhance formative assessment I look forward to using this knowledge in my practicum. The use of Fresh Grade will be a big part of assessment in my classroom. Students will continue to post evidence of their work on Fresh Grade. I plan to use online concept maps and perhaps Padlet walls for conducting formative assessment. I know that self-reflection is an important part of formative assessment and student learning.  Therefore, students will be given many opportunities to engage in peer and self-assessment, most likely through Fresh Grade.

I plan to bring the use of iPad’s and technology into the classroom on a weekly basis. Students will be given opportunities to create projects using technology such as a biome video project and a math fraction book using Book Creator. Students will also be setting up their own blogs where they will post some of their learning and write reflections.  I will also be using video recording in P.E. Students will record one another performing a task, watch the video and assess for criteria. They can then decide if they have met the criteria. If not, they can refilm. Once they are satisfied they have met the criteria they will write a self-reflection based on the video.

Most importantly, I will be constantly self-evaluating and checking with my students to make sure the technology is still meaningful in formative assessment. The goal of formative assessment should always be to help students learn and the use of technology is one powerful way this can be accomplished.

References

Burns, M. (2015, December 14). Empowering Teachers with Tech-Friendly Formative Assessment Tools.  Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/tech-friendly-  formative-assessment-tools- monica-burns

Ledezma, Daniel. (2013, February 9). Technology in the classroom-Infuse Learning and Edmodo. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz0hNJjFy-M

Vogstad, K. (2015, August 31). Digital Portfolios…Making the Learning Visible. Retrieved             from http://kellivogstad.com/2015/08/31/digital-portfolios-making-the-learning-visible/

Focusing in on Fresh Grade

When I first chose my inquiry topic, I chose it with the intention of researching and discovering more about the benefits and downfalls of Fresh Grade. I quickly discovered that there is much more technology to be involved in formative assessment in the classroom. However, I still wanted to reflect on the use of Fresh Grade and how it can help student learning. With the introduction of Fresh Grade students are now developing a digital portfolio of their learning. The idea behind Fresh Grade is to make the learning visible.  Kelli Vogstad documents her own journey of using Fresh Grade in the classroom.  She sums up the importance of Fresh Grade stating, “It placed the child at the center of the learning process; students were invited to reflect on and talk about their learning in real and informed ways, and to identify and set new learning goals (2015).”

Through a careful, ongoing process the digital portfolio can help give evidence of student learning, show their learning journey, and invite students to reflect on their learning. Vogstad emphasizes the importance of the teacher’s role in this process stating, “To capture and document student learning, I must be a careful observer, listener, and questioner.  I have to help students create artifacts that are worth “putting their brains on” to talk about and analyze.  I need to be patient and remember that it takes “a lot of slow to grow” (2015).” Fresh Grade is not an effective tool if it does not show what students are learning and how they are growing in that learning. That learning journey can be documented throughout the year using formative assessment. The teacher and students can document ongoing processes and therefore see the progress that has been made. Vogstad discusses how she creates tasks that will help showcase student learning saying, “The tasks behind the documentation have to be well constructed, process-centered, open-ended, thinking tasks in order to invite students to reflect on and talk about their learning (2015).”

Vogstad suggests four types of documentation that could be used on Fresh Grade: two of the same, showing the knowing, celebrating the learning, and communicating the hows and whys (2015). For each type of documentation she provides a brief description as well as real examples of student work. Through Fresh Grade teachers can easily share pieces of work and formatively assess. This can then help inform student’s work later on when they work towards summative assessment pieces.

Fresh Grade also allows students to formatively assess and reflect on their own work. Vogstad discusses the joy of watching her students using Fresh Grade stating, “It is exciting to watch and listen as students talk and write about what they did, and how they learned; what they struggled with, what was successful for them and how they know this is true. Through this language of reflection and analysis, students learn to monitor, assess, make decisions, and goals to move their learning forward (2015).” Students can also go back and compare their learning from the beginning of the year to the end. Fresh Grade is a tool that is changing the way we assess our students and the way they assess themselves.

My own experiences with Fresh Grade have allowed me to see the potential for helping students keep track of their learning journey. Students often display a sense of pride and ownership when they use Fresh Grade. Fresh Grade provides a link between the home and school, giving children an opportunity to share their learning with their parents. Fresh Grade also provides a platform for children to develop their self-assessment skills. They can easily go online and write about their strengths and areas that need improvement. Those comments are visible to the teacher and parents and a plan to meet student goals can be developed. Fresh Grade not only supports teachers and students in engaging in formative assessment, it provides a platform for creating a daily learning plan. Student’s learning is more visible than ever before through the use of digital portfolios. Now students can share their excitement about learning on a platform that can travel with them from grade to grade.

Vogstad, K. (2015, August 31). Digital Portfolios…Making the Learning Visible. Retrieved from http://kellivogstad.com/2015/08/31/digital-portfolios-making-the-learning-visible/

Living Inquiry

This past week I had the opportunity to engage with other teacher candidates around the topic of assessment. This discussion centered around the importance of understanding assessment and having varied ways of assessment. The topic of assessment is a broad topic and it was discussed what formative assessment could look like in the classroom. Edmodo was discussed as a tool for assessment particularly as an alternative to Fresh Grade. We examined a teacher candidate’s child’s Fresh Grade page and discussed the various uses for Fresh Grade. We discussed how Fresh Grade can be as intensive or simple as the teacher makes it. Ultimately Fresh Grade is meant to be a reporting system, however, not all teachers are comfortable with it.  I encouraged those who were not using Fresh Grade to create their own teacher and student page to try Fresh Grade out. I have been exploring Fresh Grade as a classroom teacher and on my own. I have found that Fresh Grade can be useful place for students to self-reflect which is an important part of formative assessment. We discussed how Fresh Grade is changing the reporting system for teachers, students and parents. A CNN article discusses how Fresh Grade is changing the reporting system. One of the creators of Fresh Grade Lane Merrifield decided to launch Fresh Grade after a mistake was made on his son’s report card. He states the purpose of Fresh Grade saying, “This isn’t about posting random things but really documenting each student’s learning moments (2015).” We discussed at the living inquiry event the importance of meaningful assessment and Fresh Grade is one platform that can help make assessment meaningful by documenting the learning process.  If used properly Fresh Grade can help increase student success. In the CNN article superintendent Wanny Hersey states, “It’s an opportunity for parents to understand throughout the year how their kids are learning. We can capture and show them if their child is more confident, is developing leadership skills, or has overcome a specific challenge (2015).” As teachers assess students throughout their learning journey Fresh Grade can help to document more than just the academic learning. Fresh Grade allows teachers and students to show important learning opportunities such as working in a group, being a good friend, or doing hands on learning.

Kavilanz, P. (2015, September 24). Why teachers are ditching report cards. CNN Online. Retrieved from https://www.freshgrade.com/cnn-online-why-teachers-are-ditching-report-cards/

Using Apps for Formative Assessment

I recently taught a lesson to my fellow teacher candidates on using apps for formative assessment. Many of my ideas for this lesson came from a blog post entitled Empowering Teachers with Tech-Friendly Formative Assessment Tools by Monica Burns. I created a lesson plan and Google Slides to help present the information. As part of this lesson plan I had my fellow teacher candidates explore four stations with different apps and websites that could be used for formative assessment. They then engaged in a placemat activity on Lino to share their thoughts and questions about each tool. I have made the lesson plan, slides, and Lino wall available to be viewed.

Monica Burns post provides insight into my inquiry project as well as helps all teachers considering using technology for formative assessment. This blog post looks at different tools for formative assessment. The author begins by suggesting that tech-friendly formative assessment can become a seamless part of the daily classroom, helping teachers stay organized in collecting information and providing easy and effective ways to assess on an ongoing basis (December 14, 2015). Burns suggests some factors that need to be considered when selecting a tool for formative assessment: the audience or age group, the goal of the assessment, and the type of formative assessment (December 14, 2015). It is important that formative assessment fit the grade level and not be too easy or too difficult. What works for one grade level or class may not work for another, therefore, it is important to experiment with a few different tools until you find one that you are comfortable with.

There are different purposes for formative assessment and consequently various apps to meet these different needs. Burns gives suggestions for various types of apps such as quiz apps, show what you know, and data collection (December 14, 2015). Because there are so many apps and websites available for teachers to use for formative assessment it can be overwhelming. That is why it is important to focus first on the assessment, what do you want your students to learn and demonstrate. Once you know what you want your students to show you can determine what assessment tool will best help students demonstrate their understanding. Burns states, “As you begin to develop a strategy for gathering and utilizing formative assessment data in your classroom, take a moment to think about how technology can support this work (December 14, 2015).” For technology to be a meaningful part of formative assessment, we must first construct meaningful formative assessment. These formative assessment tools can help to support formative assessment.

Burns, M. (2015, December 14). Empowering Teachers with Tech-Friendly Formative Assessment Tools.  Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/tech-friendly-formative-assessment-tools- monica-burns

Lesson Plan Apps

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12-UhRK5f4PMMv1a470F84Pw2bm39yrzovnm31Ip4R6I/edit?usp=sharing

http://linoit.com/groups/Inquiry%20451/canvases/Inquiry%20451

Playing With Technology

So far I have focused on using technology to record, share, and reflect on the learning journey. Today I was struck by how technology could be used to guide student learning and develop perseverance. Technology can help to track student progress, thinking, and failures. I attended a Makerspace workshop on Thursday evening and had the opportunity to explore Dot and Dash, Little Bits, Sphero, Osmo, and more. These various technologies had several things in common: they encouraged creativity and inquiry based learning. Many of the technologies allowed students to track their progress. Using these types of technologies lend itself to opportunities for formative assessment. This indirect connection between technology and formative assessment allows teachers greater opportunities to observe and assess student learning. While students work, play and explore with technology, teachers can be observing and assessing as well as taking photos and videos of students while they work. This can then allow teachers to upload these photos and videos and provide students opportunities to self-reflect on themselves learning. By reflecting on themselves learning, they might gain a new perspective on a problem they were working on that they didn’t recognize while they were engrossed in learning. Technology is now giving students access to new learning experiences such as coding which is offered through something like Dot and Dash. Technology provides students with new ways to visualize a problem as well as discover a new passion. This allows teachers to provide students with multi-modal learning experiences.

Self-Reflection as Formative Assessment

Reflection can take many forms. We can reflect alone or with others, reflect on experiences or on work, reflect at the beginning and end of a process. Whatever the form, self-reflecting can be powerful. Kallick and Costa state: “Reflecting on work enhances its meaning. Reflecting on experiences encourages insight and complex learning (2008).” Self-reflection can be a back and forth process between student and teacher.

Through technology students can reflect through video, writing, or drawing. The Early Childhood Research and Practice has found that instant video revisiting, which allows students to immediately view videos of themselves working and reflect alongside their teacher, has helped support student learning (Beyne, 2015). Through writing, drawing, and video students can reflect quickly in real time providing an authentic look at their thoughts. Technology also allows students to go back and look at their self-reflections and make meaning from those comments.

In my own teaching practice I have engaged in the process of self-reflection. Recently my students wrote self-reflection comments on an ongoing art activity. They combined various forms of self-reflection techniques including writing and visual representation. They chose one example of their work to upload to Fresh Grade and were then required to write two self-reflective comments. They were required to write one positive comment and one comment of something they could improve on, was hard for them, or something they found hard.

I helped support my students self-reflection by brainstorming questions and comments they could reflect on. Kallick and Costa suggests that it is important for teachers to set the tone for reflecting (2008). They state: “Reflective teachers help students understand that the students will now look back rather than move forward. They will take a break from what they have been doing, step away from their work, and ask themselves, ‘What have I (or we) learned from doing this activity?’ (2008).” By brainstorming with the students first they were able to focus on looking back on the work they had done over the previous weeks.

I was pleased to discover that many of my students not only wrote more than two comments but also wrote very meaningful comments that gave me insight into their process, both the joys and the struggles. By having the students reflect using technology, I was able to respond to their reflections and self-reflect on my own practice. Fresh Grade allows teachers to respond to student’s reflections and in this case see the supporting work that the students are reflecting on. By reading my student’s comments I was also able to see which students loved the activity (most of them commented that they did!) and which ones struggled. I could see individual struggles as well as group struggles. I discovered that the majority of students found the same objective to be a challenge. I then reflected on whether this goal was too challenging or pushed them just enough.

Self-reflection is part of an ongoing process and formative assessment. Technology can play a great role in helping students to document that ongoing process. Not only can students go back and look at their work, they can look back on their self-reflections. The process of good self-reflection is just as important as the work they are self-reflecting on. Costa and Kallick state: “Reflection is the time to consider what was learned from the experience. Reflection is a time to describe what students saw in their own work that changed, needed to change, or might need to be described so another person might understand its meaning (2008).” Writing meaningful self-reflections is an important skill for students to learn.

Beyne, H. (2015). Using technology for self-reflection in the classroom. Retrieved from: http://glpd.greenlightlearningtools.com/blog/2015/02/12/using-technology-self-reflection-classroom/

Costa, A. L. & Kallick, B. (2008). Learning through reflection. In A. L. Costa & B. Kallick (Eds.), Learning and leading with habits of the mind: 16 essential characteristics for success. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.