Category: EDUC 421

Week #5 – Thursday, February 3, 2022

Chapter 3 – Choose a question from the “Pause and Ponder” section on p. 58 of the text.

Of the five guidelines for formative feedback,

which ones are already part of your feedback routine?

Which ones should you give more attention?

 

I am finding that my journey to becoming a practitioner is a constant subtle knowledge acquisition. The abundance of information that I am picking up from both traditional and modern sources is incredible, and I can feel it changing my teaching style on a day-to-day basis. When I look at the “Pause and Ponder” question from Chapter 3 regarding formative feedback, I am filled with a vast assortment of responses for the million scenarios that my past and future teaching days have held and will hold.

1. Does my feedback elicit a productive response? Historically, absolutely. In my small math classroom, I would have considered that the feedback via comments on the marking of their work (before giving them grades) and allowing them the opportunity to improve their score effectively elicited a productive response from the majority of students. It was a rare occasion that students would rather take a lower mark than read my feedback and attempt the corrections. However, I know so much more about formative feedback now, I don’t know if that truly was something that would be applicable anywhere else, and it surely was an exhausting process for me.
2. Does my feedback identify what’s next for the learner? In that scenario, my feedback surely did not. My students just finished the booklet of math and moved on. The students had a clear set of work to finish to meet their course completion, and it was one step at a time. I don’t think I’ve had the opportunity to consider giving formal feedback at that scale in another scenario.
3. Is my feedback targeted to each learner’s level? Yes, I am sure it is. Regardless of the classroom or feedback, I believe in the individualization of comments. However, it is hard. It can be very time-consuming and overwhelming to give every student consistent-detailed attention, whether verbal or written feedback.
4. Is my feedback strength-based? This is something that I need to improve on. I can now see that I have been guilty of writing. “Wow! Great Job!” or “Fantastic Work” on a student’s work. I am also becoming aware that I do this verbally with students and have put it on my list to practice improving. I want to become more fluent in giving students specific strength-based feedback.
5. Does my feedback cause thinking? When I carefully articulate feedback for a student, it is generally well-received, and they tend to reflect on my comments. I have seen my math students use my feedback to better their learning. I have also seen my excessive feedback cause students shut me out. From that, I have learned that if I am going to give students written feedback, I always ask first if they would like written comments in the future. I think this is something that I will want to remember in my future classrooms.

Week #4  – January 27, 2022

Briefly summarize your PD activity and key take-aways. What connections, if any, to assessment and/or motivation can you draw from your professional development activity?

 

I attended the Kevin Lamoureux Keynote Presentation for School District #28 and the workshop on Finding Balance with Katie White. There is no way that I can limit myself to one page with two incredible Professional Development seminars in one day.

I was especially pleased that the Keynote was introduced by the School District’s new Indigenous Education Principal, Joanne Moise. It was my first time seeing the new Principal and my first impression of her is that she will bring a fresh and much-needed positive energy to the AB ED department. While working at McNaughton, our interim Principal was inspired by Kevin and had the staff meet to watch some of his pre-recorded presentations. I had not made that connection until the Pro-D presentation began. Our EDUC 346 class is reading the book he contributed to, authored by Jennifer Katz, “Ensouling Our Schools” (2018). I love that now that I recognize him as the author, I will see his passion behind the words and be able to hear his voice in his chapters.

Some of my favourite things Kevin did during his presentation that stood out to me were how he: challenged his audience and put them to task (add to my to-do list: Read the TRC 94 Calls to Action); acknowledged negative aspects while promptly moving forward with positive intentions for the future; and took complicated subject matters and broke them down into logical chunks ensuring he reached as many people as he could (UDL???). In hindsight, you can tell that he has likely given that keynote presentation many times with only slight regional adjustments, but the impact at the moment was still powerful, and I’m sure to leave a lasting impression on all those who attended.

My two biggest takeaways from his presentation were the concept of reconciliation as a gift to heal and that I can still love Canada. Last term, I struggled to come to terms with all the actual historical facts I was learning about our country that I love so dearly. Kevin’s presentation today has allowed me to see that Canada was founded with good intentions, led astray for a while, and now it is time to get back on track. I know that I will be able to teach Canada’s history in a much more positive frame of mind now that it has been restructured through his lens.

Katie White’s Finding Balance in a Shifting Assessment Landscape was an interesting afternoon, especially because I only saw the “Finding Balance” title and thought it would be about work-personal life balance (hahaha).  I don’t know if I learned more or left the workshop with more questions. Most of the big takeaways for me came around the topic of Proficiency Scales. I connected with her definition of a proficiency scale being “a tool to describe degrees of quality and/or consistency to a learning goal.” It was a lightbulb moment for me to see that the Emerging-Developing-Proficient-Extending scale was relational to the consistency scale of Rarely-Sometimes-Often-Always. Separating a Proficiency Scale from a quantitative 1-4 scale into that of only qualitative also impacted my understanding of non-letter grade reporting.

I hope that one of the tidbits that I don’t lose is Katie’s idea of how to remember what competency is. I plan to practice asking myself, “what makes a driver competent?” the next time I have to look at the Curricular Competencies for a lesson plan activity. Unfortunately, that is also where one of my questions and frustrations comes from. I’ll try my best to explain… I think she hinted at it slightly but then got back on track. So we, as teachers, take the time to break all of the curricular competencies down, as she did in her presentation example of an Art Unit. Then we are to thoughtfully tie them into the very vague Content points/tasks that we are given in the curriculum, which are generally not much more than subject headings. Next, we create proficiency scales for each of these and then track those across multiple opportunities to create an amazing base of evidence over time. Then… we just smush it together for reporting??? Like a simple: Science 5 Meeting Expectations with a comment. I don’t get it.

Or… Do all these competencies break down on the new report cards for each subject area? Maybe, I just haven’t seen an elementary school report card in a few years. It seems like a tonne of work for one out of four possible outcomes. This makes sense why portfolios go hand in hand with a Proficiency Scale model report card. If I can just have my elementary students work with me through formative assessments building their skills, and placing all their work into a portfolio, then when it comes time for reporting, I can either choose to do a summative assessment, or I could use the collection as evidence of growth over time. I could even have the student go back through their work and have them pick their best work to showcase as evidence of their learning. There must be more for me to learn on this subject, so I will remain open and hopin’ for good things to come!

Week #3 – January 20, 2022

Choose a question from the “Pause and Ponder” section on p. 39 or 40, from the text.

How have your grading practices evolved over the course of your career?

Are there any specific changes you’ve made where you are now doing the opposite of what you used to do?

 

When I started as a TTOC, I didn’t think about assessment; I thought only about survival – keep them alive for the day! Then in my position at McNaughton, I unknowingly taught using formative assessment through means of reciprocal feedback. I constantly asked the students what they needed from my teaching to help them learn while also giving them feedback about their progress in my various courses. However, I also kept records like a Summative Spreadsheet Tracking Queen. There needed to be a paper trail for everyone I taught and everything I taught them.

I found an assessment sweet spot for my Math students a few months into my position. It was like a weird blend of formative into summative where my students knew they could work up to any grade they wanted on an assignment. When they were done a workbook, they would submit it, and they could choose if they wanted a straight-up mark or if they wanted feedback and a chance to improve their work. Ninety-five percent of the time, they would select the feedback. I would never put an “X” on anything incorrect; I would circle the question and then suggest to think about the subject differently or draw them something to prompt and guide them to the next step. On the front of their workbook, they would not receive a mark; I would write something like, “Only 10 corrections to be worked on. Awesome!” That student could then work on as many as they wanted to fix and then resubmit. We would go through this process as many times as necessary until they got where they wanted to be. It was clear that their learning increased every time they worked on their corrections. Students in my classes who wanted to pass with a “C” would get a “C” because that was their effort. Students who wished for an “A” would work for an “A” and would better understand the unit they were working on.

I am beginning to recognize how special my experience at McNaughton was and that it has left what I hope will be a positive imprint on who I am as an educator in the future. I also recognize that this process of learning allows me to uncover new ways of thinking, like how I will be able to weave much more breadth of formative assessment throughout my teaching practice and a new insight into when and how to use summative assessment. As an educator, I want to strive to be more explicit regarding my assessment practices with my students. I think that at any grade level of learners, the more straightforward I can be with why we are doing something as a class, my learners will understand the process of their learning more and that their growth is what is important.