Have you used Mastery Connect for Formative Assessment?

Mastery Connect :  Has anybody had the golden opportunity to use Mastery Connect?  Does it appear to have more benefits than what you are currently using?  I know some teachers who have loved this for formative assessment - but they used it a few years back.  Let me know if you have an opinion on this tool for formative assessment.  Kathy

New Formative Assessment State Resources

DPI has a new Formative Assessment webpage, video and supplementary discussion and resource guide. Click here to review it.   It certainly seems pretty skeletal at this time but I was excited to see the inclusion of early childhood learners.  

I think the Fluency Snapshot holds more potential actually - check it out and let me know what you think. 

Mathematical Thinking - 100 questions

Think about the questions that you ask in your math classroom. Can they be answered with a simple “yes” or “no,” or do they open a door for students to really share their knowledge in a way that highlights their true understanding and uncovers their misunderstandings? Asking better questions can open new doors for students, helping to promote mathematical thinking and encouraging classroom discourse. Such questions help students:

• Work together to make sense of mathematics.
• Rely more on themselves to determine whether something is mathematically correct.
• Learn to reason mathematically.
• Evaluate their own processes and engage in productive peer interaction.
• Discover and seek help with problems in their comprehension.
• Learn to conjecture, invent and solve problems.
• Learn to connect mathematics, its ideas and its applications.
• Focus on the mathematical skills embedded within activities.

Click here for the 100 questions from mathematics expert Dr. Gladis Kersaint to help you address these core areas and promote mathematical thinking and discourse in the classroom. For more, please download Dr. Kersaint’s new whitepaper:Orchestrating Mathematical Discourse to Enhance Student Learning.

Let us not forget the pending Social Studies 4th and 8th grade test -

Hi everyone,

You may have received an update this morning from the State Superintendent regarding the new Forward WI tests. Please note that this test simply replaces the Badger Exam for ELA & Mathematics. Social Studies is not mentioned because it is a separate test from the Forward WI test. WKCE is not being used this fall for science or social studies. We are in the process of getting bids for a new test, which will be in spring of 2016. Please see Dr. Evers back to school updates here: http://wisocstlistserv.blogspot.com/2015/09/back-to-school-updates-and-resources.html .

Hope this helps!

Kris

Kris McDaniel

Social Studies Consultant

WI Department of Public Instruction

kristen.mcdaniel@dpi.wi.gov (608) 266-2207

To change one's life; Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly. No exceptions. -- William James

State Assessment Update- Wisconsin Forward Exam

This information is helpful but just reminds me of the perseverance and resiliency of our WI teachers who once again will be learning a new assessment.  Kudos to the educators of our children in Wisconsin.  Personally I think we have been too focused on Accountability which has its root in counting and need to return to responsibility which has its root in responding  - responding to each child's unique emotional, social, and academic needs.  It has always been about being responsible; that is why we chose this as a career -- to build the potential in each child one at a time.  Just pondering today - what do you think?  Kathy

Dear School and District Leaders,

The biennial budget (2015 Wisconsin Act 55) required the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) to procure a new state assessment for students in the 2015-16 school year. The new assessment, known as the Wisconsin Forward Exam, will be administered in spring 2016 in English language arts and mathematics in grades 3 through 8, and science in grades 4, 8, and 10. High school students in grades 9 through 11 will continue to take the ACT suite of exams.

Data Recognition Company (DRC), a Midwestern assessment company with a Wisconsin office, was successful in a competitive Request for Proposal (RFP) procurement process to develop, administer, and report results on the new Forward Exam. The procurement was conducted by the Department of Administration for DPI.

We are pleased to announce that this online assessment will be specifically developed for Wisconsin students, with input from Wisconsin educators. The Forward Exam is expected to be shorter than the Badger Exam. We thank you for your patience as we went through the RFP process. We will do our best to ensure a smooth transition to the Forward Exam. In the interest of stability for our students, educators, families, and school communities, it is out hope that we will retain the Forward Exam for years to come.

Further information about the exam and its administration will be communicated to your district assessment coordinator (DAC) in coming months. For more information, please contact the Office of Student Assessment at osamail@dpi.wi.gov or visit http://oea.dpi.wi.gov/assessment/forward.

Sincerely,

Mike Thompson, PhD

Deputy State Superintendent

Badger Exam 2015   

Information for Educators

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Badger Exam 3-8 Information for Educators
Student Tutorial ModuleClassroom Activity Administration Guidelines
Performance Task Overview
Accessibility and Accommodations Training Module
Usability, Accessibility, and Accommodations Guidelines
Badger Exam DPI website

Things for Educators to Know

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• All students will be required to have headphones for the ELA portion of the test.

• Universal supports are supports that are available to all students based on student preference.
• Designated supports are supports determined by an educator or a team that would be in the student's best interest.
• Embedded supports ~ are built into the computer test system.
• Non-Embedded supports ~ are not built in to the computer test system.
• Accommodations are determined by a student's IEP or 504 documentation.

Badger Practice Exam

The Badger Exam practice test is best for learning the interface of the 2015 test.  It is organized in grade bands and is great for practicing navigation of the test.  This practice test will also include the universal tools, the designated supports, and accommodations.

This practice test will not work in Internet Explorer.

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Link to Badger Exam Practice Test

Badger Exam Sample Classroom Activities 

• Out of This World - Grade Band 3-5 ELA 
• Technology of the Future  - Grade Band 6-8 ELA 
• Lemonade - Grade Band 3-5 Mathematics
• Cereal - Grade Band 6-8 Mathematics 

Badger Exam Practice Test Performance Task (PT) Scoring Guides - These practice test scoring guides are only for the Badger Exam Practice Test for the PT items.

• ELA PT Scoring Guide - Grade Band 3-5 
• Mathematics PT Scoring Guide - Grade Band 3-5 
• ELA PT Scoring Guide - Grade Band 6-8 
• Mathematics Scoring Guide - Grade Band 6-8 

Smarter Balanced Practice Test

The Smarter Balanced Practice test materials give students and staff an idea of the content and rigor of this type of standardized test.  It is organized with questions at each grade level, BUT is a different testing interface than students will see in Spring 2015.

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Link to Smarter Balanced Practice Tests

Smarter Balanced Resources and Documentation ~ includes Manuals, User Guides, Classroom Activities, Scoring Guides, & Performance Task Writing Rubrics

THANKS GOES TO SARA SCHOEPKE -- TECHPD.WEEBLY.COM  FOR THIS INFORMATION.

Using Google Docs to prepare students for Smarter Balanced Assessments

Posted by Majid Manzarpour

Jennifer Oliveira is a Google Certified Trainer who works at Del Mar Union School District in San Diego, California. She has over 18 years of experience in the education field and specializes in Google Apps & Chromebook deployments. You can find her on Google+ and the Google Apps Marketplace.

If you haven’t taken the opportunity to preview the Smarter Balanced Testing practice tests, now would be a good time. The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) is one of the two nationally approved assessments aligned with Common Core, as well as being an adaptive assessment, suitable for all students including students with disabilities. 

"Although our new WI state test is called the 3-8 Grade Badger Exam, I am told the students need to have the following technology skills to be successful." Kathy Hoppe.

Last year, school districts around the country piloted the English Language Arts (ELA) and Math tests and this year schools will have another opportunity to preview the test. In our elementary district, we had classroom teachers logon to their grade level and see what the kids would see. Going through the third grade assessment as a teacher my initial thoughts were more self-conscious, “This is a third grade test. I can do this. I passed third grade.” As I worked through the test, my thoughts shifted to concern, whether our elementary students would be successful. I don’t have any doubts about whether or not they have the knowledge. It’s more about the format. For many us, transitioning to a computer adaptive assessment is new territory. Our students, and many students around the country, are used to multiple choice, pencil and paper exams and some students have had opportunity to complete a multiple choice assessment on a computer. 

The Smarter Balanced assessment asks students to use a variety of technology skills to respond to multiple formats of questions. Now, my thoughts shift yet again. Our students know how to be successful at this test, they just need some help connecting the dots. Using Google Apps in elementary schools can strengthen technology skills needed in the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC).

How it looks in SBAC: (Image from SBAC Practice Test Portal)	How Google Docs can help: (Image from Google Apps for Education)
In the ELA portion of the test, some of the questions require students to highlight phrases as part of their answer. For example, students need to read passages, then choose by highlighting the correct answer. Sometimes they need to highlight two possible answers. (image from SBAC Practice Test Portal)	Students can practice highlighting phrases in their writing showing examples of certain writing strategies, vocabulary, or editing skills.
Both ELA and Math require dragging and dropping. In the ELA portion, students might need to rearrange sentences so the paragraph makes chronological sense. In the Math portion, students need to drag numbers to boxes to show missing measurements. Sometimes they need to drag numbers to create two-digit numbers (see example below).	Using Google Docs, students can practice moving sentences from one part of their writing to another by dragging and aligning the cursor with the new location. In Google Draw, students can create shapes and move them around the page to create an image.
In the Math portion, students might be asked to draw a line to divide a shape. (image from SBAC Practice Test Portal)	Using Google Draw, students can practice creating shapes with the line or shape tools.
In the Math portion, students are asked to devise an equation to match the area of a grid.	Using Sheets, students can format and outline cells to create shapes, then create matching equations for area or perimeter.
The ELA portion has some open-ended responses. In some instances, students are asked to revise an already created paragraph.	Using Google Docs, students can practice writing reading responses or brief explanations, comparisons, or opinions. Students can then share with a peer who can add or revise the writing.
The ELA portion has a few audio or visual components.	Using Slides, students can prepare presentations, then compose questions for peers to answer. For added fun, invite students to create hyperlinks to slides within the presentation to create a quiz.

Using Google Apps and other practical applications, students can enhance the technology skills needed to be successful on Smarter Balanced. They may not realize it they have the skills, we can help them make the connection.

from http://blog.synergyse.com/2014/03/using-google-docs-to-prepare-for.html

The Best Ways to Prepare Students for Common Core Reading Tests

In an article in The Reading Teacher, Timothy Shanahan (University of Illinois/ Chicago) says the “data-driven” approach to improving reading achievement – using item analyses to identify the skills students haven’t mastered and drilling test-aligned curriculum items – doesn't work. Why? “Research long ago revealed an important fact about reading comprehension tests: they only measure a single factor…” says Shanahan: “reading comprehension. They don’t reveal students’ abilities to answer main idea questions, detail questions, inference questions, drawing conclusion questions, or anything else.”

Shanahan believes there are two reasons traditional standardized reading tests fail to produce useful data on subskills:

• First, reading is a language activity, not the execution of various subskills. To make sense of a text, students must simultaneously use a hierarchy of language features. When a student answers a main-idea question incorrectly, it doesn't mean the main-idea part of the student’s brain isn’t working. Here are some possible explanations:

- The passage looked too hard and the student didn't have the confidence to read it all the way through.

- The student is a slow reader and didn't read far enough to grasp the main idea.

- The student’s decoding skills are weak and a lot of important words weren't understood.

- The main idea was embedded in a particularly complex sentence, and although the student understood the rest of the text, this sentence wasn't understood.

- The text had a lot of synonyms and pronouns and the student wasn't able to form a coherent idea of what it was all about.

So what does explain students’ performance on standardized tests? Text complexity, says Shanahan: “[I]f the text is easy enough, students can answer any type of question, and if the text is complicated enough, they will struggle with even the supposedly easiest types of questions. That means reading comprehension tests measure how well students read texts, not how well they execute particular reading skills…”

• Second, reading tests are designed to separate proficient from struggling readers. To achieve this and create reliable tests, psychometricians reject questions that don’t have the best properties. “Test designers are satisfied by being able to determine how well students read and by arraying students along a valid reading comprehension scale,” says Shanahan. “They know that the items collectively assess reading comprehension, but that separately – or in small sets of items aimed at particular kinds of information – the items can tell us nothing meaningful about how well students can read.”

Won’t the innovative tests being created by PARCC and Smarter Balanced do a better job? Not at producing useful data on subskills, says Shanahan. “These new tests won’t be able to alter the nature of reading comprehension or the technical requirements for developing reliable test instruments.” The simple reason is that they can’t be long and fine-grained enough. So does that mean the PARCC and Smarter Balanced tests will be useless to educators and parents? Not at all, says Shanahan: “These tests will ask students to read extensive amounts of literary and informational text, to answer meaningful questions about these texts, and to provide explanations of their answers. These tests should do a pretty good job of showing how well students can read and comprehend challenging texts without teacher support.”

So how should we prepare students to do well on the new tests – and be prepared for college and career success? Not by focusing instruction on question types, says Shanahan – instead, by striving to make students “sophisticated and powerful readers.” Here’s how:

• Have students read extensively within lessons – not free reading, but reading that is an integral part of instruction, with students frequently held accountable for understanding and gaining knowledge. Round-robin oral reading is highly inefficient, says Shanahan. “Teachers like it because it provides control and it lets them observe how well a student is reading, but a reading comprehension lesson, except with the youngest children, should emphasize silent reading – and lots of it.” And this should also be happening in social studies, science, and math classes.

• Have students read increasing amounts of text without guidance and support. Many reading lessons involve students reading a paragraph or a page followed by teacher questions and group discussion. “This model is not a bad one,” says Shanahan. “It allows teachers to focus students’ attention on key parts of the text and to sustain attention throughout. However, the stopping points need to be progressively spread out over time… Increasing student stamina and independence in this way should be a goal of every reading teacher.” It’s noteworthy that the shortest prototype that PARCC and SBAC have released so far is 550 words long.

• Make sure the texts are rich in content and sufficiently challenging. “Lots of reading of easy text will not adequately prepare students for dealing with difficult text,” says Shanahan. They need to be reading grade-level texts with gradually decreasing teacher scaffolding around vocabulary, sentence grammar, text structure, and concepts needed to reach target levels.

• Have students explain their answers and provide text evidence supporting their claims.This is an important part of increasing intellectual depth and constantly moving students toward reading more-challenging material.

• Engage students in writing about text. Writing does a much better job of improving reading comprehension than answering multiple-choice questions, says Shanahan: “Although writing text summaries and syntheses may not look like the tests students are being prepared for, this kind of activity should provide the most powerful and productive kind of preparation.”

(from the Marshall Memo 12.9.2014) “How and How Not to Prepare Students for the New Tests” by Timothy Shanahan in The Reading Teacher, November 2014 (Vol. 68, #3, p. 184-188), http://bit.ly/1wr4JOa; Shanahan can be reached at shanahan@uic.edu.

Did you know that the Smarter Balance - Depth of Knowledge Levels came from WI?

Depth of Knowledge

For many years, we have used Bloom's Taxonomy to discuss rigor or "content complexity".  Now, we must transition this dialog around "Depth of Knowledge".  

The DOK has 4 levels.

Level 1 - Recall and recognition.

Level 2 - Using a skill or concept.  Conceptual understanding generally refers to integration and application of concepts and other ideas within a content area.  Procedural understanding denotes knowledge about skills and sequence of steps, when and how these should be used appropriately, and their efficient and accurate applications

Level 3 - Strategic thinking.  Analysis and other examples are given here.  Non-routine problem solving as in determining author's purpose.

Level 4 - Extended thinking.  Usually requires work over a period of time, including gathering information, analyzing findings, preparing reports and presenting findings.

There is a lot of good information available on the web about DOK.  I encourage you to have a look for yourself.  

Interestingly, DOK is not new to us in Wisconsin.  It is a concept developed here (at the UW), and we have used it to analyze WKCE results for many years.  Now, the SBA has adopted it so we will do well to expand our consideration as we plan our teaching and learning to meet the challenges of CCSS

Free Formative Assessment eLearning
On-Demand Webinar series

We are pleased to offer you a new free resource in Knowledge Academy, the NWEA eLearning platform. Introduction to Formative Assessment is a three-part on-demand webinar series with formative assessment expert Dylan Wiliam: 

Understanding Formative Assessment (45 min)

Formative Assessment Foundations (50 min)

How to Sustain the Development of Formative Assessment (48 min)

The webinars offer insight into classroom best practices that support teachers and students in reaching for challenging new standards. Our companion discussion guides help teams and educators unpack and apply formative assessment techniques in daily instruction.

What Students Think About Assessment  - Interesting |   Research Study Have you ever wondered what your students think – and know – about assessment? We wondered too. That’s why in our latest study of perceptions on assessment, we asked them – as well as teachers and district administrators.  What we learned is captured in the new report, Make Assessment Matter: Students and Educators Want Tests that Support Learning. The study is part of a Northwest Evaluation Association™ (NWEA™) multi-year public opinion research project to better understand how educators, parents, and students think about and use assessments. For the first time in any formal study, students were asked to share their thoughts on the merits of assessment. Their responses are making news across the country. Full report: Download Make Assessment Matter Infographic: Review the study data at a glance  In the media:  Read C.M. Rubin’s column in Huffington Post I found the information interesting and confirming.  As district administrators we do need to provide more training and support to our wonderful teachers on making assessment practices reasonable and efficient. To students we need to insure that we are using the data and that they understand the results and what they can do to continue to learn and grow.  Your thoughts........................a penny for your thoughts!  Kathy

Just what does it take to be a pilot SMARTER Balance teacher?

1. per·sist·ence

   pərˈsistəns/

   noun

   1. 1.

      firm or obstinate continuance in a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition.

      "companies must have patience and persistence, but the rewards are there"

   
   

   

   Choose languageAfrikaansAlbanianArabicArmenianAzerbaijaniBasqueBelarusianBengaliBosnianBulgarianCatalanCebuanoChinese (Simplified)Chinese (Traditional)CroatianCzechDanishDutchEsperantoEstonianFilipinoFinnishFrenchGalicianGeorgianGermanGreekGujaratiHaitianHausaHebrewHindiHmongHungarianIcelandicIgboIndonesianIrishItalianJapaneseJavaneseKannadaKhmerKoreanLaoLatinLatvianLithuanianMacedonianMalayMalteseMaoriMarathiMongolianNepaliNorwegianPersianPolishPortuguesePunjabiRomanianRussianSerbianSlovakSlovenianSomaliSpanishSwahiliSwedishTamilTeluguThaiTurkishUkrainianUrduVietnameseWelshYiddishYorubaZulu

   

   
   

Yes, these days as educators are implementing Common Core Curriculum which is definitely a new level of expectations for student learning they are also taking on the challenge of piloting the SMARTER Balance Test because they care about the student's conform level with the technology and types of questions that will be asked.  BUT, this is no easy feat.  The SMARTER Balance Test is still being tweaked and the information is coming out at the last minute.  

While some question the work of our teachers, I can only thank them for their persistence when the test is not ready for the next week and we receive notice the Friday before at noon.  I cannot thank them enough for their flexibility and positivity with students when the text to speech and speech to text features are not working yet.  I can't thank them enough every time they make lemonade with the lemons they are given.

Persistence and courage is all I can think of to describe our awesome teachers.  A big kudos today.

Embed Videos in Google Forms

Embed Videos in Google Forms

I LOVE Google's newer feature!  Google now added the ability to embed a YouTube video or another video that is posted on the web into a Google Form.  This makes it possible to post a video and then have students answer questions about what they learned. This is great for formative assessment especially in a flipped classroom setting.  If you are familiar with embedding an image, this will be super easy!  

Read more on my sister, Sharon's blog.  Click HERE.

There are so many things going on at Waterford Graded School District and across the state!  Keep informed by reading the latest newsletter/update.  Click here to view Winter Edition.  (If you need the Fall Edition click here.)

C