KARCHER STAFF BLOG

Karcher 2017-2018 School Calendar

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This week's article...

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Book: How to Create and Use Rubrics for Formative Assessment and Grading by Susan M. Brookhart

Chapter 10. Rubrics and Formative Assessment: Feedback and Student Self-Assessment

Formative assessment is an active and intentional learning process that partners the teacher and students to continuously and systematically gather evidence of learning with the express goal of improving student achievement (Moss & Brookhart, 2009, p. 6). Formative assessment is about forminglearning—that is, it is assessment that gives information that moves students forward. If no further learning occurred, then whatever the intention, an assessment was not formative.

Chapter 9 described how to use rubrics to help clarify learning targets for students—the foundational strategy of formative assessment. This chapter covers the use of rubrics for giving feedback that feeds forward, for supporting student self-assessment and goal setting, and for helping students ask effective questions about their work.

How to use rubrics for teacher and peer feedback

Because rubrics enumerate the criteria for learning and describe performance along a continuum for each one, they are a good framework for feedback. This section presents several strategies for using rubrics as the basis for teacher and peer feedback. Use one of them or design similar strategies that work in your context.

Teacher feedback on rubrics-based feedback sheets

If you are using well-written, general, analytic rubrics (as I recommend for most purposes) for sharing with students and for feedback, you can photocopy the rubrics themselves, leaving space for comments. Provide feedback by circling the performance level for each criterion that best matches the student's work in its current form. Then you will not have to rewrite the general description, which is already circled. Instead, use what time you have available for written feedback to write something specific to the student's work.

For example, if the class is working on the ideas in their writing, the teacher may give feedback on writing using the Ideas rubric in the 6+1 Trait Writing rubrics (see Appendix A). If she has circled "Support for topic is incidental or confusing, not focused," the specific comments might tell the student what she found confusing or why the supporting details did not seem, in fact, to support the topic. This combination of general feedback from the rubric and specific feedback in writing will be enough for many students to see the way forward and improve their work in revision. For a few students, if conferencing is needed—for example, if the teacher wants to ask a student about the logic of including some details or check for understanding of story details that seemed confusing—much of the preliminary information is already present in the circled portions of the general rubrics and in the specific written feedback.

Yellow and blue make green

Similar to the "highlighters or colored pencils" method presented in Chapter 9 for helping students understand the learning target and criteria they are aiming for, you can also use highlighters for teacher feedback on student work and student self-assessment. Ask students to use the highlighters as before, highlighting a statement from the description of performance in the rubric and highlighting where they identify this quality, but this time in their own work instead of in sample work. They can then assess whether they are satisfied with the evidence they have highlighted or want to change, augment, or revise it.

Two-color highlighting (Chappuis, 2009) can be used to compare teacher and self-assessment perspectives on the same work. Students use yellow highlighters, and teachers use blue highlighters. Where there is agreement on what constitutes evidence for performance as described in the rubric, the resulting highlights will be green.

This is not just a coloring-book exercise, however. Important information comes with the comparison. If most of the highlighted area is green, both the student and the teacher are interpreting the work in the same way and more or less agreeing on its quality. If most of the highlighted area is yellow, the student is seeing evidence that the teacher is not. It may be that the student is not clear on the meaning of the criterion, or the student may be overvaluing the work. If most of the highlighted area is blue, the teacher is seeing evidence that the student is not. The student may be not clear on the meaning of the criterion or undervaluing the work.

Any place where teacher and student perspectives vary on the worth of the student's work relative to criteria can be fertile ground for written feedback from the teacher, student questioning, or conferencing. The feedback, questions, or conferences should address more than just understanding the highlighting or the description of current work. What should come next? Provide feedback on what the student can do to improve the work.

Paired-peer feedback

Peers can use rubrics to give each other feedback. The rubrics provide structure for peer discussions, making it easier for the students to focus on the criteria rather than personal reactions to the work. The rubrics also aid dialogue. As the students use the language of the rubrics to discuss each other's work, they are developing their own conceptions of the meaning of the criteria while they are giving information to their peers.

The simplest form of peer feedback involves students working in pairs. The teacher should assign peers that are well matched in terms of interest, ability, or compatibility, depending on the particular assignment.

Peer feedback works best in a classroom where constructive criticism is viewed as an important part of learning. In a classroom characterized by a grading-focused or evaluative culture ("Whad-ja-get?"), peer feedback may not work well; students may hesitate to criticize their peers so as not to imply there is anything "wrong." Try peer feedback only when you are sure that your students value opportunities to learn. If you try peer feedback and it doesn't work very well, even after careful preparation, be prepared to ask yourself whether your students are telling you they are more focused on getting a good grade than improving their work.

Assuming that you have a learning-focused classroom culture, you still need to prepare students for peer feedback. Make sure that the students understand the rubrics they will be using and that they can apply them to anonymous work samples accurately. Make sure the students understand the assignments on which they will be using the rubrics for the peer feedback. Set a few important ground rules and have students explain, and even role-play, what they mean. Use rules that make sense for your grade level, students, and content area. Here are examples of some common peer-feedback ground rules:

When You Are Giving Peer Feedback

Read or view your peer's work carefully. Talk about the work, not the person who did the work.

Use terms from the rubrics to explain and describe what you see in the work.

Give your own suggestions and ideas, and explain why you think these suggestions would help improve the work.

Listen to your peer's comments and questions.

When You Are Receiving Peer Feedback

Listen to your peer's comments. Take time to think about them before you respond.

Compare your peer's comments to the rubrics, and decide what comments you will use in your revisions.

Thank your peer for the feedback.

Finally, peer feedback gets better with practice. When you use paired-peer feedback, observe the pairs and give them feedback on their feedback, as it were. Look for, and comment on, how students use the rubrics, how clearly they describe the work, how useful their suggestions for improvement are, how supportive they are, and so on. Just as for any skill, giving and receiving peer feedback can (and should) be taught and learned.

*** Please discuss in team time.

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Kudos

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Kudos to all of our staff on the growth our students have made from Fall to Winter on their Language Usage and Math MAP assessments!!! Our Karcher mean in Language Usage for 7th grade in the Fall was a 215.9. Our Spring goal was to grow 3.6 points from Fall to Spring (the expected school growth number set by NWEA). So... our Spring goal is 219.5. When looking at our data you will notice that our Winter mean was a 219.6!!! So... we already surpassed our Spring goal! Now... the challenge is to grown another 3.6 points during semester 2! You will notice as also met our 8th grade Language Usage goal with a Winter mean of 225.8 (Spring goal is a 225.4). And years back our 7th grad math team was worried about having to grow 6 points from Fall to Spring but look at our 7th grade growth! Fall 224.4, Winter 229.5! Already grew 5.1 points!!! 8th grade math is on target to hit our Spring goal. You will notice the number in ( ) for math... again this is the score that aligns MAP to the ACT where a student who scores a 238 in 7th grade math by the spring is on target to score a minimum of a 22 on their ACT as a junior. This number is the number set to determine college and career readiness. Whether a student attends college or not the benchmark for both college and career readiness is a 22 ACT score.

Keep on pushing, challenging, and growing each of our students! Your dedication, as a school, to iTime and to disciplinary literacy shows in our data! Nice work to everyone as it takes an entire team to show results like this!

Kudos to Brad Ferstenou and Stephanie Rummler for working with our student council and leadership students to organize the Mix-It-Up lunch! What a great idea and way for students to get out of the comfort zones and talk with other peers!
This Tuesday will be Ben Worland and Joshua Audenby last day with us at Karcher. Thank you to Jack Schmidt and Stephanie Rummler for your willingness to support our profession by taking in both Ben and Josh as student teachers! And thank you Ben and Josh for jumping right into the inner workings of Karcher and assisting our students with growing academically this past semester. Farewell and we hope you both find success in a teaching position in the up coming months!
Speaking of student teachers... Mia Schultz, from the University of Platteville, will be joining Patti Tenhagen and Jeri Nettesheim for term 3 and then moving to Dyer term 4 to work with Theresa Trawitzke. Welcome to Karcher Mia!
Due to some changes within our special education aides schedules will be looking different starting January 22.

Welcome back to our Karcher team Amanda Meiers! Amanda will be starting back at Karcher on Monday, January 22.
Kudos to Mary Blankenship as she moves from a 2 days a week position to a 4 days a week position!
And... Crysta Hernandez will still be with us but has the opportunity to only work two days per week instead of four!

Over the weekend Ron Kahl, former teacher, was inducted into the BHS Hall Of Fame. His name is also on the floor of the BHS gymnasium in order to honor this dedication to the BASD school district. Click HERE to read about his story.

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Information/Reminders...

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Monday, January 22 - Morning Assembly Schedule

7th grade will be in the auditorium for our Character Assemblies! Please bring your advisory to the auditorium as soon as you read the announcements and take attendance. We will not be calling you up - just come as soon as you are able!
8th grade - Huddle Time!

Please make sure you have students take the food service survey! Below is the information for the survey.
Survey link to give to all students.
Once a student takes the survey give them a blue ticket! The blue tickets were placed in your mailboxes this past Friday.
Student then get a free Ripps Slushy after their lunch during lunch on Monday (for 8th grade) and on Tuesday (for 7th grade).

Monday, January 22 - Staff Meeting has been canceled due to being together for the inservice on Wednesday.
Tuesday, January 23 - Morning Assemble Schedule

Student Google Document
Family Feud Sign-up
8th grade will be in the auditorium for our Character Assemblies! Please bring your advisory to the auditorium as soon as you read the announcements and take attendance. We will not be calling you up - just come as soon as you are able!
7th grade - Huddle Time!

Please make sure you have students take the food service survey! Use the information noted under Monday, January 22 for the link and information.

Wednesday, January 24 - Inservice from 8:00 - 4:00

Everyone:

7:30 - 8:00 (BHS Auditorium) will be a voluntary meeting with Michael Bruner, WEA rep, to share information on the Vitality Program. Anyone interested can attend.
8:00 - 9:00 (BHS Auditorium)

Longevity Awards and Top Ten Social Media Tips.

9:00 - 11:30 (Karcher) Work time.
11:30 - 12:30 - Lunch on your own.
12:30 - 1:15 - Building Level values exercise with all staff. (Karcher library)

Teachers:

1:15 - 4:00 - Work time.

Aides:

1:30 - 3:00 - Professional development in the Karcher library with all aides grades 7-12.
3:00 - 4:00 - Work time.

Thursday-Friday, January 25-26 is extended advisory.

Please check the advisory calendar for the lessons!

Thursday, January 25 - Grading window for term 2 closes at 3:00pm!
Friday, January 26 - 7th grade math teachers...

Please have the yellow 2017-2018 course selection sheets completed and returned to the main office in alpha order by January 26! If you have any questions please let myself or Ryan know.

Looking ahead...

Monday, January 29 - 8th grade extended advisory

Eric Burling, high school principal, will be coming to talk to all 8th grade students during the extended advisory time to go over course selections for their freshmen year.
Please bring your advisories to the auditorium right after announcements and attendance... we will not call you up... just come as soon as you can!

Monday, January 29 - Start of Reading MAP testing in social studies classrooms.
Tuesday, January 30 - Strings Festival @ BHS @ 6:30pm.
Next FNL will be on February 2 from 6:00 - 7:30!

Please email Mike Jones and Donna Sturdevant if you are able to volunteer to help!

Pictures from this past week!

Mix-It-Up lunch!

Student council/leadership students scoring the Mix-It-Up trivia challenge questions!

Students in STEM, with Mr. Yopp, making final adjustments to their bridges prior to competing.

Students in PE working through circuit training with Mr. Nelson.

Girls volleyball started this past week!

Ms. Pelnar's classroom really shows strong differentiation when students are all working through different projects, at their pace, and gaining formative feedback from Ms. Pelnar throughout each piece! Patrick drew that free hand!

Bridge challenge took place this week in STEM with Mr. Yopp. Each class competed against their own class to see which bridge was able sustain proper function while holding the most weight. The winner for each class then went up against each other within the grade level. Then... the 7th grade winner and 8th grade winner challenged each other... however, it is "to be continued" as both held 100 pounds and more weights needed to be retrieved to continue! Pictured is the strongest 7th grade bridge! Crazy awesome job!!!