1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,900 This is the Reading Instruction Show. 2 00:00:02,900 --> 00:00:05,280 I'm your host as always, Dr. Andy Johnson. 3 00:00:05,580 --> 00:00:14,840 The topic of today's podcast, this is part two, any two-part series looking at more authentic assessment for writing. 4 00:00:15,540 --> 00:00:27,740 Now, the purpose of this podcast is to provide an overview of some healthy alternatives to standardized tests, writing tests, and rubrics for writing. 5 00:00:27,740 --> 00:00:43,240 Six points. To be of any use, these healthy alternative assessment strategies that I'll describe here must reflect your values, your philosophy, your teaching style, and your students. 6 00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:48,740 In other words, your system needs to be yours. 7 00:00:48,740 --> 00:00:54,240 You can't assess effectively using someone else's system. 8 00:00:54,240 --> 00:01:07,740 Thus, I will present some simple ideas here with the expectation that you'll discuss them with your colleagues and use them to develop your own assessment system. 9 00:01:07,740 --> 00:01:13,240 Number two, your assessment system is not a permanent entity. 10 00:01:13,240 --> 00:01:22,240 Expect that it will evolve and change over time as you get more knowledge and experience. 11 00:01:22,240 --> 00:01:29,740 Three, an effective assessment system utilizes multiple forms of assessment. 12 00:01:29,740 --> 00:01:32,740 Multiple forms of assessment. 13 00:01:32,740 --> 00:01:37,740 That means you want to include multiple kinds of data. 14 00:01:37,740 --> 00:01:44,240 No single assessment strategy or data should be used exclusively. 15 00:01:44,240 --> 00:01:53,240 Number four, big picture, the role of a parent and the role of a teacher is to become obsolete. 16 00:01:53,240 --> 00:02:02,240 You want to prepare students for the world they will encounter such that you are no longer needed. 17 00:02:02,240 --> 00:02:10,240 Similarly, the role of good assessment is to become obsolete, to prepare students to evaluate their own work. 18 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:18,240 Thus, an important part of assessment is to teach students how to assess their own work. 19 00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:23,740 Number five, students should be involved in the assessment process. 20 00:02:23,740 --> 00:02:30,240 It should be something students do, not just something that's done to them. 21 00:02:30,240 --> 00:02:39,740 And six, the only hard and fast rule about portfolios that we'll discuss in just a minute is that you use them. 22 00:02:39,740 --> 00:02:42,740 Other than that, you're the professional. 23 00:02:42,740 --> 00:02:44,240 You know your students. 24 00:02:44,240 --> 00:02:49,740 Adopt and adapt all these ideas as you see fit. 25 00:02:49,740 --> 00:02:53,240 So let's take a look at portfolios. 26 00:02:53,240 --> 00:03:01,740 Portfolios for writing are perhaps the most valid way to document and demonstrate students' growth as writers. 27 00:03:01,740 --> 00:03:08,240 Valid because they contain students' real life writing products, among other things. 28 00:03:08,240 --> 00:03:15,240 So a bit of advice in working with portfolios is to keep it simple. 29 00:03:15,240 --> 00:03:19,240 More complex doesn't mean more rigor. 30 00:03:19,240 --> 00:03:22,240 It just means more complicated. 31 00:03:22,240 --> 00:03:27,240 Let the portfolio evolve and grow with your understanding. 32 00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:31,240 Start small, but think big. 33 00:03:31,240 --> 00:03:42,240 Now, three types of portfolios will be described here, a student portfolio, a showcase portfolio, and a teacher portfolio. 34 00:03:42,240 --> 00:03:50,240 I recommend that each of these be included in some form in your assessment system. 35 00:03:50,240 --> 00:03:55,240 So let's look at the work portfolio or a draft portfolio. 36 00:03:55,240 --> 00:04:02,240 This is the place where all students' drafts and work in progress are kept. 37 00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:09,240 This portfolio is maintained by the student, by your students. 38 00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:20,240 During daily writing time, students then are able to select the drafts from their work portfolio they wish to take through the editing and revision process. 39 00:04:20,240 --> 00:04:36,240 Now, if you're working in a paper writing environment with young students, especially, use a Manila-Manila file folder with the student's name on it for each student for their work portfolio. 40 00:04:36,240 --> 00:04:44,240 These should be kept in a box someplace or on a shelf anywhere other than students' desks. 41 00:04:44,240 --> 00:04:52,240 And if you're working in a non-paper environment, use a shared online folder for each student. 42 00:04:52,240 --> 00:05:05,240 Besides students' drafts and work in progress, students' work portfolios might also include any or all of the four items that I will describe. 43 00:05:05,240 --> 00:05:10,240 It could contain a completed project list. 44 00:05:10,240 --> 00:05:18,240 Here, students record the title, genre, and date completed of any writing projects that they've done. 45 00:05:18,240 --> 00:05:23,240 And they might also record the type of media used to share their work. 46 00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:28,240 For example, did they use a podcast, a book, a video, open mic, etc. 47 00:05:28,240 --> 00:05:33,240 What did they use to publish and share that work? 48 00:05:33,240 --> 00:05:38,240 The second list could be a future topic list. 49 00:05:38,240 --> 00:05:43,240 This is the list of potential writing topics or ideas. 50 00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:46,240 The third one is the lives list. 51 00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:52,240 I'm often asked, what can I do to motivate my students to write? 52 00:05:52,240 --> 00:05:54,240 And the answer is simple. 53 00:05:54,240 --> 00:05:58,240 Include things that interest students. 54 00:05:58,240 --> 00:06:02,240 And what is of most interest to all students? 55 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:05,240 Their lives. 56 00:06:05,240 --> 00:06:16,240 Writing that intersects with students' lives brings about greater motivation and engagement, as well as better written products. 57 00:06:16,240 --> 00:06:24,240 The lives list contains descriptions or lists of anything that students find important in their lives. 58 00:06:24,240 --> 00:06:35,240 This could include friends, relationships, sports, music, games, hobbies, pets, movies, TVs, families. 59 00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:40,240 And if you're using an online portfolio, students could also include pictures. 60 00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:51,240 And you'll find over time that the items in the lives list will begin to find their way into all other lists. 61 00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:55,240 Authentic writing about their lives. 62 00:06:55,240 --> 00:06:58,240 And the fourth one is the daily progress report. 63 00:06:58,240 --> 00:07:02,240 This is where students record their daily progress. 64 00:07:02,240 --> 00:07:10,240 The date, tentative title, or topic of the work, and the steps or stage they're on are listed here. 65 00:07:10,240 --> 00:07:13,240 That's the work portfolio. 66 00:07:13,240 --> 00:07:18,240 The second portfolio is the showcase portfolio. 67 00:07:18,240 --> 00:07:27,240 This is where students select the writing they think best demonstrates their growth as writers. 68 00:07:27,240 --> 00:07:35,240 Now this portfolio can be shown to parents at conferences or sent home along with teacher analysis. 69 00:07:35,240 --> 00:07:38,240 There are no hard and fast rules here. 70 00:07:38,240 --> 00:07:47,240 You can include anything that documents and demonstrates students' writing progress. 71 00:07:47,240 --> 00:07:54,240 For example, you could include a student self-report survey, student analysis of their own writing, 72 00:07:54,240 --> 00:08:01,240 your analysis of their writing, checklists and samples of students' drafts or revisions or editing. 73 00:08:01,240 --> 00:08:05,240 Anything that showcases their writing progress. 74 00:08:05,240 --> 00:08:08,240 The teacher portfolio is the third one. 75 00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:18,240 This is where you compile all types of data that you've collected to assess students' progress, your observation. 76 00:08:18,240 --> 00:08:28,240 You would keep a portfolio one for each of your students in a desk drawer someplace where only you have quick and easy access. 77 00:08:28,240 --> 00:08:34,240 You'd include your notes from observations, data from teacher interviews with students, 78 00:08:34,240 --> 00:08:40,240 checklists, anecdotal notes, test scores, work samples at various times of the years, 79 00:08:40,240 --> 00:08:44,240 and yes, even a stinking rubric if you wanted to do so. 80 00:08:44,240 --> 00:08:47,240 There's no rules. You decide. 81 00:08:47,240 --> 00:08:55,240 Now at report card time or conferences, you'd analyze and organize the data here. 82 00:08:55,240 --> 00:09:05,240 And your analysis of this data provides a much greater context for understanding the material in the showcase. 83 00:09:05,240 --> 00:09:10,240 Now, the last thing I'll say about portfolios. 84 00:09:10,240 --> 00:09:15,240 In the 1990s, portfolios were a big thing. 85 00:09:15,240 --> 00:09:22,240 They were the big thing for assessing learning and documenting students' growth across the curriculum, 86 00:09:22,240 --> 00:09:25,240 not just in literacy. 87 00:09:25,240 --> 00:09:36,240 And you'll find that most of the books and articles written about portfolio assessment are from this time in the 90s. 88 00:09:36,240 --> 00:09:46,240 This was the golden age of literacy instruction before state and federal governments began and shooting into the classroom. 89 00:09:46,240 --> 00:09:56,240 Back then, school districts and teachers were able to make decisions related to their curriculum, pedagogy, and testing. 90 00:09:56,240 --> 00:09:58,240 Imagine that. 91 00:09:58,240 --> 00:10:07,240 But a funny thing happened, or a tragic thing. Portfolios seem to disappear. 92 00:10:07,240 --> 00:10:09,240 Poof! 93 00:10:09,240 --> 00:10:13,240 So what happened to this very good portfolio idea? 94 00:10:13,240 --> 00:10:18,240 Well, four things. First, the number monkeys got ahold of them. 95 00:10:18,240 --> 00:10:24,240 They cried out, how could learning occur if it can't be quantified? 96 00:10:24,240 --> 00:10:28,240 They said, how do we know who's above and below average? 97 00:10:28,240 --> 00:10:31,240 How do we know what schools and teachers are winning? 98 00:10:31,240 --> 00:10:36,240 We just can't have this portfolio nonsense, they said. 99 00:10:36,240 --> 00:10:41,240 Second, the educational overlords got involved. 100 00:10:41,240 --> 00:10:45,240 Instead of letting teachers develop their own portfolios, 101 00:10:45,240 --> 00:10:52,240 school districts and state education departments decided they knew best. 102 00:10:52,240 --> 00:11:03,240 They designed portfolios for teachers, mandated that they be used, and dictated exactly how they were to be used. 103 00:11:03,240 --> 00:11:16,240 Imagine the amount of time and money that was wasted trying to identify a common set of traits for things and then describe levels of each trait. 104 00:11:16,240 --> 00:11:32,240 These resources would have been utilized far more effectively if they were instead used for quality teacher professional development related to reading, writing, and portfolio assessment. 105 00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:43,240 Now, any time more money is spent on assessment than is spent on instruction, something is seriously out of whack. 106 00:11:43,240 --> 00:11:48,240 And we need to get that something back in whack. 107 00:11:48,240 --> 00:11:58,240 Third, the educational overlords tried to standardize the process to make everything the same, the same, the same. 108 00:11:58,240 --> 00:12:06,240 Even though schools, teachers, and students are all uniquely and wonderfully different, 109 00:12:06,240 --> 00:12:15,240 a standard set of standards were mandated along with a standardized assessment process. 110 00:12:15,240 --> 00:12:22,240 It was thought that if all were standardized, then students and teachers could be compared. 111 00:12:22,240 --> 00:12:28,240 We could then identify the winners and losers and hold schools and teachers accountable. 112 00:12:28,240 --> 00:12:31,240 Oh, what a glorious world that would be. 113 00:12:31,240 --> 00:12:45,240 And fourth, the profiteers realized that they couldn't make money if schools weren't buying their tests and their very expensive reading programs. 114 00:12:45,240 --> 00:12:52,240 We began to see the manufactured educational crisis. 115 00:12:52,240 --> 00:12:59,240 Whole language, it was said, was the cause of everything wrong in American education. 116 00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:10,240 Skills-based practitioners who really didn't understand whole language and who had obviously never read a book or article about whole language 117 00:13:10,240 --> 00:13:17,240 began describing a cartoonish view of what somebody told them whole language was. 118 00:13:17,240 --> 00:13:30,240 They don't teach phonics, they teach children to guess at words, they use a whole word approach, they say, test scores are plummeting, they said. 119 00:13:30,240 --> 00:13:44,240 And even though they were wrong, wrong, wrong about all these things, they said them loud enough, long enough, with enough emotion and with enough paid lobbyists 120 00:13:44,240 --> 00:13:49,240 that some began to believe their nonsensical prowl. 121 00:13:49,240 --> 00:13:51,240 Parents became alarmed. 122 00:13:51,240 --> 00:13:58,240 Politicians demanded that something be done to prevent total economic chaos. 123 00:13:58,240 --> 00:14:05,240 Suddenly, whole language was said to be quote debunked, unquote. 124 00:14:05,240 --> 00:14:15,240 Portfolios were replaced by instruments that could generate profits for the educational-industrial complex. 125 00:14:15,240 --> 00:14:19,240 Now let's take a look at Checklist. 126 00:14:19,240 --> 00:14:24,240 In an earlier podcast, I described rubrics. 127 00:14:24,240 --> 00:14:32,240 Checklists are a healthy alternative to rubrics that are much easier to design and use. 128 00:14:32,240 --> 00:14:36,240 And three kinds of checklists will be described here. 129 00:14:36,240 --> 00:14:39,240 The first is a basic checklist. 130 00:14:39,240 --> 00:14:50,240 This lists the traits you're looking for with a place to indicate if the trade is or isn't, was or wasn't present. 131 00:14:50,240 --> 00:14:59,240 I've described in the past some examples of editing checklists for students to use when editing their own paper. 132 00:14:59,240 --> 00:15:06,240 These can be adopted and adapted to use with an assessment system as well. 133 00:15:06,240 --> 00:15:10,240 The second type of checklist is a rating checklist. 134 00:15:10,240 --> 00:15:20,240 This lists the traits you're looking for with some sort of system for identifying the degree to which each trait is present. 135 00:15:20,240 --> 00:15:25,240 You could use numbers or symbols, for instance, the key. 136 00:15:25,240 --> 00:15:30,240 If I wanted to use numbers, three would be the trait is present to a greater degree. 137 00:15:30,240 --> 00:15:32,240 Two, the trait is present. 138 00:15:32,240 --> 00:15:35,240 One, the trait is present to a lesser degree. 139 00:15:35,240 --> 00:15:39,240 And zero, the trait is not present. 140 00:15:39,240 --> 00:15:44,240 I prefer to use checkmarks, however, or to use symbols. 141 00:15:44,240 --> 00:15:52,240 A plus sign would say that trait is present to a greater degree, checkmark that trait is present, 142 00:15:52,240 --> 00:15:59,240 minus mark that trait is present to a lesser degree, and a number symbol if the trait is not present. 143 00:15:59,240 --> 00:16:03,240 However you decide to do this. 144 00:16:03,240 --> 00:16:13,240 If you're teaching the writing process, it makes sense that you would assess the writing process. 145 00:16:13,240 --> 00:16:22,240 I would create a ratings checklist that focused on the five steps of the writing process. 146 00:16:22,240 --> 00:16:27,240 The five steps would be listed on one side, 147 00:16:27,240 --> 00:16:35,240 and the other side would contain an open column for comments and observations. 148 00:16:35,240 --> 00:16:40,240 On the list on the left side, you'd mark the degree to which the editing trait is present. 149 00:16:40,240 --> 00:16:47,240 Then you'd use the comments section to describe the strengths and specific focus areas. 150 00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:54,240 The simplicity of the ratings checklist makes it much more likely to be used. 151 00:16:54,240 --> 00:17:01,240 The comments column provides the flexibility for it to be useful. 152 00:17:01,240 --> 00:17:08,240 Of course, if you wanted to take a closer look to get a sense of the particular elements related to one of the traits, 153 00:17:08,240 --> 00:17:13,240 you'd create a simple checklist for students to look at. 154 00:17:13,240 --> 00:17:19,240 For example, if I wanted to get a sense of the pre-writing strategies used by students, 155 00:17:19,240 --> 00:17:25,240 I'd simply list the strategies and during writing conferences, I'd check the strategy used 156 00:17:25,240 --> 00:17:28,240 and record any relevant observations. 157 00:17:28,240 --> 00:17:33,240 And the checklist would then go into the teacher portfolio. 158 00:17:33,240 --> 00:17:36,240 Keep it simple. 159 00:17:36,240 --> 00:17:45,240 You can create a checklist to enable students to document their own progress related to one or all five of the stages. 160 00:17:45,240 --> 00:17:49,240 This could be stapled inside their draft portfolio. 161 00:17:49,240 --> 00:17:54,240 Students would put a tally mark or a check mark each time a strategy was used. 162 00:17:54,240 --> 00:18:01,240 And you could create strategies, a checklist for drafting, revising, editing, sharing, and publishing. 163 00:18:01,240 --> 00:18:04,240 Limited only by your imagination here. 164 00:18:04,240 --> 00:18:09,240 Now, the open-ended checklist is a type of student self-report survey. 165 00:18:09,240 --> 00:18:12,240 It's sometimes called an open-ended checklist. 166 00:18:12,240 --> 00:18:17,240 Here you're asking students to reflect on their own writing and writing process. 167 00:18:17,240 --> 00:18:26,240 This often results in valuable data that would not be available with any other form of assessment. 168 00:18:26,240 --> 00:18:32,240 Self-reports like this could be collected every month, but no more than once a month, 169 00:18:32,240 --> 00:18:36,240 every two months or every quarter. 170 00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:40,240 Of course, I recommend collecting these before report cards. 171 00:18:40,240 --> 00:18:50,240 And for students in kindergarten and first grade, you would have students dictate their ideas to you or a teacher or a paraprofessional. 172 00:18:50,240 --> 00:19:01,240 Now, some ideas, some questions to give you ideas for you to create your own student self-report survey or open-ended checklist. 173 00:19:01,240 --> 00:19:11,240 But you need to actually think about what you'd like to know and design and include the questions that will get you the data you want. 174 00:19:11,240 --> 00:19:19,240 And know that the kinds of questions used here will most certainly evolve as your assessment system evolves and changes. 175 00:19:19,240 --> 00:19:21,240 Now, here are some of the types of questions. 176 00:19:21,240 --> 00:19:24,240 What kind of pre-writing strategies do you use? 177 00:19:24,240 --> 00:19:26,240 You simply ask students. 178 00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:31,240 In the writing process, what do you do well? What's something you struggle with? 179 00:19:31,240 --> 00:19:35,240 What skills have you mastered this quarter? What skills are you still working on? 180 00:19:35,240 --> 00:19:38,240 What kinds of writing do you like to do? 181 00:19:38,240 --> 00:19:41,240 What do you like to write about? What are your goals for this quarter? 182 00:19:41,240 --> 00:19:44,240 How can your teacher help you with your writing? 183 00:19:44,240 --> 00:19:47,240 What kind of writing project or topic will you be working on next? 184 00:19:47,240 --> 00:19:50,240 How do you like to share your writing? 185 00:19:50,240 --> 00:19:58,240 A survey like this by itself will tell you something, but remember, multiple forms of data. 186 00:19:58,240 --> 00:20:12,240 The anecdotal notes are the quick written descriptions of the observations you make as students are writing. 187 00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:16,240 These should be short and simple. 188 00:20:16,240 --> 00:20:25,240 Use small pieces of paper to write down and record anything you find interesting or important related to students as they're writing. 189 00:20:25,240 --> 00:20:32,240 Your anecdotal notes that are slipped into students' teacher portfolio in your desk. 190 00:20:32,240 --> 00:20:37,240 Some teachers are very purposeful in their observations. 191 00:20:37,240 --> 00:20:47,240 They observe two or three students during writing workshops and use a checklist to ensure that all students get observed on a regular basis. 192 00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:53,240 Others are less systematic simply writing anecdotal notes when they see something. 193 00:20:53,240 --> 00:20:59,240 Experiment. Use the approach that works best for you. 194 00:20:59,240 --> 00:21:05,240 When it comes time to compile data before report cards and conferences, 195 00:21:05,240 --> 00:21:11,240 the anecdotal notes along with all the other data collected 196 00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:18,240 provide a rich context to understand your students as writers. 197 00:21:18,240 --> 00:21:24,240 Compare this with the limited one-dimensional view you get of your students 198 00:21:24,240 --> 00:21:30,240 when you're using just writing tests or stinking rubrics. 199 00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:36,240 The last area I want to talk about is involving students. 200 00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:41,240 Remember I said up front, assessment should be something students do, 201 00:21:41,240 --> 00:21:45,240 not just something that's done to them. 202 00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:50,240 This means you need to involve them in the assessment process. 203 00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:54,240 Not all the time, but some of the time. 204 00:21:54,240 --> 00:22:02,240 Remember the ultimate goal for assessment is to enable students to assess their own work. 205 00:22:02,240 --> 00:22:11,240 Out in the real world, nobody's going to hand out a rubric before they write an article or report or a memo. 206 00:22:11,240 --> 00:22:18,240 Five ideas you might use to begin to involve students in the assessment process. 207 00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:25,240 First, work with students to decide which pieces are displayed or best show their growth 208 00:22:25,240 --> 00:22:29,240 and should go into their showcase portfolio. 209 00:22:29,240 --> 00:22:35,240 Two, work with students to design checklists to examine their writing. 210 00:22:35,240 --> 00:22:38,240 Boys and girls, what do you think should be included on this checklist? 211 00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:41,240 What do you want included? 212 00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:46,240 Three, teach students to give good feedback to others. 213 00:22:46,240 --> 00:22:54,240 Four, get students reflecting on their own work using a self-report survey or even a checklist. 214 00:22:54,240 --> 00:23:01,240 Five, get students using checklists to edit and assess their own writing. 215 00:23:01,240 --> 00:23:08,240 As mentioned before, you always want to keep your assessment system as simple as possible. 216 00:23:08,240 --> 00:23:11,240 More complex doesn't mean better. 217 00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:16,240 Simple systems are more likely to be used and maintained. 218 00:23:16,240 --> 00:23:25,240 Complex systems are more likely to be ignored and replaced as soon as the next shiny new thing comes along. 219 00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:35,240 And the last word, without the ability to teach writing well, all the assessment in the world is not going to help. 220 00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:40,240 Put another way, you can't assess your way to good writing. 221 00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:45,240 This has been the Reading Instruction Show. I'm your host, Dr. Andy Johnson.