Modules 7, 8 and 9 are linked to one another and thus should be considered as one huge "mega-unit".
The three center on a journal article by Chappuis in which she poses three fundamental questions to guide teachers and their students while coping with what is taught in the classroom.
Not only are Modules 7, 8 and 9 related conceptually as above but they come together for another important reason as well: The three become the backdrop for a wide-ranging team project, the creation of a dramatic play script in three acts (three modules) that puts ED 235 students' understanding of Chappuis to the test.
A word to the wise: Preview and examine Modules 7, 8 and 9 now. Check each and strive to see how it fits with the other two. What is the “big picture”? How does it all end in Module 9?
That accomplished, the student is ready to get to specifics, to address Module 7.
Good luck!
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Nurses, attorneys, jockeys...teachers, too: all true professionals strive to arrive at and agree upon effective day-to-day procedures and strategies in their respective fields. All true professionals respond to a pressing need to know and do what works and to stay abreast of colleagues on the "cutting edge."
Tentative and subject to argument, best practices ideally spring from research and clinical practice.
In pursuit of "best practices", it is not practical to study all aspects of this highly complex enterprise called teaching in a single course. Too much.
Instead, in ED 235 we have and will continue to "pick our spots", to develop a relatively small set of "best practices". Formative assessment, designed to foster student self-regulation and metacognitive growth, is showcased in this module and the next.
"Competent learners engage...in a great deal of self-management of their cognitive processes, that is, in forms of cognition known as metacognitive or self-monitoring."
"Incremental thinkers are likely to apply self-regulatory, metacognitive skills when they encounter task difficulties, to focus on analyzing the task and trying to generate and execute alternative strategies."
--Resnick and Hall, “Learning Organizations for Sustainable
Educational Reform”, Daedulus 1998
Gee whiz... who is this hooded guy?
You did note, didn't you, that he pushes formative assessment (AKA "assessment for learning") to the forefront? However, you should realize also that when he talks of video assessment of teachers he has strayed away from the topic of formative evaluation.
The name of the game these days is Formative Assessment... and a good place to start is Chappuis -- immediately below.
1. Locate, print, read, bring to class and store in notebook...
(Academic OneFile) "Helping Students Understand Assessment", Chappuis, Educational Leadership, November 2005
* Do you have any idea what an "effect size" is conceptually? If not, that's OK, but go to Wikipedia and teach yourself.
I will add that effect sizes in the range 0.4 to 0.7, as reported by Black and Wiliam, are huge (almost gigantic) in educational research!
Black and Wiliam's review of the educational research suggests that those few teachers who know what formative assessment is and have figured out ways to implement powerful feedback practices into their daily classroom routines (there aren't enough who do!) produce dramatically higher student achievement gains relative to "control" groups of teachers (the majority) who lack knowledge of formative assessment and thus fail to unleash its power in their classrooms.
Well, future teachers of America, shouldn't you know all you can about this mysterious, highly productive and practical assessment practice?
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2. Team Project: This is the start of the script-writing activity alluded to already, an activity that transcends Module 7, extending to #8 and # 9.
For Module 7:
Formulate a new example for Chappuis Strategy 1 and then construct another for Strategy 2.
These new examples are to be expressed in the form of made-up or canned play scripts. Each script becomes a scene in a play. Your new example for Strategy 1 becomes Scene 1. Strategy 2 is Scene 2. Scenes (Strategies) 1 and 2 represent Act 1 of your play entitled, “Where Am I Going?”
Every example or scene should include extensive teacher and/or student canned dialogue ("canned" means you make it up...fictional). By dialogue, I've got in mind what I've provided in the Addendum located at the end of the module.
Dialogue...why it'll be like writing the script for a play. Good literary training for an upcoming teacher, I say.
Your script (dialogue) can be teacher-to-teacher, teacher-to-student, student-to-teacher, student(s)-to-student(s), or even the student thinking to himself or herself.
Your fertile mind has no boundaries.
*Wait, there’s more to this strange and complex team project. Since you are essentially creating scripts and scenes for your Chappuis-based dramatic “play”, you will have to publish a cast of characters who appear and reappear in your play ( covering Modules7, 8, and 9) and a description of the setting for each scene.
How do you do all the above? I’m sure your team will devise a suitable way. There certainly are many ways to do the job adequately.
Length? Build each script (scene) so that it is at minimum 500 words in length.
Chappuis' Strategy 1 encompasses almost 200 words in her article. That means your illustration of Strategy 1 is to be more than twice as long...or 500 words (script) as above.
Got that? 500 words or bust!
And it's the same for Strategy 2: 500...and not a word short, ok?
It's best to count in each case, to be sure!
Having a sense of the project's scope, it's now time for your team to get started.
Oh, two often-heard reminders in ED 235:
Other teams wait in the wings, ready to evaluate what you post on Blackboard and to interact with you and your team. What will they think of your scripts and scenes? What feedback will they send your way on Act 1?
If questions linger, raise them on the standing "Ask Dr. Z" forum. I'll be looking for them.
Why Formative Assessment? As educators we continually ask ourselves...
- How do we know our students are learning?
- How do we know they are thinking critically?
- How can we follow their patterns of thought?
But the more important questions are...
- How do they know they are learning?
- How do they know they are thinking critically?
- How do they reflect on their patterns of thought?
-Adapted from "Self-Grading for Formative Assessment...", Ulmer, Academic Exchange Quarterly, Spring 2001
Dollops!"Feedback about students' progress is one of the most generalizable strategies a teacher can use. In fact, feedback seems to work well in so many situations that after analyzing 8,000 studies, researcher John Hattie (1992) commented that 'the most powerful single modification that enhances achievement is feedback. The simple prescription for improving education must be dollops of feedback'."
- Chapter 8, p. 98 in What Works in Classroom Instruction, Marzano, Gaddy, and Dean, McRel online
Self-Assessment and Research
"Similar results have been found in mathematics. After teaching some teachers but not others to implement self-assessment in the 5th and 6th grade math classes, Ross, Hogaboam-Gray, and Rolheiser (2002) found that students in the treatment group outperformed students in the comparison group. Self-assessment has also been shown to be effective in social studies (Lewbel & Hibbard, 2001); science (White & Frederiksen, 1998); and even on external national examinations (MacDonald & Boud, 2003).
Self-assessment can be useful in any subject. If students produce it, they can assess it; and if they can assess it, they can improve it."
- Andrade, "Self-Assessment Through Rubrics", Educational Leadership, Jan. 2008
ADDENDUM
Sample Chappuis Script
- BB, MS, MW-B (students in ED 235 Spring 2008)
Strategy 1 (Scene 1)
Instructor: Today we begin our Creative Writing, Short Story unit! Here's your chance to get those creative juices flowing!
John: Can we write about anything we want?
Instructor: Absolutely! As long as it's appropriate and inoffensive.
John: How do we know if it is...that?
Instructor: You will have the opportunity to submit choices for review. They will not be denied without an explanation...is that understood? The aim of this unit is to enhance your creative writing skills, your public speaking skills, and artistic skills.
Madeline: Excuse me. How are we going to improve artistic and public speaking skills by writing short stories?
Instructor: That's a good question, Madeline. Well, once your stories have been written and revised and edited, you will take them into Ms. Schusser's art studio to work on illustration. Once they are completed, we will be taking a field trip to nearby school districts to share them with your peers. Mr. MacCormick from the Theatre Department has offered to come in to our class and advise us on techniques to use while reading our stories.
John: Wow! That's cool!
Instructor: Yes, it is cool. Now, if you'll take out your notebooks, I'd like to give you a breakdown of the steps we'll be taking during this project. If you record them in your notebook now, you can refer to them when you wish. This way you'll know just what to expect over the next few weeks...
(Students take out notebooks and writing utensils and prepare to record data.)
Instructor: OK. Is everyone ready?...The first thing we're going to do is read a few short stories together for enjoyment. Then we'll discuss what we liked or disliked. The next thing we'll do is brainstorm together and come up with the elements of a story including the mechanics as well as the content. By this I mean paragraph structure and grammar as well as theme, tone, and diction. Don't worry! We will not move on until each step is completely understood by all.
Dorothy: But I really don't understand theme and tone and diction.
Instructor: And you're not alone Dorothy. That's because we haven't covered that yet. Mind you, this is a brief outline of what's to come. We will go into much more detail as we move on.
Dorothy: All right.
Instructor: We'll brainstorm topics and then you'll choose what you'd like to write about. Once they're approved, we'll begin the writing process. Besides writing at home, we'll have several classes...
(NOTE: Quite a few "inches" of dialogue omitted here in interest of brevity.)