Assessment, Evaluation, and Reporting

Digital Portfolio: AER Strategy Form

Name: Zack Fryer
GROWING SUCCESS POLICIES	My Professional Learning Goals 1 goal for each policy	Strategies For Meeting My Goals 1 strategy for each goal	Annotated Resources 2 sources for each policy
POLICY Fundamental Principles Practices are: fair, transparent, equitable Support all students Relate to curriculum Ongoing and varied Provide ongoing feedback Develop self-assessment	Ensure that my assessment has a high degree of  equity, support, and transparency towards students of all needs.	When delivering lessons, ensure I communicate transparently to students through use of success criteria, and make myself readily available for feedback	I will ask my associate teacher for strategies she has found helpful in the past for assessment procedure communication with students. This edugains document will provide me with an overview of the basic framework I can use to determine how to structure my thinking towards effective assessment
POLICY Learning Skills & Work Habits Responsibility Organization Independent Work Collaboration Initiative Self-Regulation	Determine, in areas where required (ie. math process expectations), how I can effectively integrate and balance the assessment of learning skills with curriculum achievement	Determine associated behaviors of each learning skill in order to implement them within backwards design of lessons for teaching curriculum.	Growing Success provides a table of sample behaviours for each learning skill, providing me with references to keep in mind when shaping lessons (pg. 11). This article from the ASCD provides a good look into how the acquisition of leaning skills could be integrated into curriculum through the use of a "meta" or "hidden" curriculum that builds skills through intentional structuring of lesson activities
POLICY Performance Standards: The Achievement Chart Framework of Curriculum Guide assessment development Assist instruction planning Basis of meaningful feedback Established assessment criteria and categories KTCA  Level 1-4 Achievement	Emphasize a balance of "KTCA" categories to ensure students can be successful outside the classroom with the critical thinking and practical skills necessary to real life	Provide opportunities for students to follow an inquiry based learning model and gradual release of responsibility to build independence of learning	PLB provides an overview of introducing inquiry based learning to the classroom, and a structure of how I can provide the proper amount of inquiry that scales with student experience, to keep students engaged. My associate teacher can provide me with techniques that can be used to assess the readiness of a class for inquiry based learning and determine the appropriate level of inquiry that is required accordingly.
POLICY Assessment FOR Learning & AS Learning Integrate assessment with instruction Sharing learning goals and success criteria Gather information before, during and after instruction Assessment informs instruction	Be constantly aware of how my class is progressing towards end unit learning goals and effectively adjust lessons to compensate/support different learning rates	Utilize KWL charts at the beginning for diagnostic assessment, and the middle of each unit while providing at least one opportunity every day for students to show growth through formative and self (As learning) assessment	The ministry has provided a document that outlines the tools for student self assessment, and strategies to ensure students assess accurately, focus on concrete progress, and how I can provide proper feedback.  This chart from pinterest will assist me providing a basic structure of helping students understand the questions they can use to accurately assess themselves and others while not discouraging struggling students
POLICY Evaluation Professional judgement and interpretation of evidence Evaluation is the responsibility of the teacher only Evidence collected over time Rich performance tasks	Know how I can effectively evaluate a subjective student work, specifically the conversation and observation components of COP	Establish key ideas or concepts to look for during conversation or observation (success criteria), while leaving room for the subjective component (student rationale or thinking process) to add levels of understanding	This article discussing conversation and observation will provide me with some examples of student work that fall under these categories and some sample approaches of how to assess these works that will inform and shape my own practices. This chart from pinterest can help me and my students structure their conversations in ways that will ensure the success criteria are being discussed and brought up during conversation and help me know how to give students conversational freedom while keeping them focused on proper topics.
POLICY Reporting Student Achievement Progress report card used in fall for development Provincial report card used twice to report student curriculum achievement Comments to provide anecdotal assessment Continuous communication	Become effective at providing anecdotal, constructive feedback that can justify grades and provide something tangible for students and parents to work towards for growth	Review sample report card comments, and assist associate teacher with report card writing to determine key components of effective feedback	My associate teacher, when writing report card comments, can show me her thought process of how she keeps her students motivated while providing effective feedback, particularly if grades are under level 3 Scholastic has provided an online reference that details some of the information teachers can include to make sure students get the next steps they need while providing positive aspects (in more areas than just grades) to maintain student growth mindset
POLICY Students With Special Education Needs Modification requires IEP Accommodations to support needs	Learn how to efficiently identify students who may have exceptionalities and implement strategies quickly to minimize time left unsupported	Research indicators of various disabilities to inform my practice by giving me an idea of behaviours or actions to look for early on	This ministry document provides some of the strategies to recognize and identify learning disabilities in students and lesson planning strategies to accommodate them The Peel District School Board has provided this document to assist with the categorization of exceptionalities and provides suggestions on how various types of exceptionalities can be supported effectively
POLICY English Language Learners Modifications can address language and/or special education needs	Be aware of various tools and materials that can be provided to assist ELL students in overcoming language barriers while still allowing them to participate in similar tasks (unless modification required)	Search online for strategies and tools that can be made available within my class to minimize the impact of language on my students success	This blog post lists out a few strategies that can be used in a regular classroom to support ELL students, particularity making as many lessons visual as possible, it also provides insight to the process of integration into a new country that an ELL student  may be experiencing and how to support it With an ELL student in my practicum class, I will be asking my associate teacher how she ensures that her ELL student is comprehending material and how she differentiates lessons to accommodate potential language issues
POLICY The Kindergarten Program Focus on FOR and AS learning Play based learning	Learn the structure of kindergarten communication of learning reports that are based on observation (no grades)	Review templates and determine similarities to observation based reporting on elementary report cards	The ministry has provided a webpage that outlines how parents can interpret the learning reports, I can use this to inform me of the kinds of comments parents will be looking for, and subsequently what components of progress I need to be reporting on The HWCDSB offers a teacher resource that outlines writing prompts and report content expectations to help me get started, and discuss appropriate content structure in my reports.

Blog Post 1:

What I Want to Know About Assessment and Reporting

            Currently, I have very little experience in the planning and execution of appropriate assessment techniques.  One of the biggest things I want to know through this course is how to effectively determine which assessment tools will work the best for the learning goals I intend to give to my students.  As math will be one of the main subjects I am teaching in my first practicum, I would like to learn how I can diversify my assessment methods beyond tests/quizzes (the most obvious form of assessment), as math to me seems like a very concrete subject.  I am also looking forward to learning in greater detail how the policies of Growing Success will integrate into the curriculum expectations I will teach.  Finally, I also hope to learn the best ways that I can engage students in their own assessment through the use of self-assessment and routine feedback/updates.


Blog Post 2:

          After 5 weeks of learning about and improving my assessment literacy, I have collected a number of tools that I can use to improve my own assessment practices for myself and my students.  Some of the most useful ones that I have curated include the achievement chart, and the structure of the for/as/of learning and assessment models.  In addition, the shift away from grade averaging proved to be very insightful for me in the future to assist me in my teaching block and practice.  Beforehand, I had not considered how much of an effect one outlying poor mark could have on a students overall performance.  The shift towards using a students most recent, and most consistent achievements when determining grades allows for a more accurate assessment of a students abilities and makes it easier for teachers to track academic progress with summative assessment.

          All of these practices are important in student assessment because in my opinion they provide more opportunity for teachers to incorporate instances of inquiry based learning into the curriculum that keeps students engaged.  The achievement chart categories allow students to see that school is not all based on knowledge.  Application can help students create meaning in their learning by connecting it to real life scenarios and see the value of their lessons, subsequently increasing the level of student engagement and the effectiveness of my lessons.  Thinking and communication helps students develop the critical thinking skills necessary to explore and analyze the world around them, and again increases student engagement through acknowledgement of the "big ideas".  For/as/of learning fulfils similar roles in that it allows teachers to develop more effective lessons that prepare students for summative assessments.  "For" learning refers to assessment that assists the teacher in determining the current understanding of students and making adjusts to upcoming lessons to tailor to the evolving needs of the class and scaffold more effectively.  "As" learning involves students in their own assessment by having them assess themselves or each other as a way of helping both the teacher and them understand where areas of improvement could be found in their work.  "Of" learning involves the assessment of learning over the course of a unit or topic, helping the teacher determine how much the student has learned form this topic.  Ideally, the "For" and "As" assessment done earlier has provided a critical glimpse into student progress along the way and allowed the teacher to set all students up for success when it comes time for these summative assessments.



Reflection Prompts:

1.  Think about how you will use the Assessment page of your Digital Portfolio during your first teaching block. Provide 2 examples, writing 1 paragraph for each.

          In the class for my first teaching block, there is a student who is currently identified an ESL student.  Thus far my associate teacher has been able to create a system where the student can use an app on her phone to translate text on paper from English to her first language, and is allowed to complete assignments in a more visual way if oral or written communication is an issue.  While this has been helpful with overcoming initial language barriers, there are currently no other supports in place to facilitate her learning through other mediums.  I plan to use the ELL section of my AER form to help guide me towards creating appropriate supports for this student so she can learn effectively regardless of the lesson format or assessment practice being used.

          In my class there is also a student with an IEP requiring modifications to her math curriculum.  She is a grade 7 student who is currently at a grade 2 level in math.  My AER form will assist me in providing appropriate assessment methods for her modified curriculum.  Currently, after the rest of the class has begun their regular, independent math homework, my associate teacher goes to the back of the class to work through a separate lesson with her.  Using my AER form I hope to be able to more effectively support her when attempting to integrate her with the regular classroom activities.

2. Choose one professional learning goal from your AER Strategy Form that you will explore in Block 1. Develop “I can” statements to identify how you will know you’ve reached your goal.

          The goal I have chosen to explore in my teaching block is "Become effective at providing anecdotal, constructive feedback that can justify grades and provide something tangible for students and parents to work towards for growth".

Some success criteria that I can follow to check whether I have achieved this goal could be:

• I can observe students effectively implementing my feedback and consequently improving in their learning
• I can give constructive feedback without students immediately becoming confused over how they can implement it
• I can successfully use my feedback to justify evaluations to students and parents if confronted
• I can utilize an assessment and feedback system (ie. 2 stars and wish) with little difficulty