Visible Learning: What Affects Student Learning the Most?

Visible Learning: What Affects Student Learning the Most? Stephen M. Ventura Advanced Collaborative Solutions steve@steveventura.com www.steveventura.com 805.975.3853 ACS EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT WWW.STEVEVENTURA.COM 1

Welome- Many teachers and leaders understand that it is the degree of implementation that matters most, not the number of programs. Why then, do so many schools and districts implement a large number of superficial programs and fads? Why is it necessary to perpetuate the politics of distraction? This session is not about another initiative to layer on top of other programs and priorities. Rather, it will provide participants with the clarity needed to cut through the noise of conflicting demands and mandates, and focus on the practices that have the highest effect on student learning. Based on the groundbreaking research of Professor John Hattie, Steve will demonstrate how to understand what does - and doesn t - make a significant difference to student learning. High impact strategies include feedback, metacognition, and teacher-student relationships that will support your STEM instruction. Learning Intentions Understand the key Visible Learning messages Be able to make links between these messages and what happens in your school. Create a science Authentic Performance Assessment Thank you for being here. I am sure you will find our time together both meaningful and relevant. All the best- Steve Ventura ACS EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT WWW.STEVEVENTURA.COM 2

Student-Centered Teaching This research indicated that students taught with a student-centered approach had statistically significant higher mathematics achievement than did students who were taught using a teacher-centered approach. Results also indicated little or no relationship between the extent of student-centered instruction and mathematical achievement. Also, there was no statistically significant difference in mathematical achievement between elementary students and secondary students who were taught using a studentcentered approach. One common characteristic Content subject to copyright. Use with permission only. What works best? among student-centered classrooms was the ability for students to have input into the topics studied as well as the rules and consequences regarding behavior. Worked Examples Worked examples show students what a successful outcome looks like. They provide the student with the problem and the steps to solve the problem. Another form of worked examples can be exemplars where an annotated piece of work provides students with an example and explanations of relevant features of the work. In this way, students are able to build their skills by taking their own work and self-assessing against an exemplar. If you have internet access you might like to look at Khan Academy worked examples. Choose an example that would be most relevant to the group you are working with. ACS EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT WWW.STEVEVENTURA.COM 3

Metacognitive Strategies Metacognition is thinking about thinking. It includes higher-order thinking and involves active control over cognitive processes. Teacher s Toolbox Strategy #1 3-2-1 Summary What are three ideas that have captured your attention from today's class? What are two questions that you are still thinking about related to these topics? What is one thing that you will remember long after this class is over? Teacher s Toolbox Strategy #2 Four Key Questions What are you trying to achieve? What strategies are you using? How well are the strategies working?! What else could you do? Teacher s Toolbox Strategy #3 Learning Journals / Diaries This week, I was learning: Next week, I am going to focus on: I would like help with: This is what I still do not know: My self-assessment of how well I learnt this week is: Teacher s Toolbox Strategy #4 Planning Think Sheet for Writing WHO: Who is my audience? WHY: Why am I writing this? WHAT: What is the purpose for this? HOW: How can I organize my ideas? ACS EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT WWW.STEVEVENTURA.COM 4

Teacher s Toolbox Strategy #5 Group Work Evaluation Give an example of something the others in the group have learned from you. Give a suggestion of a change the group could make that would improve everyone s learning Teacher s Toolbox Strategy #6 Reflective Questions What is the most useful or interesting thing you learned during this lesson? What questions do you have about today s lessons that you would like answered before we move on? What feedback did you get about your learning today? Involved students know what is expected of them and receive four key elements to encourage more production. When students expectations are demystified, teachers can expect more engagement. A by-product of increased levels of engagement is increased assignment completion: Accuracy: When students submit work, they ought to receive the same feedback regardless of who the teacher is. Fairness: Differences in feedback should only reflect in the quality of work, not differences in behavior, work ethic, or maturity. Timely: Students should receive feedback in such a timely manner that they can use that feedback to improve their performance...right away. Understandable: Teacher feedback systems should be so clear, that students should be able to tell the teacher what grade they have earned, even before the teacher calculates it. ACS EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT WWW.STEVEVENTURA.COM 5

Feedback When students receive effective feedback about their learning, their speed of learning doubles. Effective teachers regularly discuss this with their students: This is where you want to be, this is where you are and this is what you can do to close the gap. The purpose of effective feedback is to close the instructional gap. Although we know that feedback is important, there is a lot of information published about what effective feedback looks like. Hattie and colleagues have developed a framework for effective feedback that can guide teachers. ACS EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT WWW.STEVEVENTURA.COM 6

The Feedback Imperative Research experiments have established that, while student learning can be advanced by feedback through comments, the giving of numerical scores or grades has a negative effect, in that students ignore comments when marks are also given. These results often surprise teachers, but those who have abandoned the giving of marks (for every assignment) discover that their experience confirms the findings: students do engage more productively in improving their work (Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall, & William, 2004, p.13). Students long for specific information about their learning. Feedback empowers students to react, while numbers and letters provide a final judgement. SE2R: An Overview Summarize: Provide a one or two sentence summary of what students have accomplished on an activity or project. Explain: Share detailed observations of what skills or concepts have been mastered based on the specific activity guidelines. Redirect: Indicate for students the lessons, presentations, or models that need to be reviewed in order to achieve understanding of concepts and mastery of skills. Resubmit: Encourage students to rework activities, after revisiting prior learning, and resubmit them for further feedback. ACS EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT WWW.STEVEVENTURA.COM 7

Using SE2R: Class Assignment To fully understand how SE2R, consider the following assignment and the feedback that a student might receive. Class Assignment Write a 400-450 word blog post, comparing a character from a novel you ve read to an actor s portrayal of that character in a movie. This can be any novel, as long as there is a movie adaptation. Write two examples of how the actor s portrayal makes the character in the movie appear similar to the character in the novel. Supply details that support your response. Write two examples of how the actor s portrayal makes the character in the movie appear different from the novel character. Supply details that support your response. Explain, in your opinion, why the actor is a good or bad choice to portray the character. Correctly use two vocabulary words from List 15 in your blog post. Highlight the words in the color of your choice so you readers can easily locate them. Summarize Once the student has submitted the assignment, the teacher provides a summary statement to the student about the completed work: You wrote a 400-word blog post comparing the character Katniss Everdeen from the novel The Hunger Games, to the character as portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence in the movie version. This one-sentence summary specifically defines what the student accomplished, anchoring the remaining feedback to this particular activity. Explain The problem with explaining a student s achievement on a task is that the explanation often leads to judgement rather than observation about any existing gaps between instruction and learning. The key to the explanation is to make observations, based solely on an assignment s specific guidelines. Writing clear assignment guidelines and supplying detailed instructions is a critical subtext, as the SE2R is always tied to these guidelines. ACS EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT WWW.STEVEVENTURA.COM 8

Assume the student writing about The Hunger Games identifies two similarities (item 2 in the assignment guidelines), properly uses two vocabulary words (item 4), shares an opinion about the choice of actors (item 5), but does not provide examples of differences in the novel character and the actor s portrayal (item 3 in the assignment guidelines). We know, based on the summary statement, that the blog post contains at least 400 words. One piece of the assignment is missing. So, for the Explain portions of this student s SE2R feedback, the teacher would write or say something like this: You clearly identified two similarities between Katniss from the novel and the actor who portrayed Katniss in the movie, and you properly use the words, savagery and eviscerate in your narrative. You ve also provided an opinion of why the actor is a good choice. I didn t notice any identified differences in your post, though. Did you see any? This was item 3 on the guidelines. Redirect and Resubmit Summarize: You wrote a 400-word blog post comparing the character Katniss Everdeen from the novel The Hunger Games, to the character as portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence in the movie version. Explain: You clearly identified two similarities between Katniss from the novel and the actor who portrayed Katniss in the movie, and you properly use the words, savagery and eviscerate in your narrative. You ve also provided an opinion of why the actor is a good choice. I didn t notice any identified differences in your post, though. Did you see any? This was item 3 on the guidelines. Redirect: Please return to the post and identify two differences between Katniss in the novel and Katniss as she is portrayed in the movie. Be sure to provide details that support these differences. Resubmit: When you finish, let me know that you ve made changes to the blog post. ACS EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT WWW.STEVEVENTURA.COM 9

How to Create an Authentic Performance Task Performance Assessment and Student Motivation-Real Life Learning A performance assessment is one which requires students to demonstrate that they have mastered specific skills or competencies by performing or producing something. Authentic Assessment Similar to performance assessment is the concept of authentic assessment. Meyer (1992) notes that performance and authentic assessments are not the same, and that a performance is authentic to the extent it is based on challenging and engaging tasks which resemble the context in which adults do their work. In practical terms, this means that an authentic task or assessment is one in which students are allowed adequate time to plan, to complete the work, to self-assess, to revise, and to consult with others. Meyer also contends that authentic assessments must be judged by the same kinds of criteria (standards) which are used to judge adult performance on similar tasks. Performance Assessment Defined A collection of several related performance tasks, distributed throughout a unit of study, that progressively develop and reveal student understanding of the unwrapped concepts, skills, and Big Ideas. ACS EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT WWW.STEVEVENTURA.COM 10

S.C.R.A.P. Process for Creating an Engaging Scenario SCRAP Situation: The context of the engaging scenario Challenge: The challenge or problem that the student encounters Roles: The careers and authentic jobs that the student assumes Audience: The person or group to whom the students present the results of the challenge Product or Performance: What is produced by the students upon completion of the assessment Step One-Create Task Development Using the SQUARED Planning Tool S Which standard(s) will this performance task address? Q U A R What are the Essential Questions and the corresponding Big Ideas this task will target? Which unwrapped concepts and skills will students demonstrate through this task? How will students apply the concepts and skills? What will they produce or perform? What resources will students need to complete the task? E D What evidence will I need to see to verify that all of my students have learned the concepts and skills? How can I differentiate the application to meet the learning needs of all? ACS EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT WWW.STEVEVENTURA.COM 11

Step Two-Design Tasks Self Check Form Design Considerations Task 1 Task 2 Task 3 Task 4 Tasks allow students to develop understanding Tasks address the Essential Questions Tasks provide evidence of student learning Tasks focus on unwrapped Priority Standards Tasks incorporate nonfiction writing Tasks include an external audience Tasks can be modified for learner differences Tasks are authentic ACS EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT WWW.STEVEVENTURA.COM 12

Step Three-Create Tasks Task Product or Performance: What will students do to demonstrate their understanding of the unwrapped Priority Standards? Webb s DOK 1 Create a Cornell Notes Research Booklet 1 Recall & Reproduction 2 Write a Research Article for a Journal 2 Skills & Concepts 3 Create a PowerPoint Presentation with Speaker s Notes 2-3 Strategic Thinking/ Reasoning 4 Give an Oral Presentation with PowerPoint 3-4 Extended Thinking ACS EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT WWW.STEVEVENTURA.COM 13

Step Four-Creating and Engaging Scenario Using SCRAP for Communications 101 Unit of Study Situation Your research has resulted in an article that will be published in Time magazine and a presentation at an international conference. Challenge Roles You must conduct your research, write an article, and prepare a presentation for an international conference based on your findings. College professor Audience Time magazine readers and conference attendees Product/ Performance Notes, journal article, PowerPoint presentation with notes, and presentation. Full Description: Engaging Scenario Narrative (Student Directions) You are a college professor at Syracuse University in the Environmental Science Department. You have been studying the impact of several environmental incidents over the past 25 years. As a result of your research, Time magazine wants to purchase an article on one of the environmental incidents you have been researching and publish it in the September issue. Additionally, you have been asked to present your findings at the international Conference on Biology, Environment, and Chemistry in December. ACS EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT WWW.STEVEVENTURA.COM 14

Other Examples Engaging Scenario Good news! Your parents have finally agreed to let you have that new cell phone. But here s the catch: You have to convince them that you ve done your homework and found the cell phone package with the greatest number of perks for the least amount of cash. To do this, you must analyze three cell phone packages to determine the one that best meets your parents requirements. Task 1 Product or Performance: What will students do to demonstrate their understanding of the unwrapped Priority Standards? Create a Venn diagram representing the features of three different cell phone packages. Webb s DOK 1 Recall & Reproduction 2 3 Create a comparison chart showing the cost of each phone, cost of each package, number and type of minutes included, and perks offered by each cell phone company. Write a summary essay comparing and contrasting the pros and cons of each of the three cell phone types. 2 Skills & Concepts 2-3 Strategic Thinking/ Reasoning 4 Write a persuasive letter to your parents stating your choice of cell phone package with data to support the reasons for your choice. 3 Extended Thinking ACS EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT WWW.STEVEVENTURA.COM 15

Think about the following questions and how you might answer them to shape your assessment practices: 1. What are new ideas, research, and insights that you have gained? 2. What will be your greatest challenges in implementing improved assessment strategies with Common Core alignment? 3. What will be your greatest rewards in implementing improved assessment practices? ACS EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT WWW.STEVEVENTURA.COM 16

Developing Performance Task 1 for Communication 101 Unit of Study: Create a Cornell Notes Research Booklet S Q Integrate information presented in different media or formats as well as in words to develop coherent understanding of a topic Essential Question: Why do you have to question the validity of what you read? Big Idea: Everything you read is not always true. U Information Topics or issue Facts Reasoned judgement based on research finding Speculation INTEGRATE (Information) DEVELOP UNDERSTANDING (topic or issue) DISTINGUISH (facts, reasoned judgement based on research findings, speculation) A Create a Cornell Notes research booklet Journals, books, internet access to research an environmental issus R Review Taking Cornell Notes Review proper format for citing sources and creating a bibliography for all possible sources: books, journals, Internet articles, video clips Anchor papers and products (samples of student work at each of the rubric performance levels) E D Students will meet proficient of higher level on Task 1 rubric. Students will respond to the Essential Question with their Big Idea in written or oral format. Special Education student supports: Identify the resources students should use and insert the headings for their research on the Cornell Notes form. Have instructional support staff read the articles to the students if necessary. ACS EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT WWW.STEVEVENTURA.COM 17

Notes ACS EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT WWW.STEVEVENTURA.COM 18