This week we continue to learn more about the formative assessment strategy: Learning Expectations and Success Criteria.

One of the key strategies in formative assessment is sharing learning expectations and success criteria. If we are to have engaged students it is critical that they know what is being learned and why it is important. It is also important to share the criteria for success with students so they know what it looks like when they have met the expectations. Learning expectations may be posted in your classroom, but more importantly they should be referred to throughout the lesson. Learning expectations are what the students are expected to learn NOT the tasks or activities they will participate in during the lesson.
 
Something to consider:
Do you have clear learning expectations for every lesson? How do you know if students learned what you expected them to learn? (comment below to share your ideas with others)

During December we’ll focus on the formative assessment strategy: sharing learning expectations and success criteria. Below are some reasons why it is important to share with students the learning expectations for every lesson.

• providing student-friendly learning expectations to students benefits all students but, in particular, low-performing students; it may help to close the achievement gap
• learning expectations set the stage for activating students as instructional resources for one another and owners of their own learning
• sharing learning expectations at the start of a lessons sets the stage for learning and creates a context for students to ensure connections with prior understandings
• revisiting and revising learning expectations at the end of a lesson may give the teacher and students more information to determine if and how to adjust future instruction to ensure that students meet intended learning goals
• it is essential that teachers infuse in their students a view that ability is incremental, rather than fixed... a growth mindset
• students must understand the criteria for success in their learning in order to fully benefit from feedback and to be active learners

Something to consider:
How do you share learning expectations and success criteria with students?


More information about formative assessment can be found in the professional development school on the OCSU Rubicon Atlas site.

​Thanks so much to all of the people who helped to make Learning Showcase 2016 a success - presenters, participants, LR kitchen and custodial staff, Wildbranch techs – we couldn’t make this happen without all of you doing your part. Feedback from the day was overwhelmingly positive and I wanted all of you to know that Jeff and I have spent time reviewing the exit surveys and the team time minutes. There were some great suggestions that will be helpful in planning the next showcase event as well as other professional learning opportunities.
 
Below are responses to some of the patterns we saw in the feedback.
 
Many of you expressed a desire to explore the topic of race and racism more deeply and to help plan for ways to bring those conversations to the entire OCSU community. There is a group called Identity and Education that is working on this; please contact Steven Tatum (statum@ocsu.org) from LR if you’re interested in learning more.
 
We also received feedback about the concerns around the opiate crisis and the impact it’s having on our community. There is a group that meets regularly on this topic (the next meeting is Monday, Dec. 5th at 4:00 at LR); please contact Jeannette Birch (jbirch@ocsu.org) for more information.
 
A number of you expressed a desire to work with colleagues across OCSU on common initiatives (personal learning plans, digital portfolios, student-led conferences). We are definitely open to suggestions about how/when that could happen. Please send me an email with your suggestions or contact a member of the OCSU Professional Learning Plan team (members are listed below).
 
There were some great suggestions for future in-service days that we’ll definitely keep in mind:

• I wish that if there was a big idea, we could do a work session for an hour afterward with that local expert to actually start thinking about and implementing next steps.
• One morning presentation followed by work time; one afternoon presentation followed by work time.
• More descriptive titles would be helpful - for example the grade level it is geared toward.

Many of you expressed a desire to learn more about specific topics, and we’ll be designing ways for that to happen:

• total participation techniques – watch for another class coming in January or February
• academic conversations
• interactive notebooks
• social emotional learning
• formative assessment

Feedback from the tech sessions also indicated that many of you would like training on the following topics below, and we will be exploring ways to make that training happen.

• Google classroom
• Zearn
• Google Drive

 
Thanks to all of you who provided feedback. If you have specific questions/suggestions that weren’t addressed above or that you’d like more information about, please contact me, Jeff, or any of the members of the OCSU Professional Learning Plan team (Larry Fliegelman, Renee Piernot, Paul Simmons, Katrina McCullough, Kyle Chadburn, Sally Rivard, Carol Woodard). These people can all be reached via their OCSU email