Cheryl Angel
Reading this book has been one of the most transformative things that I’ve done this school year. Some of the things that I learned:
1. Don’t plan what you are going to teach without consideration of the student.
2. Formative assessment is more than a pretest and post test.
3. It’s okay to do different assessments for different students.
4. Use artifacts from what students are already doing or creating. It doesn’t need to be
something new.
5. Identify a strength, instead of a weakness, and tie learning possibilities to the
strength.
6. Help students identify and set their own goals.
7. Use tools, such as a Google Doc or Research Inventory that help to track progress
throughout a project.
8. Use the tools to collect data, by identifying strengths and possibilities.
9. Conferring with students is an effective way to address the specific goals and needs
of specific students.
10. Use conferring to link strategies to specific goals.
I love when a professional book opens my eyes and helps me see things differently. I highly recommend, The Literacy Teacher’s Playbook by Jennifer Serravallo, to anyone who wants to learn more about formative assessment. She will also be at the Literacy Connection Workshop on Saturday, April 18. Check the Literacy Connection website for additional information
Cheryl Angel
Chapter 4 in The Literacy Teacher’s Playbook by Jennifer Serravallo is about creating an action plan. She reminds us to set SMART Goals.
S- Specific
M-Measurable
A-Attainable
R-Realistic
T- Timely
Once again, I am trying to apply what I’ve leaned to the Media Center. This chapter talks about the benefits of conferring. I do not think that conferring is a common practice in the libraries. But I am going to give it a try. During library time when grade 4 groups are working on their research and designing media to share it, I will meet with each group. The purpose will be to learn about the students, establish and follow-up on goals, hold them accountable and offer guided practice with current work.
Cheryl Angel
Chapter 3 in The Literacy Teacher’s Playbook by Jennifer Serravallo is about interpreting data and establishing goals. After looking at sample of everyday work to find strengths and opportunities for growth the next step is to define the goals.
Goal setting is important. I was excited to see a quote by Daniel Pink.
goals affect accomplishment – when we have a clear sense of what we want to accomplish, how we will attempt to accomplish it, and our deadline for accomplishing it, we are more likely to be motivated to succeed. Talking to the students about the goal and providing feedback will help them progress.
The more a person takes ownership of her own goals, the more likely it is that the goal will be accomplished. (Pink , 2011)
I am trying to figure out how this will look for the project that I am working on in the Media Center. My thinking is that after I have collected and analyzed data and determined possibilities for growth, I can meet with individuals or groups to have a Goal setting conference. Serrvallo says these aren’t long drawn out meeting, but more of a touch base short meeting.
Explain to students that together you are going to set goals. I’ve revised some of Serravallo’s goal setting questions that she uses when conferring to fit my circumstance. (p. 106)
. What are some things you notice about your work?
. What is going well?
. What isn’t going well?
. What do you think would be a good goal?
. Some things I’ve noticed are…
She said it is extremely important to write the goal down.
Cheryl Angel
Chapter 2 in The Literacy Teacher’s Playbook by Jennifer Serravallo is about analyzing the data and it was as insightful as Chapter 1. She suggests that in order to promote students you should begin by focusing on strengths not weaknesses. She said, “teaching possibilities comes from noticing something that is already a strength for the student.” This seems obvious and simple, but I am not sure how often it is practiced. Often times we are quick to point out what the student is doing wrong, instead of building on what they are already doing well.
As I mentioned in a previous post I am collaborating with a Grade 4 teacher as students work in groups on the project. They are using a Google Document shared with me and the members of the group. With access to the shared document, I will be able to easily collect data throughout the research process. This has become a wonderful tool to use. I will look at the Google doc to see if the information is relevant, accurate, and complete. I will look at the document to find strength and plan ways that I can help them. When students come into the library, I will be prepared to conference with individual groups.
I will also include a Research Inventory. I liked how Serravallo considered engagement to document interest in reading and writing and I plan to include it in my Research Inventory tool. The plan is to document my observation when I see the groups working in the library.
I also like how Serravallo uses a table to collect and analyze data. I used her thinking to create the following table to better fit my purpose.
Tool Strengths Possibilities for Growth
Research Inventory from my observations
Engagement
Collaboration
Google Doc (Research)
Relevent
Accuate
Complete
Cheryl Angel
Chapter 1 in Seravallo’s book is about Collecting Data. Even though the intended audience is classroom teachers, there are many practical ideas that I took away after reading it.
One of the most helpful suggestions is to look for artifacts from things that already exist. She said, teachers are likely able to find “data” from what students are already doing, such as reading logs, sticky notes from books, and writing samples. In my first attempt at implementing formative assessment, I was creating additional work, such as a survey, when all along I could have been looking at what students were already doing or creating to guide my instruction.
She also suggested that teachers view the artifacts through lenses to help them search for data. For example, the lenses for reading may include: 1) reading engagement, 2) reading fluency, 3) print work /decoding, 4) reading comprehension, and 5) conversation.
There are also lenses for writing which may include “Assessing Writing Engagement” and Assessing Qualities of Good Writing.” To collect data about writing engagement a teacher may look at how much students write, motivation to write and use of the writing process. Data for Qualities of Good Writing may include meaning, structure, organization, elaboration and conventions. For example, a lot of scaffolded learning must take place in order for students to conduct research and present their findings.
Seravallo’s description clarified and simplified the data collection process. My challenge is to apply this thinking to the media center. I decided to collect data from a collaborative project that I am working on with an amazing fourth grade teacher, Geri Keeley. Students are working in groups to create and research a question about Ohio History. They are using a shared Google (GAFE) document to collaborate. The finished project will include a question, an answer and multimedia (video, audio, pictures) that will be posted to our Ohio-opolis website.
Although this is technically a Social Studies project, I decided to incorporate and collect data related Common Core Language Arts standards because they lend themselves to the Media Center standards. In the past I would have looked at the standard and created a lesson to teach it. Now I will look at projects students are working on determine what they need to achieve the standard.
A few of the Common Core Language Arts Standards that we will cover are listed below:
Speaking and Listening
Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas
SL.4.4
Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or theme; speak clearly at an understandable pace.
SL.4.5
Add audio recordings and visual displays to presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes.
Writing
Research to Build and Present Knowledge
W.4.7
Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.
W.4.8
Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital sources; take notes and categorize information, and provide a list of sources.
rethinking media centers 