Grant Wiggins: Defining Assessment Grant Wiggins is a nationally recognized assessment expert who has been working in assessment reform for more than twenty-five years. He is president of the educational consulting firm Authentic Education, and with Jay McTighe, co-author of Understanding by Design, an award-winning framework for curriculum design used around the world. In this interview, Wiggins shares his thoughts on performance assessments, standardized tests, and more. Wiggins has published several articles for Edutopia.org. 1. Our line of argument is that testing is a small part of assessment. What can the test do that more complex, performance-based, project-based things can't do? For instance, in some state-based, performance-based assessment, they always had a parallel paper-and-pencil test for the individual student so that you had enough data on the individual. Back to Top 2. Authentic assessment, to me, is not meant to be the charged phrase, or jargony phrase that it has come to be for a lot of people. 3. 4.
Ohio English Language Arts The State Board of Education adopted Ohio's New Learning Standards in English Language Arts as a guide to teaching and learning in the classroom. The Kindergarten – Grade 12 standards will be fully in use in Ohio classrooms in the 2014-2015 school year. Introduction to Ohio's New Learning Standards for ELA, Model Curriculum, and Assessment Ohio's New Learning Standards Addtional Resources for Diverse Learners Model Curricula Ohio teachers worked in teams in 2010 to suggest instructional strategies and resources that align with the Ohio's New Learning Standards in English Language Arts. In October 2013, Career Connections strategies were added to the Instructional Strategies in the model curricula. Problems, Ideas and Evaluation
Common Core Big Idea Series 1: A New Blueprint Editor's note: This is the first post in a five-part series which takes a look at five big ideas for implementation of the Common Core State Standards, authored by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins In our travels around the country since the Common Core Standards were released, we sometimes hear comments such as, “Oh, here we go again;” “Same old wine in a new bottle;” or “We already do all of this.” Such reactions are not surprising given the fact that we have been here before. A related misconception in working with the Common Core is evident when teachers turn immediately to the grade-level standards listed for their grade or course to plan their teaching. To invoke a construction analogy: Think of the grade-level standards as building materials. It is imperative that educators understand the intent and structure of the Standards in order to work with them most effectively. We cannot overemphasize the value of taking the time to collaboratively examine the Standards in this way.
www.grantwiggins.org/documents/UbDQuikvue1005.pdf Frayer Model The Frayer Model is a vocabulary development tool. In contrast with a straight definition, the model helps to develop a better understanding of complex concepts by having students identify not just what something is, but what something is not. The center of the diagram shows the concept being defined, while the quadrants around the concept are used for providing the details. Words that work well with the Frayer Model include quadrilaterals, insects and democracies. What Teachers Need to Know about Authentic Learning Authentic learning is learning in the "real world". It focuses on authentic deeds and students get to solve complex problems and find their solutions using a variety of activities like: role-playing, case studies, and collaborative peer learning. Authentic learning is idiosyncratic in its nature in that the setting where it takes place is multidisciplinary. In other words, the learning environment can be accommodated to foster different learning events. Now with the widespread of web technologies, more and more environments for authentic learning have been created. Think of the virtual learning communities or what James Paul Gee called affinity spaces. 1-Real-world relevance: Authentic activities match the real-world tasks of professionals in practice as nearly as possible. 3- Sustained investigation: Problems cannot be solved in a matter of minutes or even hours. 4-Multiple sources and perspectives: Learners are not given a list of resources.
Coaching: The New Leadership Skill:The Year We Learned to Collaborate October 2011 | Volume 69 | Number 2 Coaching: The New Leadership Skill Pages 54-58 Every school has watershed moments that mark a distinction between past and present practices. For Colegio Inglés, a private, bilingual preK–9 school outside Monterrey, Mexico, 2008–09 became a watershed school year. That year, teachers and administrators embarked on a collaborative professional development initiative precipitated by a collision of challenges. A Cordial Community Steps Up Our first challenge surfaced in spring 2008. Second, we realized that many of our teachers would soon need help preparing to implement a new math program. As Colegio Inglés administrators, we knew teachers would need more than a one-day workshop to successfully adopt and sustain the student-centered focus this curriculum required. Our professional reading led us to a professional development model produced by the Boston Plan for Excellence (Platt, Tripp, Fraser, Warnock, & Curtis, 2008). Snapshot of Collaborative Coaching
Tools for the Common Core Standards | News about tools that are being developed to support implementation of the Common Core State Standards Summer Planning for Successful PBL Photo credit: iStockPhoto It is often said that leading and teaching in project-based learning schools are like building an airplane while flying it. During the summer, we land the plane and we have a chance to just build. In the spirit of summer, this post is brief and concrete so we have more time for the beach and planning! Here are three ways you can plan for student success this summer: 1. This is the perfect time to design or review the design of the projects you and/or your team will facilitate this year. 2. Watch this short video by Jeff Robin from High Tech High in San Diego. 3. Set your goals. As I write this, we are officially halfway through summer vacation -- maybe more than half for many schools; it is not too late to plan! see more see less
Cure for the Common Core: Transitions - Amherst, NY So what’s your plan? What are you doing to start your Common Core transition? This is a followup to my previous Blog Post called Common CoreZilla: Shrink The Change In my work with districts on Common Core integration and implementation, many want to know what they can do right now. The main message is still the same as the last blog post: First step? You cannot expect your transition plan to be that tomorrow you will be on board with all of the coming changes. Those pieces include the following, which I think are imperative to bringing everyone on board in a manageable way: Establishing Collaborative CulturesCrosswalks/Comparisons - Examination and analysis of the Core StandardsCurriculum Transformations Establish Collaborative Cultures If your schools/districts are made up primarily of those with an “island mentality,” then they need to join the continent. Crosswalks / Comparisons There has been some debate among my colleagues about the value of the standards comparison. Shrink the change.
APS Assessment | PARCC Evidence Tables “Evidence statement tables and evidence statements describe the knowledge and skills that an assessment item or a task elicits from students. These are aligned directly to the Common Core State Standards, and highlight their advances especially around the coherent nature of the standards.” – PARCC More information about the Blueprints and Evidence Tables can be found at parcconline.org, including FAQ’s and Powerpoint presentations. Mathematics PARCC Grades 3-5 ELA Literacy Common Forms Specifications (Updated 12/2014) PARCC Grades 6-8 ELA Literacy Common Forms Specifications (Updated 11/2014) PARCC Grades 9-11 ELA Literacy Common Forms Specifications (Updated 11/2014) PARCC Combined ELA PBA Task Generation Models PDF (Narrative TGMs Included) Grades 3-5 (Updated) PARCC Combined ELA PBA Task Generation Models PDF (Narrative TGMs Included) Grades 6-8 PDF (Updated) PARCC Combined ELA PBA Task Generation Models PDF (Narrative TGMs Included) Grades 9-11 (Updated) PARCC ELA Item Guidelines (Updated)
Twenty Ideas for Engaging Projects The start of the school year offers an ideal time to introduce students to project-based learning. By starting with engaging projects, you'll grab their interest while establishing a solid foundation of important skills, such as knowing how to conduct research, engage experts, and collaborate with peers. In honor of Edutopia's 20th anniversary, here are 20 project ideas to get learning off to a good start. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. Please tell us about the projects you are planning for this school year.