SINGLE-POINT RUBRICS AND OTHER EXCELLENT ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES
Goals
By the end of this workshop you will...
Know what each of the Single-Point-Rubrics, Hinge-Point-Questions, Science Talk moves look like in the science classroom as well as what your peers have discovered work for them.
Understand how these strategies affect formative and summative assessment and to which tasks they best apply.
You'll be able to apply these strategies in your own lesson plans.
Related topics include:
Writing learning goals
Questioning and discussion techniques
Differentiation ("Low-Floor-High-Ceiling" Rich Tasks)
Flexible teaching
Modelling Phenomena
Let's experiment with Jamboard
In the past we've used Google Slides together to co-create lessons and class notes (ask me about my previous workshops). Google Slides' feature of being collaborative is excellent for getting students input, but Jamboard feels much more natural - as if it was designed to be collaborative first. It does however have some drawbacks, the 2 biggest ones being that you cannot embed a YouTube video in it and you cannot prevent students from rushing ahead in the slides (if they are co-editors of it with you).
Nevertheless, this is an opportunity to teach digital citizenship and the pros of Jamboard are surprisingly nice such as smooth gliding objects, few and easily located editing tools and, as mentioned before, built explicitly for collaboration.
I don't recommend any one software over another (I really like OneNote too). Rather, I encourage discovering the pros and cons of each and picking the tool that best fits the situation...
do you agree - talk move.mp4Moderating a class conversation using coloured cards
The coloured cards are a low-tech, versatile and flexible way of getting all your students participating. In this video, we are using the cards to have Cycle 3 Elementary students share their ideas and then agree or disagree with each other. It's easy to see what the class is thinking with "put up green if you agree or red if you disagree"...
Whole class participation
Coloured cards can also be used to check in on your class collectively. Rather than asking a question and having only one student respond at a time, ask a multiple choice question (possibly with more than 1 correct answer) and have the whole class vote for the answers with their coloured cards (throw in some misconceptions in the options to really see what they know).
Not Just for Elementary school
It's a coincidence that the examples above are from elementary. In fact the idea of using "hing-point-questions" came from PhD. Dylan Wiliam as he used it in the high school setting. Click here to see hinge point questions getting used at 3 age levels.
Science Talk moves from the ambitious science teaching framework
Academic talk is a quick and simple way of collecting formative assessment of student knowledge, yet it is also a useful way of having students think. Establish a culture of thinking in your classroom by having students make and justify claims to you and their peers.
The following 6 "talk moves" are useful strategies to get the most of intentional (academic) discourse in the class.
The single-point-Rubric
Unlike more analytical rubrics, Teachers find Single-Point-Rubrics are very flexible and easy to use and make. They no longer need to spend copious amounts of time thinking of all the ways students may fail to meet the task's expectations.
Students have only a single column to focus on - that of the competencies.
Feedback is targeted and meaningful as students read the comments left in the 2 other columns of the rubric.
No grade is returned to the student (although a grade could be produced for the teacher's markbook). This can be a little jarring at first but in the long run, the focus is put on improving one's thinking and not on getting a minimum grade.
Using Digital Quizzing Tools
3 practical tools for quizzing online are:
With a bit of tinkering, you can have Google forms look MEQ exam-like and have it self-correct. If you want to move away from the traditional, I recommend pairing Forms with an online simulation from Gizmos or PhET to have them test ideas out in real time as they answer probing questions.
The last 2 are more playful but can get useful to make online assessments more engaging.
Here are some examples. Click on the images to try it.
Wrapping it up...
The above strategies are proven and powerful and can be used while teaching in person or online.
In a nutshell, we are assessing students during and after phenomenon-based lessons that are engaging using:
whole class participation (coloured cards),
science talk moves for academic conversation (Science talk moves),
checking for understanding (hinge-point-questions) and
Single-Point-Rubrics for meaningful feedback.
ELEM Session
AM - Rich Task - ELEM.pdfHS Session
AM - Rich Task - HS (1).pdfSample Elem Rubric
