The Customer is Always Right.

The power of the school improvement team lies within the students who actively participate on it.  They are the customers of the school.  During our December meeting we were discussing the shift in the types of writing (Common Core State Standards) we are asking students to do and how we are teaching students to write.  One way to instruct students is to plan and teach backwards (Backwards Design).  Show the student a benchmark sample and analyze it through the lens of the standard or rubric, which should be aligned to the standard.  One student enthusiastically said, “That’s why I am passing.  I need to see what I am expected to do.”  Isn’t the customer always right?  It seems too simple but it works. In Grant Wiggins article, How Good is Good Enough (Educational Leadership 12/13), he writes about UCLA’s former basketball coach, John Wooden, who won ten national championships.  He mentions a Wooden quote which describes how he provided instruction to his players.  “I tried to teach according to the whole-part method.  I would show them the whole thing to begin with.  Then I’m going to break it down into the parts and work on the individual parts and then eventually bring them together.”  This also reflects Hattie's work about giving students a "clear vision of what they are trying to achieve (M. Ehrenworth 2013)."  Imagine if every teacher planned with the thinking of John Wooden…I think our customer ratings would be sky high. 

Learning Equals Process

I wanted to continue talking about Formative Assessment since it is a focus for our school.  Many researchers define it in different ways but one stood out to me as I have been reading material.  According to Marzano, “formative assessment is intimately tied to the formal and informal processes in classrooms.  It is important to keep one thing in mind when considering the practice of formative assessment. By definition, formative assessment is intimately tied to the formal and informal processes in classrooms.”  Marzano uses the word processes in one of his descriptions of formative assessment which is a word that triggered me to think of the meaning of learning and how it relates to process.  Students are in school to learn.  Students are in school going through a process.  Did I just repeat myself?  Process by definition according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is defined as a “series of actions that produce something or that lead to a particular result.”  Ultimately, every action students go through in their daily education should result in a positive outcome.  The outcomes should be aligned to curriculum which is designed based on standards.  Yes, I did repeat myself because learning is a series of moves that all people make in order to achieve a result.  Learning in school or going through a process in school should be purposeful, engaging, and productive.  So, how does Formative Assessment relate to learning or the process a student goes through in school?  As teachers we need to ensure that the student’s processes are going in the right direction.  Are they moving toward the outcomes?  We as teachers also go through a process; a series of actions that supports learning.  The instructional process is what will bridge the student goals to the student outcomes.  If we do not formatively assess our process that targets the essential learning, then how will we know if our process is the right process for students?

Student Data Leadership Team Update...

Our school has been participating in some professional development targeting Formative Assessment and data analysis.  The PD is a RI Department of Education initiative that is facilitated by Amplify.  Our team, with the support of Nate Groenendyk, our Amplify facilitator, has been working over the past few months to teach, target, and transform the way we use data at CMS.  We have come to consensus that Formative Assessment is the link between the teaching and learning or in other words, the link between teacher instruction and student outcomes.  We recently provided two sessions for teachers on a voluntary basis focusing on analyzing data using the Short Cycle of Inquiry.  This cycle provides a thinking framework for teachers to use as they dig deeper into their formative assessment data.  Teachers create clusters and identify pattern of needs from the clusters.  Pattern of needs do not always have to be a deficit area but can also be an enrichment area so the entire class of students is accounted for in the instructional cycle. We also have to remember that we do not attach grades to formative assessments.  They are meant to check the learning aligned to objectives and goals.  We should be asking ourselves, what can I do as a teacher in my instruction that will better serve our students as they work toward the outcomes we expect? 

The goal of this blog is to highlight the work happening at Chariho Middle School as we step forward for our students.  I also hope to provoke reflection and inspire others to want to step forward.

We are driven to teach, target, and transform our students.