Sunday, November 10, 2013

Fish Climbing Trees: Assessment, Feedback, and Differentiation

One of the best sessions I had the chance to attend at the recent Association for Middle Level Education conference (#AMLE2013) was a session on formative assessment, summative judgment, and descriptive feedback presented by Rick Wormeli. In the session, Rick shared this cartoon, which I had seen before:

"For a fair selection, everybody has to take the same exam:
Please climb that tree."

The argument usually made by folks sharing this cartoon is that we should have different standards of assessment for different students, because the students are clearly unique individuals with different strengths and weaknesses and it isn't fair to hold them all to the same standards. Because it's not going to be any problem for the monkey to climb the tree, right? But how is the fish going to get up there? Or the elephant? Or even the dog?

Before I go further, you should know that Rick is a master teacher, and a recognized expert in several related fields within the realm of education. In his writings--and presentations--he is a tireless advocate for differentiated instruction (tailoring teaching so that every student learns), formative assessment ("taking the temperature" while learning is ongoing), descriptive feedback (explaining to students what they are doing well...and not so well...and giving them the chance to act on it), and collaborative practice (teachers getting their heads together to talk about their teaching and offer critique, challenging each other to get better.) In this presentation, Rick pulled all of these threads together and began weaving them into a seamless piece.

Rick gave us a new twist on this cartoon. He suggested that we actually should hold students to the same standard. If demonstrating understanding of Newton's laws of motion is a critical part of the curriculum that all students need to master, every student must demonstrate this understanding. If writing a persuasive essay is a key part of the curriculum, every student must be able to write a persuasive essay. If climbing the tree is a necessary part of the curriculum, then we simply must have every student get up that tree.

But here's the catch: it's incumbent upon us as educators to do everything we can to help our students meet the high standard. This will likely mean allowing different paths to reaching the standard, and providing ongoing, descriptive feedback to students as they are working to meet the standard that has been set: what is working, what is not working, what else they might try.

To illustrate, Rick shared a series of cartoons drawn by a student in response to the classic cartoon above...






Please remember that these are just an illustration to the point, but I think you get the idea: allowing for multiple pathways (or maybe I should say "multiple evidences of learning?") is the way to ensure that each unique student will be able to show that they have mastered this part of the curriculum.

As I reflect on this, I think the crucial bit is that we keep focused on what we want students to learn and separate this from the vehicle of assessment. If students are learning to write a persuasive essay, they must write a persuasive essay--that is the assessment vehicle that makes sense to show whether or not they have met the standard. But if students are learning about pollution and it's effects on public health, a persuasive essay might be one vehicle to show that they have a proficient understanding of this standard. What else might show this proficiency? An interview with the teacher? A presentation to the class? A short film? Perhaps the students will come up with their own amazing idea?

So here's my three-point summary: (subject-to-revision, but pretty-sure-for-now)
  1. If we expect every student to be able to meet the standard, we have to give them true, descriptive feedback. And this goes beyond just "Nice job!" Students need to know what they did well, and what they need to keep working on to meet the standard. 
  2. Once they have this sort of actionable feedback, they also need the chance to act on it! Many teachers seem to have a problem with redoing work. My argument is this: if it's critical that students master this element of the curriculum...we must do everything we can to ensure that they master it! That might mean multiple attempts with descriptive feedback at each step along the way.
  3. We need to provide for (or at least allow for) multiple pathways to showing proficient understanding of the curriculum. Unless the assessment vehicle is the curriculum, allowing for alternatives is key! This sort of differentiation may be the only way to ensure that the fish can climb the tree.

14 comments:

  1. Thanks, Dave! This is a concise and nuanced summation. It seems right on target with what we've been learning about learning, assessment, feedback and revision. I'll be sharing this with my colleagues and students to affirm and reinforce their great efforts. Alan Crowley, MVUHS, Swanton, Vernont

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    1. Thanks for the feedback, Alan! I'm honored that you'd consider sharing with your colleagues and students. Thanks for including the kids on the conversation as well!

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  2. Thanks for sharing Dave! This is a great summary of the session. Educators seem to focus too much on the target and not enough on the different paths to the target. Rick does an incredible job on helping us look at the picture differently. I will share your write up with my co-workers.

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    1. Thanks for the feedback, Todd. Glad you found it a faithful summary. I so enjoyed Rick's sessions at this conference, and this last one especially. Challenging, but encouraging!

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  3. I would really love a copy of the presentation. This is just brilliant. I work with English Learners and often see lowered standards for them.

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    1. Ruslana, you missed out! It was fantastic. Rick was on fire, and there were so many gems, I could barely keep up. Check out my twitter feed for some of the best nuggets (I was live-tweeting like a madman...)

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  4. Dave, Thank you for providing such a professional model for personalizing the conference for you and making it accessible for everyone else. My hat's off to you for this extended effort and meaningful processing. Were that all teachers were as diligent and insightful as you! Imagine the impact on students who had teachers who did such professional debriefing after PD experiences! Thank you for setting such a high standard, Dave. You're one to watch and follow. -- Rick

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    1. Thanks for the affirmation, Rick! I figure, if I'm going to jot notes anyway, I might as well tweet them, so others might potentially benefit as well. :-) The continued processing on the blog is mostly for me, but I always tweet it out too, because it can be a great conversation-starter with fellow educators.

      I'm grateful you took the time to read this post, Rick. Blessings to you in your work.

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  5. Amen! I couldn't agree with you more. I have swallowed (chugged might be a better verb) the SBG/Differentiation Kool Aid.

    Now back to that persuasive essay . . . as an English teacher, I struggle with differentiating writing. (Personal side note: It's kinda scary being so open and vulnerable about my struggles out here in the open on your blog.) The most common differentiation practice that I read about and see happening involves taking writing out of the assessment. While I understand the concept -- one doesn't need to write to prove they understand most things, and students should be given multiple avenues to show what they know -- as an English teacher I am struggling. When the students who struggle with writing are no longer writing in any other class except mine, they get a huge mixed message and just don't understand why they need to write at all! The immediate relevancy of writing well and the cross-curricular power of our grade level diminishes. Shouldn't we be encouraging students to write across the curriculum -- especially for students who struggle with writing? After learning a whole lot about Core expectations, I know that as the English teacher, I must teach my students to write well. I understand that I need to differentiate my writing lessons so they can each grow toward success. I also know that ALL teachers must push the literacy skills of speaking/listening, reading and writing! How do we make sure we aren't hurting our students by differentiating the writing out of the majority of their school day?

    Do you see my conundrum? I would LOVE ideas, and I am game to try just about anything that would help my students succeed!

    Thanks for all of your tweets and blog posts. I am a huge fan!

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    1. Joe'l, I love your heart! Thanks for sharing so openly and honestly. And I appreciate your affirmation of the stuff I share here. :-)

      You are asking the right questions here, in my humble opinion. The blessing/curse of differentiation is that when we give students choices, they sometimes choose things that we wouldn't choose for them. So in that vein, I think it's sometimes really, really important to *not* give them the choice. Differentiation is about meeting the NEEDS of learners, not necessarily meeting the WANTS of learners! There are times when kids *need* to write, and I believe this is true across the curriculum, not just in Language Arts classes. This might mean a whole lot of descriptive feedback on their writing (especially if they aren't strong writers) and possibly many redoes to get them there. This might be a hard sell for teachers in other content areas. (Actually, it might be a hard sell for some Language Arts teachers!) :-)

      All of this might sound fine enough, but I know you were asking about ideas. I think my next post might be helpful here: http://iteach-and-ilearn.blogspot.com/2013/11/what-assessments-can-you-tolerate.html This piece begins to get at the collaborative thinking teams of teachers may need to do to determine what assessment vehicles you will collectively tolerate in a differentiated setting. I will likely have another post on this topic coming.

      Hope we can keep this conversation going!

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  6. Hello Dave

    Just wanted to drop a line from Sweden, I was looking for the cartoon regarding tests and found your blog. I will try to follow it.
    Very nice illustrated by the student for the different solutions the teachers have to present for students. I talk to staff in schools everyday about this...hard to make it a reality sometimes, others are amazing at this.

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    1. Greetings, Hakan!

      Thanks for taking the time to comment! Yes, this topic is challenging for many teachers, but I think it's so very important to work with the students we have, and not the ones we wish we had. But I'm convinced that this is the heart of teaching: we want students to learn, and sometimes that means we have to tailor our teaching to the specific needs of our students. I know this is hard work for all teachers, but I believe it is so important!

      Thanks again for visiting--it's always nice to "meet" folks who are reading, and comments are the best way for me to do so. :-)

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  7. I really like this, I will be quoting this for a seminar on differentiation.

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    1. Thanks for the feedback! I'd love to see a link to your presentation, if possible. Glad you found it valuable. :-)

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