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Student Engagement, Formative Assessment, & Critical Thinking

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Welcome

Elaine J. Roberts, Ph.D.dr.ejroberts@yahoo.comejroberts@p20partners.com

Twitter: @elainejSkype: ej_roberts

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Objectives

• Examine specifics of– Student engagement– Formative assessment– Critical thinking

• Examine how student engagement, formative assessment, and critical thinking complement each other

• Examine how student engagement, formative assessment, and critical thinking can be transformative for learners

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What is “the end” in mind?

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Student engagement

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Student engagement occurs when “students make a psychological investment in learning. They try hard to learn what school offers. They take pride not simply in earning the formal indicators of success (grades), but in understanding the material and incorporating or internalizing it in their lives.”

Newmann, F. (1992) Student Engagement and Achievement in American Secondary Schools. Teachers College Press.

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Students who are engaged in their work are energized by four goals—success, curiosity, originality, and satisfying relationships. How do we cultivate these drives in the classroom?

Strong, R., Silver, H.F., & Robinson, A. (1995). Strengthening Student Engagement: What Do Students Want (and what really motivates them)? Educational Leadership, 53(1): 8-12.

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Criteria for success

• How do you identify, describe, define, and/or explain criteria for student success for any lesson plan?

• How do you articulate how you measure that success?

• How do you make your expectations clear to your students?

• What prevents students from understanding your expectations?

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Formative assessments

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Which of the following describe the purpose or characteristics of formative assessment?•Monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback•Used by teachers to improve teaching•Used by students to improve their learning•Help students identify their strengths and weaknesses•Help students identify target areas that need work•Help teachers recognize where students are struggling to address problems immediately•Generally low stakes

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Which of the following describe the purpose or characteristics of formative assessment?•Monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback•Used by teachers to improve teaching•Used by students to improve their learning•Help students identify their strengths and weaknesses•Help students identify target areas that need work•Help teachers recognize where students are struggling to address problems immediately•Generally low stakes

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Assessment for learning

• Formative assessment serves as practice for students, including meaningful homework

• Supports learning in two ways– Teachers can adapt instruction on the basis of

evidence, making changes and improvements that will yield immediate benefits to student learning.

– Students can use evidence of their current progress to actively manage and adjust their own learning. (Stiggins, Arter, Chappuis, & Chappuis, 2006)

• Assessment for learning consists of anything teachers do to help students answer three questions (Atkin, Black, & Coffey, 2001)

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Where am I going?

• Make sure students have the learning targets and understand the expectations for success in accomplishing or reaching each target

• Provide students with models, rubrics, or some sort of guide to know what success might look like

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Where am I now?

• Design activities and formative assessments that enable students to self-monitor their progress in achieving the learning targets

• Provide opportunities for students to explore beyond the confines of the specific learning targets– Hold them accountable for the specific learning targets– Hold them accountable to explain how their

explorations matter, and why

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Where am I now?

• Design activities and formative assessments that enable students to self-monitor their progress in achieving the learning targets

• Provide opportunities for students to explore beyond the confines of the specific learning targets– Hold the students accountable for the specific learning

targets– Hold the students accountable to explain how their

explorations matter, and why

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Where am I now? (continued)

• Provide a mechanism for students to track their success in reaching the learning targets; make sure they are able to explain how they know they have been successful

• When students struggle to reach learning targets, help them identify their strengths as well as where they need improvement

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How can I close the gap?

• When students identify their strengths and where they need improvement, help them create a plan for improvement in those target areas

• Help students use formative (and summative assessment) feedback to set goals

• Enable students to create structures to track or graph their progress

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How can I close the gap? (continued)

• Provide students with opportunities to comment on their progress as well as their struggles– What is hard that used to be easy?– What is easy that used to be hard?– What is still hard?– What have they noticed about their learning habits? – What encourages them and what discourages them?– What else can they do to try to improve as learners?– What would they like you to help them do to try to

improve as learners?• I feel happy of myself

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Student engagement

Formative assessment

Critical thinking

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• Let’s assume you have a rubric for scoring– Student engagement– Formative assessment– Critical thinking

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Student engagement

Formative assessment

Critical thinking

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Student engagement

Formative assessment

Critical thinking

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In 1899, Wilbur Wright designed this controllable kite to test the aerodynamic control system he would later use in gliders and airplanes.

Student engagement

Formative assessment

Critical thinking

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What do student engagement, formative assessment, and critical thinking have in common?

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Go fly a kite

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In what ways can student engagement, formative assessment, and critical thinking be transformative for learners?

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Reviewing “the end” and planning ahead

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Next steps

• Identify your 3 next steps• Explain why these are your 3 next steps• Establish a deadline for each of your

steps• Remember the 80/20 rule

– Of all the tasks performed throughout the day, only 20 percent really matter. 

– Those tasks in the 20 percent very likely will produce 80 percent of our results.

• Discuss with others for accountability80/20 rule aka Pareto’s Principle

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Student Engagement, Formative Assessment, & Critical Thinking

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Elaine J. Roberts, Ph.D.dr.ejroberts@yahoo.comejroberts@p20partners.com

Twitter: @elainejSkype: ej_roberts