Formative Assessment -an effective strategy in remote learning

Change is the only constant!

The educational space is dynamic; it is constantly evolving to keep pace with the changing times.

In a world affected by the Coronavirus, classes have gone online, and technology allows the faculty to meet the needs of the student community. Schools around the globe are gearing up to keep this new learning environment engaging and effective – online learning, online platforms, digital transformations, etc are terms that are bandied around in teacher forums. In times where students are born in the digital era, many skilled teachers struggle to employ the online platform effectively for teaching-learning.

However, this virus is not the only novel thing around us!

Even the teaching community is coming up with innovative and novel practices to support the student community, not just academically but emotionally, mentally, and physically too.

However, the physical distance between a teacher and the student still is a gap that goes unaddressed and poses many challenges. The isolation factor makes some crucial instructional strategies like collaborative work, group work, brainstorming, class discussion, and Grand conversations disappear from the learning experience.

Priorities change with times and by default a teacher’s focus has to shift to short term plans – week by week or even day by day.

Now the emphasis is on learner-centric methods that make an ONLINE session successful. A learner-centric approach focuses on scaffolding learning gradually and the teacher must never miss an opportunity for FA (Assessment for learning)

Formative Assessment

• is quick, child friendly as it releases the burden of testing the vast syllabus and gives immediate feedback to the teacher
• can be done at any phase of the session beginning, middle, or end.
• can be done for specific goals or objectives, not the overall aim of the topic or lesson.
• anchor the sessions effectively
• focusses on stage-wise progress and allows the teacher to alter goals based on the student’s performance

Some of the formative assessment methods that can be considered on an e-learning space…

• Establish Online Pedagogy as against regular classroom teaching methodologies with the help of your team, collaboratively. Establish common rules for all sessions that occur online. For e.g Sharing the objective of every session at the beginning can be a common practice. Ask the learner, mid-session, how far they have progressed in the day’s goal. This particular data coming from a learner is learning evidence by itself and accounts as formative assessment

• Be informed that successful formative assessment will profoundly depend on excellent questioning skills and an inquiry-driven session. For e.g A question on recall of the last session, questions like, “what is something new that you learned today?” also come under FA and gives the facilitator evidence of learning.

• Provide scope for mutual sharing of their work in break-away sessions or even offline and allow peer review, based on rubrics

• Employ flipped classroom as it will allow the teacher to use the time effectively online and focus on checking their understanding directly.

• Identify opportunities to formatively assess students often, as the session progresses.

For e.g a quick recall of new vocabulary, a quiz on the concept, quoting examples from real life, open book testing

• Provide immediate feedback on their progress. It could range from the comprehension of the task, narration of the procedure, to completion of the task. Use the information and every query asked by the learner as a FA tool to assess their understanding rather than waiting for the end of unit

• Allow differentiation in procedure and learning outcomes generously. For e .g, If you need to test the students on states of matter/water cycle during an e-learning session, give options like type out your answer descriptively, speak up by raising your hand, list out scientific vocabulary related to the topic or even record a video of activity and upload it post the session. Differentiation enhances the FA strategy.

• Consider allocating a whole session for feedback and reflection, regularly. During these focussed discussions driven by a starter statement, teachers’ get plenty of verbal explanations and cues about learning.

To conclude…

Keep it small, measurable, quantifiable, qualitative, focussed, and student-centric.

                                                                                          –Sudha Mahesh

Intrinsic Vs Extrinsic Motivation

Motivation-  let me start with simple terms.

Today, I am motivated to write my personal thoughts and opinions through my blog, I am motivated intrinsically:) !

The word “Motivation” keeps lingering in an atmosphere like school, that students and educators could probably just overlook the in-depth meaning in this.

This motivation can arise out of external factors or internally due to passion, a drive to accomplish and due to clarity in setting self- goals.

In my opinion, every new-born has innate motivation, the cause for the toddler to talk and a baby to crawl. Even as an adult to grow successfully in the life there must be motivation towards a goal. No human can escape this – The Motivation either need based or through personal interest.

With diversity as the foundation for schools, students from different background, different exposure and different innate abilities gather under one roof. It does become an inevitable task for mentors to identify the levels, attend to, give nudge to all those individuals to grow at their pace; the goal is learning graph must grow.

With all these appearing daily, how do we identify which motivation is long lasting and is motivating from external force is a farce?

In general, External motivation like rewards, appraisals et al do not contribute to personal growth.They are always done for short term period and focused on benefits rather than change in personality or refinement in one’s self and excitement arising out of that change.

In a school scenario, when you talk to teacher, we may find numerous such instance they employ to make a student complete a task, an activity or even the normal routines that a student must develop in that age group.

Often teachers express that despite several support and schemes and ideas they come up with, students do not get ignited.

The reason for this is the passion to do a work does not identify purpose behind and clarity in the process. They do not understand whether the result will be appreciated, or the process will be acknowledged. These ambiguities seldom create the sustenance in achieving the task among students. The motivational words that a teacher delivers during the beginning of any learning process creates a spark in the initial stages and fails to sustain as a students’ do not have clarity,autonomy and purpose.

At schools, the main task and goal for us as educators is to keep any child stay on task and take the task to completion.

Most often a student or a child at school is exposed to numerous activities through formal lessons or informal methods. This is done solely with an attitude to watch out if any of these might provoke inquiry and students once engaged, they get self-motivated to hang on to such experiences and navigate them self.

At times it is a fact that with a little push the task becomes habitual and from certain point of habitual practices, the task is taken as self-goal by the students.

Here are the cues which as educators we must not overlook, rather look out for these if you want your task as teacher to get enjoyable

How to convert most of the situations into an Intrinsically motivated experience

Whenever a child asks, what is this? Here starts intrinsic motivation to know the world around them.

Look out for all these signs in them from where an autonomy and purpose behind learning ignites.

What is happening?

When do I complete this?

How do I work on this?

Can I do this at home?

Should I complete this fully today?

Can I do this worksheet tomorrow?

I am going out today Can I submit my work later.

Why should I do this?

Some time students use Question words and at times they tell us the problem they might face while doing an activity.

“I can’t fill water or water this plant, I have cough!”

Instead of saying, “it’s okay you can still do”, give them an option if the same investigation or activity can be done in another medium

“It’s hot I don’t want to go out in sun to see the sky!” Don’t shun the reply, instead give couple of more option, probably this can be done even in evening Sun

Any such statements are always interpreted as lack of motivation, what I sensed out of my experience, If we give them an alternative or try to understand the obstacle for a moment, students don’t lose hope, they start travelling through the learning  the way we expected them to.

Any work assigned to them as home assignments or observation that requires stamina to focus students may initially avoid as there are many activities in their life that doesn’t require hardest job called thinking.

I feel differentiation in tasks comes in to rescue for us. When differentiation in procedure is employed there is still more scope for Intrinsic motivation to play a role than extrinsic.

Secondly, hearing out to their obstacles and giving an alternate will also convert many of the extrinsic motivation in to intrinsic.

With a growth mindset and positive attitude invest your time as educator in converting all extrinsic motivation into Intrinsically driven assignment by just being open to alterations in activity and process.

Once a student gets to know that there is not one-yard stick to measure their success of achievement to a large extent they find a purpose to self-involve. Once a student gets involved you will be amazed at the result, for it will be much better than your success criteria.Now let’s look at the flip side of Students are just not aligned to learning topic or they dodge.

Yes, this also happens.

A teacher gets burnout thinking of all the measures how to get her student do this!

External motivation like extra book from library, favorite food allowance for lunch, extra out-door play, no home work for a week, lunch with buddy, star on the note book, appreciation note in note book or telling the parent about the completion et al could be some common practices among teachers.

Out of my experience these should be employed for task that involves lower order activities as this may pass away as yet another experience for the student.

Whenever it is going to involve student’s  conceptual testing or practices it is always better to look for appropriate cues from them and try our best in opting for differentiation in tasks, help them understand the purpose and bring out the autonomy. For education is for life and it is not a passing/dodging phase.

In case, there is basic problem that most of the students are unable to stay focused on a topic or activity then, school leaders must involve and ensure any outdated topics or above the age level contents are scrapped out.

It is not always the motivation factor that has to be counted on, it is also the age relevant study material, topic, teaching methods that come in to play largely than the student ability.

It is important that educators and leaders in education are also sensible to provide such learning inside classrooms  and avoid rigidity in teaching learning process by following some routines for  decades together!

Let us not forget Students need support of their teachers, they look up to us for numerous things in their schooling years.

Motivation is a feel, it is  experienced through senses, it is a qualitative concept, it differs based on personality, the background and age relevant experiences

Change – change in attitude,change in procedure,change in teaching methods,change in our outlook of students,change in the way a student looks at a situation.

Instill the Change that leads to Motivation.

Embrace an introvert friendly learning space

We are currently in an ecosystem where there is continuous effort being taken at home front as well as in  schools to promote and nurture the benefits of team work and collaboration. These are being addressed with earnest thoughts to promote the surrounding and to enable methods that would facilitate the ‘shy’ student and the ‘bold’ to work together as a team.

Possibility of revolutionary ideas that might spark when multiple brains of two extremes work in collaboration. The best of innovative thoughts as an outcome of such practices in given works space or at schools.

Terms like Cooperative learning and Collaborative work has taken over the vocabulary ‘group work’ at Schools.

Methodically, to involve students in to a practice of co-existing with team members has found its place in recent decades. With all the efforts being taken towards bringing out the cumulative efforts to emerge and make every one part of success and accomplishment, the chances that of the lot, few may remain less attracted towards these group achievements.

A cluster of students in every class who may not find satisfaction internally in the group’s success. A handful of students who may observe, focus and progress but might not want to project it.

The same variety might not find engagement in group work or collaboration as their desired style over working independently.

These introverts are often times unnoticed, invariably, as louder and bolder group tends to sweep the attention in a typical class environment.

There has been a guaranteed applaud and claps to the extrovert children as against the introverts.

An effort is required in a planned way to recognize and appreciate the introverts.

In this fast paced world, at schools, at work space and at homes are we there yet to have recognized them?

Have we identified and acknowledged them for what they are and in the manner they portray themselves in crowd?

Do we label them as shy and brush aside their true colours and efficacy?

As a teacher, personally, I have come across resistance to group work arising out of a cluster of students. I have encountered issues out of group work as one tends to dominate the rest.

I have observed that the whispers from a child is actually the utterance of good observations and answers to the queries posed during discussions.

Some parents mentioning in personal meetings about the nature and the preference of their child on any given day being inclined towards independent working.

It is a practical situation found everywhere and it is ideal and fair to accept that in any given space there are extroverts and introverts existing.

We need to make them co-exist  without their identity and preferred style of learning being unaltered.

It is also fair as educators, we accept and cultivate an atmosphere, one that would unconditionally accept introverts as a significant part of growth as much as extroverts do by being out going and expressive.

How do we embrace an introvert friendly atmosphere?

Do’s

• An effective classroom management practice that assures every child is heard
• A practice of quiet reading hour as a cultivated habit in classrooms
• A conscious effort in lessons plans to include independent reading/working that ensures quiet child being noticed and acknowledged
• An appreciation of work in coherence and yet in silence
• An observation of non-verbal communication days at school that would also expose the extroverts to yet another way of communicating besides being outgoing and expressive always!
• A well laid success criteria of group work that facilitates participation of introverts
• A practice of giving slips of paper to those few in class who may be good at putting down in writing than verbally saying it aloud.
• A chance and a choice MUST be facilitated by the teacher in class as a conscious practice.

Don’ts

• A teacher to refrain from defining what kind of student is successful in class. E.g . ‘If you raise hand and answer then you get a star else not!’.. Kind of remarks to be avoided

We need to remember introverts may not want to gain attention but still they        have a valid point to contribute.

• Do not thrust the idea that only by being social he/she is accepted in society or in school. This may put them off forever. And, we are at loss of that significant portion an introvert may contribute towards wellness of humanity.

Any  teacher, at the sight of the children in class and within a few minutes of interaction can easily get an idea of the mix and the nature of students in class.

An introspection of the self and the known around , in our own work space and in the family, will elucidate the fact that the World has space for all kinds.

It’s time we embrace the varieties consciously and whole heartedly and exploit the potential of ‘Introverts’ too!

 

 

 

Do watch this Ted talk by Susan Cain to have more insight in to this topic of my blog.

https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts

 

Differentiation-It Needs To Be Embedded

It dates back to 2012 when I was pursuing my studies (Professional Diploma in teaching, CIE), I came across this word “Differentiation” for the first time in one of the sample assignment that was shared with me. I was doing my module one where I had to write a lesson plan to conduct one session accounting every minute of the session and every learner of the class. The moment I read that word I mistook it to be “How a teacher can show partiality among her students?” “Isn’t it unfair?” Believe me most of the teachers in my study batch also took it in the similar way.

With more and more examples analysed about how students learn in class, the more profound was my quest to research on this. The attitude to try and employ the “differentiation” added meaning to my teaching job.

Let’s look in to what is this all about.

First of all ‘differentiation’ is not a teaching strategy! Uh oh did I make it complicated now?

A strategy is defined as planned actions to achieve your goal. Whereas, differentiation popularly termed as DI is an approach in teaching practice.

Every strategy used in teaching can be differentiated to make the learning effective.

Differentiation, in lay man terms, a lens that a teacher should use to diagnose students and to identify which best tool can be used to enrich their learning experiences. ‘Giving choice’ is a powerful differentiation tool.

Differentiation can be well understood with examples and by demystifying some misconceptions.

A few of real life examples…

This advertisement is often found in women magazines! The salad and green tea that your friend eats makes her loose lot of pounds whereas it doesn’t do the same magic to youJ

To quote one more example that we come across, one person stays fit doing power yoga while another cannot afford to have that stamina. One gets a lot of calorie burnt just by taking his dog for a walk while another spends an hour and half in gym workout!!!

I hope these simple examples give you an idea on what I am trying to explain as ‘differentiation’.

We need customized plans for substantial learning outcome. It need not be always special and individual plan to address one at a time. Similar to personalised training work out and diet plans for individual or a group of people, even in a classroom scenario DI is inevitable. DI can be employed for small groups or large groups by finding a common pattern in their style.

Some popular DI’s

When a teacher uses different tone and different pace while explaining her content it falls under differentiation by dialogue. Here the role of the teacher is vital. This is one of the most widely and unconsciously used approach by the teachers in almost all classrooms. She facilitates the learner by identifying through her experiences, whoever may need detailed explanation, which learner needs sophisticated language and which set of learners may need simple steps etc. This is purely achieved through experience in classroom transactions.

The second most popular differentiation used widely in almost all classrooms is by grouping learners. Although it remains a bitter truth that many teachers do not follow a plan to group, due to which the outcome of learning doesn’t get maximized. Still to a larger extent grouping learners, is an effective DI.

It is a myth that DI means only individualized teaching. DI is an approach to address larger group of learners. It is purely based on LEARNER READINESS to absorb the concept.

There could be some assumption that by practising DI in your classroom you may leave a child behind while the rest are scaling up. But DI is actually based on the idea of “Keep Up” while “Catching up”. DI bridges the gap between basic skills and advanced skills.

The most important fact, DI is not Multiple Intelligences. ( MI by Howard Gardner)

In this field of education as theories keep piling up due to researches, as teachers in practice we need to somehow and somewhere catch up with latest topics of discussions.

Few DI’s that can be employed in classrooms:-

Differentiation by task: This is one of the core methods in DI. By this method teacher sets up different tasks for different learners with main objective being grasping concepts from basic to advanced. The teacher needs to plan different worksheet, activities, group work to assess learning. If the teachers feels burn out for setting this it can also be done as same worksheet or activity where the level of difficulty slowly grades up. As advanced learners may progress and move faster towards later part of worksheet easily while some learners are using their own time to concentrate and complete the basics.

Differentiation by resources: Some learners may need simple resources like books and reference material. Some may need sophisticated resources like apps. Some learners may need multiple materials to work on with. Learners may feel comfortable with visual aids, word wall and sample work display also as a support. Resources used for one year may or may not be the same with next batch of students. DI is always based on underlying principle called LEARNER READINESS. To learn about learners style of learning look in to my previous article Teaching style->Learning style->Student attainment

Differentiation by content: Content comprises of knowledge, skill and concepts. A teacher can share this by any means such as using videos, picture books, printed material, non-fiction texts and even in audio form. This is at teachers’ discretion to decide how she may want to present it to her learners. The font size used in texts can also be a differentiation.

Differentiation in learning outcome: This is again the core of DI. Now you may have a doubt how to differentiate the output as there is expected milestone to be achieved by all learners in a given time frame. Here is where Formative assessment and on-going assessments come in handy. When we have used the lens to identify the advancement and short comings in any set of learners through experience we need to plan and accommodate several ways of assessing the learner for the same objective.

For e. g concepts of geometry in identifying the angle can be assessed in multiple ways such as

1. Printed pictures on sheet which is 2D
2. Going around in classroom and asking students to look for right angled objects or objects with acute angles.
3. Provide resources to construct something in 3D and explain the different angles found in that model

Their learning outcome can be verbal or written form. Finally the learner has given you evidence on his/her understanding of angles in geometry.

The main benefit in doing DI in learning outcome is, a teacher does it systematically at regular intervals until the topic is completely covered and she has enough evidence though various forms that her learner has got the concept right.

DI by learning outcome is based on the on-going Formative assessment and not on the end of unit Summative assessment.

Well DI is by itself a broader area of discussion. The DI’s can be shared with one another but it is up to the teacher to use appropriate and suitable ones that will benefit his/her set of learners.

DI will continue in my next article too. I will share some examples of DI that I employ in my practice and few lesson plans where DI has been embedded.

Differentiation is nothing but regardless of a learner’s ability an approach used in teaching which provides a learner multiple avenues to showcase their learning.