Learner Led Conferences - Encouraging Student Ownership

We are leading up to our first round of Learner Led Conferences this week and I am told by the Guardians in Hub 1 that the children (5 years old) are really looking forward to it. The children can't wait to show their Mums and Dads all the wonderful learning they have been doing this term. Their agendas are set with what they want to share with their families over the hour they will be in the learning hub. Each individual shares with pride how they are going in their reading, what goal they are focused on and where they want to end up on the Bee Hives. I love nothing more than having one of the learners bounding up to me and saying Miss M I've moved hives!



We have incorporated the mid year reporting in the Learning Management Space that most of our parents are already an active part of. The call on whether an individual is at, above or below is placed in the artifact box,the student reflection beneath, each teachers comment focuses on the progress made, what has been achieved and next steps. At the Learner Led Conference there will be an opportunity for the parents to connect with the Guardian and decide on the best way to help at home. This will sit in the Parent box. This report can be printed, it can also live beyond the Student ed Conference and be a virtual environment where the learning continues beyond the event. Ww will watch with interest.

Timely Assessment Information

We have had lots of fun over the last few months thinking about how to share timely assessment information with parents and caregivers. We pulled out Julia Atkins (What, Why, How) model to surface our beliefs (What) about assessment, the principles (Why) surrounding those beliefs to make informed decisions about the assessment practices (how) we might use. What became apparent was we believe the learner needs to be at the centre or heart of any assessment practice. Hattie's top effect size (1.4) is self grading - how are we utilising this knowledge in our current practices?



Much of our dialogue of late has been to question how the mid year summative call on achievement is presented to learners and parents. We asked a group of year 5-8 students about what they liked about their previous School reports. One individual said 'I like the general comment because it says nice things about me'. That made me think should students have to wait until half way through the year and the end of the year to hear nice things about themselves? Another comment from a year 6 child was 'I like to know if I am where I should be'. You can't argue with that, however why again should students wait till half way through the year to know if they are on track. We have listened to parent voice too to understand what they want to know and how they like that information presented. The general consensus is I want to know if my child is where they should be, putting effort, had friends and is happy at School.

So how timely is our assessment information to parents? Is it ok for parents to wait several weeks for the hard copy portfolio to go home at the end of a term?

Recent changes to the way we report to parents is the inclusion of next steps and ways parents can help their child at home. The challenge is to ensure these types of conversions last beyond the event of sending the report home or co-constructing 'ways to help at home' at a student/parent conference. We believe the space for such reporting needs to be online. All three relevant parties have a view and edit capability to add to the report. If a hard copy of the report is required it can be simply printed. If the conversation needs to continue it can continue and more next steps and ways home is supporting the learning added as time goes on.

Learners should work harder than their Teachers!

I was privileged to sit in on a session that Anne Davies facilitated at the beginning of this year. Anne is an assessment guru residing in Canada. One of the comments she made has resonated with me ever since. She said that we need to get students to work harder than their teachers.
The more I have pondered this the more I have to agree. She shared the importance of learners being involved in assessing peers learning and building their own assessment literacy to make informed judgments about progress and high achievement.
Whilst sitting in classes recently I have been thinking about the traditional mental model we hold about teachers providing the right stretch and challenge for each learner to reach their potential. To get the learner working harder we need to flip that on it's head and teach learners how to give themselves the right kind of stretch. I am wondering how one might motivate and empower learners to build a habit of extending beyond what they can already do.

Longitudinal Evidence - Student Voice

How do you really know as a Primary School that you are having a lasting impact on student learning and outcomes beyond their Primary School experience? Are the competencies you instill in young learners developed to the extent that they are habitual? Do they last, continue to live beyond the Primary School experience?
Rather than wondering and making assumptions we have set about to design an online survey that can continue to gather past students reality, ideas and feedback. I am excited about the potential such feedback has in creating a broader and more informed picture of our Schools impact on learners.
Watch this space!

Reporting to Parents

Have been thinking a lot about reporting to parents. How should it happen?, when should it happen? and what should be shared? Most would agree that school has changed somewhat yet the reporting mechanisms that are used are often based on traditional assessment measures. We now understand that most sophisticated thinking can not be measured in a pencil and paper test. We generally agree that one can become more brainy the more you think. Thankfully, our notion of intelligence is far broader than once believed. How do we however communicate, show or report this to parents. The reports I have viewed recently grade students against individual curriculum areas to indicate where a child is at and sometimes offers how much effort the teacher percieves the child to be putting in. Our reporting mechanisms reinforce that knowing stuff is more important than knowing how to learn. The picture is quite frankly imbalanced.
There is fine line between what a community expects from reporting mechanisms (how it was done when we went to school) and using vastly different reporting mechanisms to both educate parents and show a balanced picture of their child's achievements. How do you effectively show growth in a children ability to manage self and relate to others. No pencil and paper test will do that. As identified by our new curriculum document these are important dispositions, attitudes and skills needed for a child's successful future. Our staff is trialling a new year of year report for parents to incorporate students ability to be a Life Long Learner (reflect, question, persevere, make connections etc)
No real answers - trying out some ways of showing progression in kid speak in some of these far more qualitative areas. I guess it's small steps.
Your thoughts?

Assessment - Communicating a Balanced Picture

My previous blog entry talked about having a clear and easily articulated 'end in mind' for the students leaving our school.  The bit we are working on and haven't got quite right yet is what are we communicating to our parent body about how students are going according to the 4 major outcomes we would like students to leave our school equipped with.  For so long we have been so preoccupied with reporting on levels of achievement against curriculum areas.  What we have not been so good at is communicating a students ability to 'know what to do when they don't know what to do' or share a students level of competency in say their ability to investigate.  I think we need to take a hard look at current assessment practices.  A far more balanced picture needs to be presented to students and parents about what equates to success.  At the moment success in school and success in life look quite different.  Let's not let outdated assessment measures and methods hold back innovation.  A fresh approach is required to develop tools and e portfolio spaces that students own and manage.  As I was reminded of recently by a colleague, teachers come and go each year in a students education, parents hold the historic overview and students have the greatest potential to positively influence their learning.   When the necessary scaffolds are in place for example progressions that show students in 'kid speak' where am I and what are the next learning steps are.  Secondly when we grow students assessment literacy to know how to answer, how am I going?, Where am I going? and where to next?, students have huge learning power to achieve to their potential.  We need to strive towards communicating a balanced picture to encompass achievement as we know it and include a dispositional overview of an individuals learning capacity.  

Does What We Value Get Assessed?

There is a positive shift and move towards a broader notion of intelligence - or put in another way what equates to success or being successful.  The OECD research and feedback has influenced   the inclusion of the five key competencies in the recently redrafted NZ curriculum.  A welcomed change some would agree.

How can we communicate a more holistic picture of a students learning?  How do we richly show growth in areas of competency to acknowledge and share a broader view of achievement?

Secondly how do we get teachers to value assessments in areas such as 'Managing self' as much as they value doing a reading probe or numeracy snapshot.  What do we abandon to make this task manageable and realistic?

How do we collect such qualitative data?  How can we work smart around collecting reliable, valid and timely data in areas of competency?

Many more questions than answers as you can see.

The end point is to present and communicate a far more balanced assessment picture of student achievements to learners themselves and their parents.  That is valuing the traditional achievement results in core literacy areas and secondly sharing the learning capacity of the individual.

Assessment - Thinking about John Hatties 'Visible Learning'

In the last 12 months I have been doing some serious thinking about assessment.  Our assessment methods at times seem so 20th century.  Our notion of intelligence continues to broaden which is heartening however our strategies and tools to show growth in what have been categorized as soft areas are in infant stages.  It is critical to get parent buy in to 21st century approaches to learning, however this is challenging when we are just starting to experiment with and create means to show growth and progression in key competencies such as 'Managing self' and 'relating to others'.  It has been said time and time again 'what is assessed is valued.'  We are currently grappling with ways of sharing assessment data with parents in a timely manner.  More importantly the assessment information we are keen to share with parents is broader than the traditional information shared around curriculum content knowledge.  We hare starting to find the greater the students assessment literacy the more self motivated the learner becomes.  No more 'guess what's in the teachers head',  these kids know what they are learning, why they are learning it and how they will know they are successful.  The clearer we are with students about the progressions in foundation areas of learning the better.  Students can take more charge.  As Hattie puts it 'When students SEE themselves as their own teachers.   The teachers role is fundamental and must be acknowledged.  Importantly John Hatties 2009 research points out that teachers are far more powerful and influential when they are activators of learning not facilitators of learning.  Learning occurs when teachers understand their learners and '`See learning through the eyes of the student.

Some important messages to reflect on when undertaking an assessment review to see if practices align with beliefs!

Hatties latest book Visible Learning makes for good reading.

Assessment - Motivating or Harmful

Assessment has huge potential ......

to motivate or demotivate learners. Everyone has a story to tell about their own school experience. There seems to be a direct correlation between assessment performance and school experience. Good grades - good experience. Bad grades - Bad experience. The hierarchy of subjects traditionally valued most started with Sciences, Maths, English ....... with arts sitting somewhere on the bottom. Students who didn't do so well in the subjects at the top of the list learnt early that I'm 'dumb', D's, E's, low exam scores demotivate. Self worth plummets and the spiral spins downwards. Future opportunities diminish.

Assessment shouldn't be harmful. Rather it should motivate, provide honest feedback and challenge students to continue to learn and achieve.