Guiding Questions – Looking at Student Work (A Collaborative Inquiry into Teaching and

Learning for Deep Understanding)

Goal:

This year, the focus of our PD retreat is on the collection and analysis of student learning as
evidenced in samples of their work. This process will provide time for teachers, working in
subject partners, to collect artifacts of student work, and then to reflect and critique the design of
the learning task, the effectiveness of the assessment, and the connection between the desired
learning outcomes and the evidence of student learning.

More simply, this process is intended to enable teachers to work together to build our collective
understanding about learning for deep understanding:

1. What did we want students to learn?

2. What tasks and activities have teachers designed to bring about that learning?

3. How will we know that they learned it and to what degree?

4. What other scaffolds could be put in place to support student learning along the way?

5. What changes to the design of the task could help to improve it?

This process will start on Jan 15th. The goal for this PD day is to provide time for the gathering
process. On this day teachers will be given time to decide on the particular project/assignment
they wish to analyze and to begin gathering the rubrics/handouts/pieces of student work to be
discussed during the first day of the retreat. Teachers need to also create a short (10 mins)
presentation to be delivered to their subject partner and a facilitator on February 11th.

Reason:

This approach to collecting and analyzing student work is a key element in our school goals. Our
current Charter Goals focus on our deepening understanding of strong, inquiry-based practice, as
well as student engagement. This PD structure provides teachers the necessary time to carefully
and critically examine the work being designed for students, revisiting the Task Assessment
Rubric to assess the strength of the work.

In addition, our three key AISI goals are met through this process: (1) teachers will
collaboratively design intellectually ambitious tasks, including feedback opportunities and
assessment for learning; (2) teachers will collect student exemplars in connection with clear
learning standards; and (3) teachers will develop portfolio assessments providing evidence of the
progress of learners.

Audience:

These reflections will be shared internally in small groups after our retreat. It would also be
extremely valuable to share the final products of this reflective process on our Outreach Blog.
Format:

We will move though this process in two parts.

In the first part, teachers will choose a completed project, and then work individually to create a
short (10 mins) presentation (using PPT, keynote, etc) that gathers the necessary resources
(rubrics, student exemplars) and responds to the following three elements of reflection.

In the second part (February 11) both teaching partners will sit with a facilitator and work through
a collaborative analysis of the student work.

3 Elements of the Reflection:

As teachers collect and analyze student exemplars they will work through a process examining
three different elements of the project/assignment: a critical examination of (1) the task, (2) the
assessment practices and (3) the student work. Teacher should first create a presentation that
gathers the evidence and provides personal answers to the following:

Part 1: Reflecting on the Task

The goal of part 1 is to examine the task that students were asked to complete in the
project/inquiry. The goal is to have a critical look at the intended learning outcomes of the project.

1. Stating and Analyzing the key learning objectives

• What did you want students to understand and/or be able to do through this
task/project/assignment
o I want students to understand ..... (Content)
o I want students to be able to do.....(Skills and Attitudes, ways of thinking)
• To what extent do these learning objectives mirror the understandings from within a
discipline or field in the real world? Are the objectives authentic? Worthwhile?

2. Critiquing the task

• What did students have to do or produce/perform to demonstrate their understanding?

• What did you collect and/or observe as evidence of student understanding?
• To what extent was student understanding built through sequenced activities and guided
inquiries?

As part of "Critiquing the task" teachers should also assess the design of the project using the
AUTHENTICITY and ACADEMIC RIGOUR categories from the Inquiry Rubric.

Part 2: Reflecting on the Assessments

The goal of part 2 is to examine the assessment practices that were used in the
project/assignment. The focus for this section of the process is on: How will we know what
students understand? What will we accept as evidence of understanding? After gathering the
assessment rubrics used, reflect on the following:

• Are there clear and direct connections between the intended understandings and the
assessments used?
• Are there places where the rubrics might be improved to get a closer connection to the
big understandings of the project?
• What scaffolds have been put in place to assist students in identifying areas for
improvement and next learning steps?
• How does the design of the study intervene to increase student understanding
(assessment for learning, feedback loops, etc)?

As part of "Reflecting on the Assessments" teachers should also assess the design of the project
using the ASSESSMENT category from the Inquiry Rubric.

Part 3: Collecting and Examining Student Work

Teachers should gather and analyze a number of examples of student work. The purpose of this
final stage is to gather evidence of and examine the degree to which the intended learning
outcomes of the project were met by students. Teachers should gather work samples
representing beginning, novice and mastery responses.

When examining student work samples, consider the following:

• What evidence of understanding can be gleaned from each of these work samples?
• What are the strengths of the each exemplar? What are the missing components of the
beginning and novice?
• How satisfied are you with the level of understanding that students demonstrated? To
what degree do you believe the investment of time and resources was worthwhile in
relation to the learning results that were achieved?
• What was the range of student performance? How many students demonstrated
acceptable or higher on the project? (averagemarks of 3 or 4) Please provide the number
of students at the different grade levels.
• Are there places in the design of the project that you think could be improved to increase
student understanding?

One additional idea (admittedly a vulnerable one) is to interview a few students, or have students
record a short podcast about the project. You might ask them: what they thought the intended
outcomes of the project were, what level of understanding they felt they developed, and how their
piece of work demonstrates that understanding.

All these reflections, rubrics and exemplars should be pulled together into a short 10 minute
presentation. Teachers can decide how they wish to share the material, and will present their
responses to their subject partner and facilitator on February 11th.