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Dear Reader Introduction Letter

The author discusses how their beliefs about assessment and evaluation have changed over the past 10 years based on two staff development experiences. The author now believes in aligning assessments to learning targets and using formative and summative assessments effectively. As an administrator, the author would train teachers on using data, developing units aligned to standards, and critiquing assessments. Teachers would also learn strategies to provide feedback to students and encourage self-reflection on progress toward learning targets.

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Sherri Klinger Dennstedt
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365 views

Dear Reader Introduction Letter

The author discusses how their beliefs about assessment and evaluation have changed over the past 10 years based on two staff development experiences. The author now believes in aligning assessments to learning targets and using formative and summative assessments effectively. As an administrator, the author would train teachers on using data, developing units aligned to standards, and critiquing assessments. Teachers would also learn strategies to provide feedback to students and encourage self-reflection on progress toward learning targets.

Uploaded by

Sherri Klinger Dennstedt
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Portfolio Entry: Dear Reader Introduction Letter Sherri Dennstedt 2/25/13

Dear Reader: As a teacher leader in the classroom and as an instructional coach, my practices and beliefs about assessment and evaluating students have changed immensely in the last 10 years. Some of the driving factors for the change in my beliefs were two staff development experiences I had. The first one was using the Assessment for Learning book (Stiggins, Arter, Chappuis, & Chappuis, 2007) while developing an online biology course for my school district. We also used Understanding by Design (McTighe & Wiggins, 2004) to develop the course learning projections and sequences, as well as determining learning targets and assessments. The strategies I learned while developing the online course instantly transformed my classroom instruction. I began to plan units differently and aligned the assessments to learning targets. My beliefs about grading changed when I attended a gifted and talented workshop of differentiation and the affective characteristics and social needs of gifted students. The instructor presented an example of a grading report that included total points. The overall grade included everything from homework completion, extra credit, test scores, and performance tasks. In one example, the gifted student completed none of the homework, but received an A or a B on all tests and quizzes. The average grade at the end of the quarter for this student was a C. In the other example, a student completed all of the classroom and homework assignments but received an F or a D on all tests and quizzes. They also received a C in the class. I immediately changed my grading practices in the classroom to weighted grades, and led others in my department to do the same. My current experiences with working with teachers in different school settings, and taking on the perspective of an administrator during this course, have created some new learning and beliefs that will transform my practices and policies as a leader. In my portfolio, you will see evidence of a clearer understanding and distinction between formative and summative assessments and how to use them to effectively provide evidence of student learning. For example, the reflections in my I used to think archive and the Analyzing Your Own

Portfolio Entry: Dear Reader Introduction Letter Sherri Dennstedt 2/25/13


Grading Practices, include evidence of the growth I have made in not only the distinction between formative and summative assessments, but how to use them in school-wide grading practices. There were some discussions with other class mates about whether formative assessments should be graded. I believe that it is ultimately up to the teacher, but there must be a balanced approach. One way that formative assessments could be graded is if a rubric is used, the scores can be converted to points or percentages. This is something I would do to grade student portfolios. I have also included some examples of formative and summative assessments and a unit plan that I used in my classroom last year (, or developed with my PLC team. After analyzing these assessments, there is evidence that they would need to be revised in order to reflect the criteria necessary for effective assessments. As a principal, I would spend a lot of time with PLC teams to fully train them in the use of data, unit development, to deconstruct standards to create student-friendly learning targets, how to align assessments to learning targets, how to critique assessments for alignment, (see data analysis artifact and the selected response and extended written response critique artifacts) and how to use student selfreflections and tracking sheets in a portfolio to document growth. I have included several examples of student reflections in my portfolio (Learning targets tracking sheet (one example and one template), and a test self-reflection and goal-setting sheet). In addition, teachers would encourage students to learn Level 2 formative assessment strategies as shown by one of my artifacts. Instructional coaches would also assist teachers by planning, observing, and debriefing using student evidence to determine strategies that are being used effectively for assessment (formative and summative), as well as how teachers are communicating, assessing and giving student feedback towards the learning targets. The PLC and school data teams would also triangulate data to determine areas of discrepancy to determine areas of strengths and needs. Using this data, the PLC team and school data team can create SMART goals for the UIP plan (see SMART goal artifact), and for action research and summative assessment data on student achievement.

Portfolio Entry: Dear Reader Introduction Letter Sherri Dennstedt 2/25/13


Finally, as an administrator, I would provide an opportunity to teachers to create a school-wide grading policy. You will see that I have included the policy that C.J. and I developed in my portfolio. It is one that I would hope to be able to implement, but realize that teachers would need to have some time to read current research about effective grading practices, intrinsic motivation, standards-based grading, and student portfolios in order to change their beliefs. Teachers would need staff development in order to make these changes, so I have included my plan for creating student portfolios in every classroom in the Action plan section of my portfolio. In addition, I have included the following artifacts as additional action plans: Interview with an Administrator Summary, school-wide grading policy, and a monitoring system for managing data. I have decided to do my portfolio digitally in order to give myself actual experience with creating one. This will enable me to show teachers who would like to use this technology, how they could develop them for students and integrate them in their classroom website.

References: McTighe, J., & Wiggins, G. (2004). Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Stiggins, R., Arter, J., Chappuis, J., & Chappuis, S. (2007). Classroom Assessment for Student Learning: Doing it Right - Using it Well. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

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