Prepare for the Common Core Math Formative Assessments with Skip Fennell

Although formative assessment is a natural part of the process of teaching and learning, Skip Fennell outlines some clarifying thoughts on the topic in this 30 minute webinar hosted by LearnZillion Co-founder, Eric Westendorf. Common Core does not change formative assessment in the classroom but it does change how we should plan and apply it in the classroom. Skip Fennell explains the importance of this especially with regard to "hinge questions." Teachers are encouraged to take the time to read the Common Core Progressions Document which clarify the learning progression to target knowledge of Common Core. The planning of hinge questions as formative assessment becomes a less overwhelming task when designed around these pathways to the end goals of Common Core Math.

Here are some other great teacher learning progression resources for Common Core Mathematics.
The Learn Zillion Insider, 3 Steps to  Understanding Your Common Core Standard
The Mathematics Common Core Toolbox
Inside Mathematics.org
Kansas Association of Teachers of Mathematics (KATM) Common Core "Flipbooks"
North Carolina State Department of Education "Unpacked Standards"

My blended learning, reflecting on flipped lessons, technology, and the CCSS...

I began this year with plans to use technology to flip my lessons. I was focused on one primary goal, use technology to make the most of teaching and learning. That goal, along with moving to 80 percent CCSS has brought about much unexpected change in the way I teach and the way my students learn.

My district is not technology rich. We have two computer labs we share across 750 middle school students grades 5-8. We have some wifi in the building and are only beginning to allow students to bring their own devices. A Smartboard was installed in my classroom this year which really made a huge difference in allowing me to support my students by exporting PDF notes of classroom examples.

The following is some of the technology that has supported my blended model of teaching and learning.  Technology supports and drives my lessons. It saves me time giving me more time to dedicate to my students. It supports my transition to the CCSS through the vast resources that have emerged from sharing national standards. I have created a list a mile long of internet resources and narrowed my list to my favorites over time. Presently, these are my essential technology tools.

1. (free) Edmodo.com (for my students) has become the center of my student communication. I upload copies of notes that I export from my smartboard as a PDF, homework, links, helpful resources and anything else that will support my students learning outside of my classroom. A few of my students will write to me just about every night through a direct post. Students also ask homework questions and support each other through a group post. I know I have found a good tool when I wonder how I taught without it. Absent students can see all the missing work by dates and support material. Parents can also sign into a parent view of all their child's Edmodo groups if more than one teacher is using Edmodo.

2. (free) Edmodo.com (for professional development) I belong to over 15 different professional Edmodo groups with other teachers. This has been a great resource as we transition into CCSS. Teachers offer all types of good resources and answer questions for each other. Connecting with teachers globally has taught me so much and lead me to some great resources.

3. (free) ASSISTments.org is a formative assessment website. It produces all kinds of data to guide your lesson progression. Once you establish an account, you have access to already created content by CCSS or you can create your own. I have been using this tool for four years and again, wonder how I taught without it.  I mostly use it for formative assessment data to measure achievement towards lesson goals. I can track each and every students, know where there are common problems, address any individual needs, differentiate group work based on data and so on............the list is endless. This week my students are completing a skills review with tutoring built in. They took an adaptive pre-assessment and were assigned review based on their results. The work is being completed at home and/or after school in the computer lab. This review will hopefully help them improve scores on the state math test in May. My students have learned to use their own data to adjust their learning strategies. It is amazing to see how they own their learning once they get used to having data feedback on their learning progression.

 4.  (free) Learnzillion.com is my favorite flipped lessons website. At the beginning of the year I used several resources for flipped lesson at home. I made some of my own too. My students really found Learnzillion to be just right for them. The video units are built around the CCSS and searchable by grade, content and standard. The videos have downloadable slideshows that the teacher can edit to your class. There is also guided practice for the students.  I use these videos for review, preview, introduction and teaching. I love this site so much that I am working for them this summer and proud to be a member of the 200 teacher strong Learnzillion Dream Team 2013.

5. Reflexmath.com is part of ExploreLearning. It is not free but I applied or a grant and am using it for free for a year. It is game based math facts practice. I identified all my at risk students and they are using this adaptive software to practice math facts to improve their math fact fluency. This is the piece of teaching we don't have time to go back and do for students so this software is doing it for them. They can view reports of their progress and so can I. I am happy to find something to support these at risk students outside of the classroom.

6. Discoveryed.com is not free but a fantastic web site filled with all types of real world examples of math. I show real world math to get my students to see purpose in their hard work. Most videos are excellent. This site provides a  lot of support to teachers too.

Back to my flipped lessons and my goals for the year. My lessons have turned into an ongoing learning process with no real defined line between school and home or learning/teaching except for our physical location. Many teachers worry about continual communication with students taking too much of their personal time. It really only takes a little time but the students have the sense of always being supported at any given time. They have grown to take ownership of their learning with me as their coach available to help when they need it. The "Blended Learning" is a better term to define what my lessons looks like. We have blended technology resource, classroom and home learning together to create a new model of learning that meets my students in their world where they learn best. Interestingly, my actual classroom is not technology rich and is centered around discussion and group work as my students work their way through their learning progressions in school and at home.

I would love to hear from other teachers on how your classroom has evolved this year.

"Flipped," finding the perfect "balance" in your classroom

This article prompted me to reflect on my own classroom evolution. http://plpnetwork.com/2012/10/08/flip-love-affair/
I was recently sharing with another teacher about my evolution and said that I am in search of a new word because "flipped" classroom doesn't seem to fit my 6th grade math classroom model. Although many recognize that "flipped" is a continuum of definitions, it also seems to carry a connotation that all the content teaching is from video. Teachers who truly study or practice the model know differently. I am pleased with the goal of my evolution, creating a student centered classroom with more time to work with my students. Without technology this would not be possible. The largest success factor is my e-generation students. They are so comfortable with technology, my only task is to train them how to learn from video, data analysis, experience and adjust their learning tactics in response to learning feedback. As 6th graders, they have whole heartedly turned into little e-generation learners supporting each other on Edmodo.com  24/7. In week 6, my students are practicing mathematical practices on their own by persevering problem solving in ongoing dialogue outside of the classroom. But I have digressed, back to the "flipped" classroom. I think the term "flipped" is useful in giving us a model to help identify and support the shift of teachers into the next model of teaching brought about by the rapid change in our e-generation students and technology. "Flipped" describes the major shift into the world of teaching fully with technology at every level of purpose. This would include the full at-home video content delivery at the high school and college level to the partial content delivery at the middle school level. My shift into the world of the flipped classroom was a search for the perfect balance (at a 6th grade level) of independent learning, content delivery, and a student centered classroom where I get to teach rather than deliver content. If you were to speak to my students as we enter week 7, they would acknowledge the training that has been happening each week in our classroom.We have arrived at the perfect balance of learning for our classroom (this week)  by adding one more learning skill each week until we found our classroom functioning at a peak use of time on learning. I did not know where this point would be until we met that balance. That balance is defined by the students, teacher and classroom culture, rather than some outside definition of a teaching model.  I expect this balance is not a static model and will continue to evolve as my students grow. I expect my students will continue to grow and respond adjusting their learning tactics to the learning environment I create. In response, I will continue to build and add to our new model of learning as needed. As I reflect here, I see my classroom environment is defined by "balance" so I guess the adjective that would best name my classroom today is "the balanced class".

Week 5 - successful and not so successful

Week 5 has been interesting with flipping lessons. I still am only flipping about two per week. I am waiting for my students to  demonstrate an ability to keep up with the work and stay organized. This will be my signal to add a third day of flipped content. I am hoping to flip content at least 3 times a week. This week I also exported my smartboard class lesson as a PDF and uploaded it to Edmodo for additional review of class notes. It was handy for those who were absent too. Students had watched an introductory video on the content, and only had to answer one question with not notes. I delivered more content and examples on the smartboard in class the next day. Most of the notes came from this. Exporting the PDF allowed students to relax and listen rather than worry about writing down all the  notes. They filled  in the the remaining notes that night from the PDF. I guess I flipped the content in stages over two nights and one lesson. This was a successful way to deliver the content and still gave me more class time to work with students on problems. My end goal is to increase classroom time with practice

What was not so successful is the parents and all their questions. They are not sure about this flipping and their student's homework/classwork grades. Homework/classwork grades in my class are only 10% to track the learning progress. Parents want their children to have nothing but A's in the grade book and can't seem to understand that 10% will not impact the overall grade to any great degree. I use an online assessment tool and students get a percent of achievement almost daily. We don't expect high percents until we have practiced a concept for a few days. Parents want to see 100 percent achievement on every homework. It is a shame that learning is so grade orientated. We incorrectly teach students to earn A's rather than learn content.

One problem I have is the students who are focused on getting the answer but not learning the content. Several students in each class are copying answers from their group work rather than understanding the concept and doing it themselves. I can see this from the lack of notebook work and questioning in group discussions. This week, I will be implementing notebook checkers at the start of every class to check notebook work from preceding night's classwork/homework.

I still need to figure out how to support--

•  struggling students who are not used to thinking and just used to getting the right answer any way they can
• high achievers who think they should have an A every day on every new lesson
• parents who are having trouble shifting their understanding of the flipped classroom and class/work homework grades

Starting week 4- looking for regular routine

So far flipping the class is taking a lot of training of my students with organizing and note taking from video. This is the beginning of week four. I am hoping we are into the swing this week. I also have to teach them how to collaborate more in their groups in class. One thing for sure, running a flipped class uses all the 21st century skills, collaboration, communication, critical thinking and creating. I think all the training will be worth it in the long run. It will make the students better learners and thinkers. 

We have achieved:

•  getting everyone trained and online with different web resources. Some students are still working out issues at home with devices. I don't think everyone understands this is not a one time online experience, we are learning this way all year. Many students inform me they just can't get online for one reason or another. They seem to think I am going to say ok, just skip it. I question and problem solve with them. Once they realize they will have to stay for late bus after school work to get online, they seem to find answers to their device problems. hmmmmm.....
• Everyone seems to have done well with the introductions to problem solving but many are still mixing up work in one notebook
• The 2-column notes are starting to shape up. There are a handful in each class that still need lots of instruction and I will continue to follow them closely.

My goals for week 4:

• to launch the students into independent note-taking from video content. We are using 2-column notes which is what my whole school uses but I have found out that not all students are clear on the structure of this after learning in 5th grade. I have created my own notes for students to compare on the second night. This is good for students who need support and models.
• encourage group collaboration and discussion by asking good questions 
• assign regular videos, notes, classwork, assistment input, data discussions and get the cycle into a regular routine.
• train on data driven learning and discussion from online item reports on homework (classwork input to online feedback at night)
• teach more problem solving thinking, noticing and wondering (extra period to do this starting this week), straighten out notebook organization
• video some class discussions for reflection and planning

Week 5 goals:

• make some more of my own videos for lessons. Students enjoy this effort on my part and I am modeling for end of unit video projects.
• plan some differentiated lessons as we move deeper into the standards
• video tape a good lesson discussion of an item report for NCTM Dallas presentation

Day 3 of school, taking it slow...

 I am trying to keep the flipped as simple as I can. I am still trying to decide where is the best place to host flipped lessons. Mentormob is nice and so is sophia.com but I don't want to send the students to a million different sites. I want to develop a strong routine from the start so it is always clear. I have a google site that I am organizing with all my content by chapters and standards so students can refer to this for review, documents, links....but I still need a place to present each flipped lesson. I love Edmodo and was thinking I could organize chapters and lessons in the library and share folders but they still need a path. Then I was thinking I could just post the path each night. Video link here, write notes, answer two assessment questions here.....all in Edmodo post. I could make each flipped lesson an assignment in Edmodo and ask the students to write a brief summary, or questions, or maybe a different thing each time to assess they watched the video.

So this is my path:

Google site for all references, content, standards, documents, video links

Edmodo as the door into all flipped lessons

1. Create library of folders by chapters and lessons for students. 
2. Post each flipped lesson,
3.  video, 
4. lesson objectives, 
5. notes templete or other documents (google?)
6.  Edmodo turn in assignment for summary, questions...etc. ,
7. Assistment link for formative assessment at adjustment points of lessons

My goal is to create a strong routine that is not too complicated for term 1. Get a strong start and maybe add some new technology in term 2.

Reflecting on flipping and structure while writing to another teacher......

 I am flipping all my lessons this year. Last year I only tried it a little in term 4 but I also only had 45 min and it was very challenging. This year I will have 54 min. What I learned last year for most of my classes, flipped or not, was to reduce the number of problems by choosing ones that are specific to the learning goals. If a student knows how to add fractions with like denominators then they only need to show me 1-2 times and move on to the next skill in the learning progression. Interestingly, my students seem to put more effort into the smaller assignments once they realized I was using this work as daily formative assessment. This daily formative assessment became our exit ticket for the lesson. They enter answers on an assessment system for feedback and tracking data. I had more control, was able to track each skill and each student daily. My students became so good at inferring their data that they knew which group to sit in each day without me organizing. I also visited each group every day because I knew from my data which groups and students were struggling the most. Homework is to finish  any classwork and enter on assessment system if they don't get it done in class because the formative assessment data drives the next class. Next they watch video, takes notes and do the launch problem for next day which is also entered on assessment system. This cycle seemed to motivate students to get the work done in class with my support rather than at home along with the next day's flipped lesson. I hope that helps. I don't start school until 8/27 so I will let you know how this plan works this year.

Here is what the cycle should look like and I am going to try it on a small scale from day one and then build up to full lessons.

1. classroom intro to standards, topic, take a preview or review on paper to be entered on Assistment for homework.

2. homework: 

• complete any classwork and enter on Assistments.org
• watch video, take notes, do launch problem, enter on assistments

3. next class:

• grouped by data
• review notes in groups
• whole class discuss data on launch problem
• groups work on next lesson problems 
• teacher visit groups based on data and need

Lastly, I plan to not dive in and overwhelm myself and my students. I plan to teach them how to do each part of the cycle well and demonstrate how it will help them learn better. My goal is to be running this cycle fully by Monday 9/10.  We will see...........