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South Phoenix

Design Team

April 5th, 2023

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Norms

Students Drive the Process

Step Up/Step Down

Be Fully Present and Prepared

Assume Positive Intentions

Keep Each Other in the Risk Zones

Trust the Process

Have a Growth Mindset

Give Honest Feedback

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Agenda

3:00 - 3:15	Teacher Share Time Tanya, Jose, Tyler, and Sarah
3:15 - 3:55	Checks for Understanding Formative Assessments
3:55 - 4:00	Next Steps & Survey

Use the parking lot as a back channel during our Design Team meetings to ask questions, share ideas/resources, or provide comments.

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Collaboration: Listening to each other, giving and receiving feedback in a respectful and positive way.

I can generate ideas on how to embed checks for understanding throughout a lesson by engaging in a collaborative conversation.

Priority Practices

Core Values

Objectives

1H: Students are collaborating.

3C: Teacher checks for understanding of student progress towards learning goals

4B: Students use structures to process and share their thinking.

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Teacher Share!

Sarah, Tanya, Jose, and Tyler

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Astronaut Megan McArthur

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Checking for Understanding

Formative Assessments

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What is a formative assessment?

Formative assessment is monitoring and evaluating student knowledge. It is done before, during and after in order to gather learning data and inform teaching decisions. Formative assessments are also known as checks for understanding.

What does a good formative assessment look like?

Gathers data from all students, not just a select few
Happens throughout the entire learning experience/lesson
Allows the instructor to easily use the data to guide instruction or create meaningful groups or 1:1s
Allows for re-teaching in the moment, or follow-up reteaching within a short window
Has meaningful, well-structured questions

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Why are formative assessments critical?

Check out this video for more information!

Learning is a brain process that requires input, focus, practice, and encoding before anything can be committed to long-term memory.

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How do formative assessments support the learning process?

Chunk 1

Chunk 3

Chunk 2

Check

Did you know? A child’s brain can only hold 3-7 bits of information at a time.

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Six Thinking Hats Discussion Protocol

Thinking routine or protocol to support a collaborative discussion
Six metaphorical “hats” are worn by all members of the group
Each hat requires a different type of thinking

White = Facts
Blue = Managing the thinking
Red = Feelings
Green = Creativity
Yellow = Optimism
Black = Skepticism

Only one hat may be worn at a time
All people in the group wear the same hat at the same time
Order of the hats doesn’t matter and is generally decided by the facilitator of the group

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How will this work?

You’ll be presented with a “problem” to solve
Discuss with your table groups
Use the Thinking Hats to guide your discussion in order to come up with the best solution to the “problem”
Nominate a speaker to share your solution to the whole room
Everyone will vote to determine the winners!

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Your problem to solve:

How can we maximize formative assessments in real-time to inform future instructional decisions?

Six Thinking Hats

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Red Hat: Feelings

How do I feel about formative assessments?
Am I warm or cold on this idea?
Do I know how to use them in instructional planning?

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Blue Hat: Process

What is our goal in this conversation?
How are we going to keep each other on the right track or using the right hat?
If someone is using the wrong hat, how will we respectfully direct them to think with the correct hat?
Are we going to take notes?
Who will be the speaker when we share out to everyone?

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White Hat: Facts

What information or facts do we know?
What information is missing?
What would we like to know?
How will we get the information we need?

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Green Hat: Creativity

What are some possible ways to solve this problem?
How could we work this out?
Share new, different, and even wild ideas!
Generate creative suggestions
Propose alternative ideas
Enhance the idea

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Yellow Hat: Benefits

What is good about this idea?
What are the benefits?
Why is it feasible?
How could this idea work?

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Black Hat: Cautions

Is this reasonable?
Will it work?
What weaknesses do we see in this idea?
What is the risk involved?
Why might this idea not be voted the best?

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Planning Time

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Use this time to embed checks for understanding into an upcoming lesson plan
Refer to the resources on the next page if you need more ideas!
Connect with Patrick, Yvonne, or Jill to share your ideas and what we can anticipate to see coming to life in your classroom over the next month.
Finished early? Work on your teacher portfolio or your Graffiti Wall.

How will you incorporate more checks for understanding?