Take Time to Save Time: Planning to use Rubrics and Success Criteria

In a recent conversation with a team, the topic of rubrics came up. Several teachers shared that they weren't sure it was a good use of their team time and effort to put details into a rubric that students don't use well.

And this raises a good question: do we always need detailed rubrics?

Well, the short answer is, no!

But research suggests that having clear success criteria--and in cases where a skill recurs, develops, or is reviewed for a long period of time, rubrics--is powerful:

"When students are clear on expectations of learning, they tend to double their rate of learning. Moreover, when students are clear on expectations, they have a better chance of assessing their current performance and using feedback accurately. As John Hattie explains in Visible Learning, self assessment, feedback, and student clarity yield substantial growth in student learning."

So how can we make this easier on teachers and on our time?

1) Have clear learning targets for the assignment, and share them in student-friendly language.

One big concern teachers share is that students can't or don't accurately monitor their progress or provide accurate feedback to each other. The more "targeted" and clear we can make expectations for students, the more likely they are to hit that target.

“When students understand exactly what they’re supposed to learn and what their work will look like when they learn it, they’re better able to monitor and adjust their work, select effective strategies, and connect current work to prior learning.” (from Brookhart and Moss “Learning Targets. On Parade” Educational Leadership, October 2014, v. 72 p. 28)

2) Use models to help build success criteria.

There is power in SHOWING, not just telling, what we are looking for. In fact, for bigger assignments, this can be done as a co-construction activity, in which the teacher shows examples of what they are looking for and asks students to identify what made the work successful. In this way, students "own" the drafting of the criteria for success. 

This can even develop as a checklist! This checklist can become the core of a rubric, or students can use those criteria to review their work during and after it is created.

3) Build in time for students to use them.

Giving class time for students to use a rubric or checklist to review and revise their work is tough--after all, there is a lot to cover in that precious time! But if we want to make sure students feel more success the first time, and to save ourselves time reteaching (and taking home assignments to write feedback on!), this is time well spent. One way to engage students is to use a single-point rubric

Not only does this save time in creating a big, detailed rubric, but it provides the student (and teacher) space to provide specific feedback on how the student work does or doesn't meet the criteria. This can be a formative assessment, as students who can't or incorrectly identify evidence that they meet the success criteria are good candidates for reteaching, while those who can identify why they aren't yet meeting success may be able to improve after self-reflection. 

Make time to save time

It seems counterintuitive to plan more class time to review learning targets, co-create success criteria, and spend time using a rubric, but that time is shown by research to be well-spent. Students show greater understanding and success, and teachers do LESS of the work in the long run. It's a win-win!

Should students sit in rows?

This week's blog post by teacher author Dave Stuart Jr. tackles a question that has been making the rounds more recently as people compare the classroom environment of compulsory rows that COVID protocols demanded to other seating arrangements: should students sit in rows?

Spoiler alert: His answer is, it depends.

In the post, he discusses two seating arrangements: one, is paired rows, with students always having a seating partner, but more or less in columns and rows, and the other is desks grouped into four, all facing each other. He makes the point that by comparison, rows provide less distraction during independent work and a clearer view of the board during direct instruction. And of course, research and common sense supports this.

But the post, while pointing out that other seating arrangements may be more beneficial in situations requiring more collaboration, fails to explore any other options, such as the horseshoe or circle, and research, suggests that "'the most effective way to organise a classroom is to be as flexible as possible with teachers regularly moving furniture to suit the activities' (Maddern, 2011) – for example, Harvey and Kenyon (2013) found that students tend to prefer more flexible seating arrangements.

It won't surprise any teacher that research has shown that classroom seating impacts "student learning, motivation,  participation, and teacher-student and student-student relationships (Fernandes, Huang & Rinaldo 2011)." What might be more surprising is that recent research suggests that the set-up of the classroom actually impacts the TEACHER and her pedagogical choices as well; according to the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning at Yale: 

For example, a classroom with seating affixed and directed toward a podium at the front of the room results in instructors spending more time in lecture and students demonstrating less active engagement. In contrast, roundtable seating arrangements lead to instructors and students engaging in more active learning activities, resulting in improved learning outcomes (Brooks 2012). 

So what is the answer? It depends. If you are delivering direct instruction, then a clear, unobstructed view of the instructor is best in that moment. However, if you want students to collaborate, seating them with other students is key.

And even with traditional desks, teachers can try to get the best of both worlds. Recent research on elementary seating arrangements supports the horseshoe seating arrangement with flexible seating (i.e. chairs and triangular desks that reconfigure easily). For those with "traditional" desks, the pair square (alternately known as the pair pod) is a style of flexible seating arrangement that gained renewed attention: essentially, students are seated in pairs, but each pair has a pair in front of or behind that they can turn and work with to make a group of four.

What is clear is that if you are thinking of changing up your seating, think about your goals and how your physical space can match your pedagogy. Do you want to create more space for students to Think-Pair-Share? To debate? To collaborate? To create? Then rows might not be the way to go.

Mindset, Behaviors, and a Routine

January is a turning point for new and veteran teachers alike. For some, the end of a term brings new classes. For others, this is the point at which a lot of hard work really starts paying off.

What can make the difference is mindset--both the mindset you hold (i.e. it's going to get good!) and the mindset you project (i.e. you guys are going to be great!). One key ingredient that helps both these mindsets is praise.

While we've written in praise of praise before, we really can't praise the power of behavior-specific praise enough. Both research and experience tell us that it is more effective to build positive behaviors than to control negative student behavior (Strain & Sainato, 1987). However, some people have said that it is tough to give more praise:

• "I don't want it to feel fake."
• "Kids don't want to be called out."
• "I just don't know what to praise."

And research shows that especially by middle school, kids get good at knowing when praise is insincere. So how do we praise sincerely AND frequently?

It got us thinking about how can teachers can find it easier to give behavior-specific praise. Our thought, and the thought of educators like Todd Finley, is to make it part of a routine. You might use a clipboard with a praise checklist to keep track of who is praised and how often, but how do you know what to praise?

This is where you, the teacher expert in the room, come in: what behaviors do you value? If you want students to enter or transition around the room quietly, consider putting quiet movement on your checklist for the week. If you want students to raise their hands to share, you might put that on your checklist for the week. And as for academics:

"Jim Wright, of Intervention Central, lists several academic dispositions that can be reinforced through praise, including effort, accuracy, fluency, goal-setting, and meeting an external standard. As an example, Wright describes how to encourage effort: “You wrote nonstop through the entire writing period. I appreciate your hard work.”

If you are looking for a planning sheet, this resource is great for developing your initial plan for behavior specific praise. TLI has made a template that you can choose to copy and adapt for this purpose. If you want help designing your own behavior checklist (or adapting something you currently use in the classroom to include praise), contact us!

Technology Hacks, Especially for Littles: Use Audio, Video, and Pictures

A few teachers have mentioned a stumbling block for using powerful formative assessment tools are that their learners need more supports. Lots of written directions won't help emerging readers. Having to type a lot won't work for students still learning keyboarding. 

But oftentimes, these roadblocks can be overcome! The benefits of using the technology are great, and with a few tricks or hacks, teachers can speed up the process and reap those benefits. Here are a few, designed especially for younger learners or other students who might need more supports:

Issue: You want to use an online tool to assess students, but students don't have the reading (or perhaps typing) skills needed to complete the online assessment/activity quickly.

Idea #1: Flip

Flip, formerly known as Flipgrid, is a free tool that allows students to respond to prompts--either written or video--with audio or video. It also allows for students to give responses to the recordings of their peers, if the teacher chooses, and for teachers to give recorded feedback. Flip includes quiz tools as well as many other ways to engage students in learning. 

Flip has Immersive Reader built in, which can read text out loud, and Flip has enabled more supports to help younger learners record their voice and/or video response. According to these PreK-2 tips, teachers can use QR codes to support student sign-in to topics. If this sounds like something you are interested in, TLI would love to help you realize your vision!

Idea #2: Google Forms

Google Forms are one example of a powerful tool for formative assessment. Google forms allows you to insert video, which is great for sharing audio and visuals. It also allows you to use pictures as answer choices, which is especially powerful if you just need students to give a prompt a Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down. You can also use the MOTE chrome extension to easily add audio to quickly record yourself OR to have students record themselves giving a longer answer.

Idea #3: Mote

Note that you can also use MOTE to allow students to record themselves in other Google documents, like slides, as in this example of a See-Think-Wonder activity (click to access the demonstration and slide template). Although GPS currently only has the free version of MOTE, which limits recording, the tool has a lot of possibilities for quick and easy audio recording.

BONUS: You can use the MOTE extension to create guided reading experiences (which might be faster and easier than creating audio with media creation tools like Screencastify). The video below shows how this audio tool can be used in 4 different ways to support learners, with the focus on upper elementary or secondary learners who might need more supports:

 

What tools do you use to make assessment more accessible and flexible for your learners? What challenges do you foresee having to work through that others might have solutions for? Let us know in the comments.