Iowa ASCD Competency-Based Education conference - June 27, 2013
"Standards-Based Grading and Competency-Based Education - What's the Connection?"
Session resources here.
Session summary: SBG vs. CBE
Thanks to UNI's Dr. Brian Townsend for inviting me into his graduate class this morning to talk about grading and assessment.
The slides were not always viewable in the video, so I've embedded them below:
Slides used in today's presentation:
Script is here.
Note: this presentation is an update from a previous one at the same conference one year ago.
4/20 Update
The recorded video is available here.
Thank you to Dr. Tom Buckmiller for inviting me to share some of my thoughts on the role of technology in education with his class of aspiring principals.
10/25/2011 Update
The video below is designed to be used with teachers and administrators to discuss shifts in grading.
Russ and I led a session at the 2010 ITEC Conference in Coralville, IA on October 11.
Title: Technology has been around forever. Is 1:1 Enough?
Description: Many schools in Iowa are implementing 1:1 initiatives. Is placing a computer in every students' hand the end? What next? Bring your thoughts to this forum.
(This session was similar to the one we led at ISTE 2010 as previously mentioned here.)
Thanks to everyone who was able to make the session and contribute their thoughts. The video archive is available below.
Technology has been around forever. Is 1:1 enough? from Matt Townsley on Vimeo.
Slides from this afternoon's presentation to the staff at Clear Creek Amana.
Thanks to Brad Fox and Michele Pettit for inviting me to speak today.
Today, I will be leading a two hour workshop for a cross-section of educators at three neighboring districts.
Two hours seems like just enough time to challenge thinking, demonstrate how it worked in my classroom AND have ample time to answer questions. Other than a three-day workshop, I co-led this summer, this will be the first time I've been allotted more than an hour. I continue to believe that...
Without challenging one's educational beliefs related to grading, the formative assessment cycle tends to be viewed as an add-on. So many educators claim they believe all students can learn at varying rates, but few secondary teachers embrace this philosophy through their grading practicesand with two hours, I am hypothesizing many more will be able to get past the philosophical hurdle known as "grades."
On April 21, 2010 Eric and I were invited to speak to 250+ teachers and administrators in the Eastern Iowa. Our afternoon presentation followed Margaret Heritage's morning session on formative assessment. The day was part of a year-long Iowa Core Leadership Series sponsored by Grant Wood AEA. The folks at Grant Wood were kind enough to record the entire day, but it's taken me until this week to post it online. I hope you'll enjoy watching us in action as much as we enjoyed challenging the traditional assessment and grading schemes of those in attendance. Bear with us for the first few minutes as we work through a few technical glitches on the stage.
From Points to Learning from Matt Townsley on Vimeo.
April 21, 2010 - Grant Wood AEA Iowa Core Leadership Series: Educators Matt Townsley and Eric Townsley discuss changing the culture of their secondary classrooms from an emphasis on points to learning. Standards-based grading is a theme throughout this nearly thirty minute presentation. For more information, visit http://tinyurl.com/points2learning
Feel free to critique our presentation in the comments.
This session will highlight “assessment for learning” techniques from a secondary math classroom teacher's perspective. Come to get your beliefs about assessment and reporting learning challenged and refined as they relate this Iowa Core Curriculum characteristic of effective instruction. |
I was asked to present at a professional development day for several school districts in Eastern Iowa. My presentation is entitled, "How do you know if they know? Re-examining assessment through the lens of learning" and will describe the theory behind my current grading and assessment practices. The theme of the day is the Iowa Core Curriculum and I believe my assessment practices mirror at least some of what is being framed as a movement here in Iowa towards "assessment for learning."
Regular readers of this blog know that I no longer report a single score for a test, but instead report students' understanding through multiple learning targets. Homework and quizzes are viewed as feedback opportunities rather than summative assessments. Students may re-take parts of the "test" and their newest level of understanding will always replace the old.
The slides below will be used at the session and make the most sense if you view it full-screen along with the speaker notes.
In addition, the packet with an outline of the presentation and a few selected Educational Leadership articles that all session attendees will receive is available here.
Finally, I created a small website with links to additional commentary on standards-based grading and suggested further reading.
On Monday and Tuesday, I attended my first education technology conference. ITEC lived up to my expectations of meeting up with so many people I've been following via Twitter. A fellow edu-blogger, Russ Goerend, and I made the trek together to Coralville, Iowa and within several hours had introduced ourselves to at least half a dozen tweeps. The sessions were not earth-shattering. Russ posted some thoughts on this aspect of the conference on his blog.
"Why is it so easy to skip the "cool tool" sessions? Because I've already heard about them through my PLN. As much of a buzzword as it is, having a strong PLN (online and off) is huge. I think it's once people have that PLN established that we can move past the "cool tools" phase and get some real work done."His tweet sums also it up nicely:
There were a few sessions focused on "cool tools" such as Moodle, Animoto and iPod Touches. Did the participants come out of those sessions with some new technology knowledge? Probably. Will it change the way they teach and students learn? Probably not.
An anecdote from the conference supporting this idea was a session led by a technology director discussing his district's implementation of Moodle as a learning management system. He talked about his successes, struggles and future aspirations for the first thirty minutes of the session and then began showing the audience some of the courses the staff has created thus far. He asked the audience to identify common themes as well as ways his staff could improve their courses (a welcomed opportunity for interaction in what is typically a passive opportunity to sit and listen). Some audience members noted the differences among courses. Some only had the syllabus posted while others had their entire course in digital format. Up until this point, seemingly every person in the room had been WOWed by this district's endeavor. I waited a bit and then raised my hand."The tool hasn't changed the way these educators teach. They've just transferred their worksheets to pdfs and made them available to download for students."The presenter acknowledged this observation and the entire tone of his session changed. He admitted his utter disappointment in the Moodle roll-out process. I had the chance to talk with him in the hallway after his session. He was at a loss because he was under the impression that a new tool had the power to change his staff's teaching practices. His sentiments parallel a recent tweet by Bill Ferriter:
"Technology is not automatically good pedagogy. Instead good pedagogy is just made easier by technology."Literacy, PLNs and good pedagogy all have something in common: a distinct "un-technology" emphasis. I've quoted Larry Cuban once before...
“It is not about technology; it is about learning” (2001, p. 184)....and I quoted him again in my own ITEC breakout session. I came away from this conference having gained more meaningful relationships with my tweeps, but also an even more cynical view towards "the solution to education's problems is more 21st century technology in the hands of our students and educators" movement. Wesley Fryer summed it up a few weeks ago on his blog,
"While it certainly is true 'kids are into technology' today, it is a fallacy that providing these technologies to teachers in the classroom will automatically result in better learning experiences for students."When will those in charge of our "technology" conferences get it, too?
This afternoon, I facilitated a breakout session for our district's "technology showcase." We've been using a "pick your two favorite 60 minute sessions led by a colleague who volunteers once per year to show off the cool technology stuff in his/her classroom" format for several years now. In the past I've led sessions on Web 2.0 apps and most recently last year an introduction to Moodle. Aside from the English teacher next door who has gone completely paperless this year with Moodle, I have not seen a whole lot of "change" in the sessions I've led or led by others either. In fact, a few colleagues have even suggested that this format, while exciting initially, may have run its course. Many of the sessions (my own as well) have been very "tool-centered" in the past, so a colleague encouraged me to change things up and lead a more philosophical discussion on the proper role of technology in education and the steps we might take locally to move in this direction. The program for the afternoon listed my session description as follows:
Here are the slides I used. The slides were not intended to speak for themselves as I created them in quasi-zen style, so I'll add some commentary below to illustrate the points I was trying to make.TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION – Matt Townsley – 1:00 PM, Room 409
Always? Never? Why? Come join us for a philosophical discussion on issues related to the use of technology (or not) in your classroom. You will leave this session with a refined outlook on the purpose and relationship between technology, pedagogy and content.
It's not about technology. It's about learning.Kudos to fellow edu-blogger, Russ Goerend, for an encouraging phone call yesterday as I was putting the final touches on these slides.