Formative Assessment Strategies and Moves with Dr. Duckor & Dr. Holmberg

Episode 014: Dr. Brent Duckor & Dr. Carrie Holmberg, Mastering Formative Assessment Moves
In the foreword for this book, Dr. John Hattie describes the work of Dr. Duckor and Dr. Holmberg as “[bringing to life] how to think of one’s self on a trajectory of powerful practices that unite instruction and assessment.” In many conversations, we tend to separate the two and don’t think deeply enough about the intersection of instruction and assessment. A highly recommended read from the 2 authors with publisher ASCD. Our conversation with them should give you a good idea of what their perspective before or after you read.

Connect with Vrain Waves
Twitter: @VrainWaves | Becky Twitter: @BeckyEPeters | Ben Twitter: @mrkalb

Connect with Dr. Duckor & Dr. Holmberg
Twitter: @BrentDuckor, @CarrieHolmberg | Website: http://validitypartners.com/ | Book: Mastering Formative Assessment Moves (Amazon | ASCD)

Links & Show Notes

• Skip to Minute 7:55 to get to the Interview with Drs. Duckor & Holmberg
• Out of Our Heads and Into the Classroom (03:51)
• Two Truths & A Lie (04:07)
• Create a meme (4:44)
• Analogies (05:26)
• Introductions to guests (06:47)
• 7 moves: Priming, Posing, Pausing, Probing, Bouncing, Tagging, Binning
• Priming: Preparing the groundwork; establishing & maintaining norms; acting to acculturate students to learning publicly
• Posing: Asking questions that size up the learner’s needs in the lesson and across the unit
• Pausing: Giving students adequate time to think and respond as individuals or in groups
• Probing: Asking follow up questions that use information from actual student responses
• Bouncing: Sampling a variety of responses intentionally & systematically to better map the terrain of student thinking
• Tagging: Publicly representing variation in student thinking by creating a snapshot or a running record of class responses
• Role of Formative Assessment (08:52)
• National Research Council, 1999 book: How People Learn: Mind, Brain, Experience, and School (free pdf download)
• “Kids are better served when we build the bridges from where their own understanding is to the content than when we ignore it and pretend that they’re a blank slate.”
• Why do Formative Assessment (10:57)
• Identifies the gap between what we think we’re teaching and what the students are understanding
• Teacher decision making and the formative assessment moves (13:32)
• Sound principles in educational assessment (14:23) - 2001 National Research Council: Knowing What Students Know: The Science and Design of Educational Assessment
• Observation and interpretation
• Priming & visibility of thinking (15:36)
• (From the Book: “...priming can help make not only learning visible, priming can go a long way toward making students visible”)
• Practical uses of priming (16:43)
• “We all have the right to be wrong.” “We all can risk an explanation.” “Our voices should be heard.”
• Habits of Heart / Habits of Mind (18:15)
• Dr. Holmberg on being a better listener, having language for the moves to get better at them (19:27)
• Pausing (20:50)
• Essential to processing time
• Mary Budd Rowe on Wait Time; another
• Kenneth Tobin
• Pauses of 3 to 5 seconds are where the magic happens
• Inside the Black Box, Black & Wiliam (impact of FA on student achievement)
• Balance between efficiency and authenticity with follow up questioning
• Tagging (26:38)
• Visual representations of student responses
• High tech or low tech
• Releasing control & embracing anxiety (29:49)
• “Teachers, like artists, are often dealing with the complexity of the moment.”
• Tagging around the room or virtually, what do we do with tagging after the process (32:57)
• Bouncing as a precursor to tagging (34:05)
• Assessment triangle - p 44 (Cognition, Observation, Interpretation), how students develop competence (34:18) from Knowing What Students Know, NAP
• Synchronizing the 7 moves & using common language (36:08)
• Targeted bouncing on student writing (37:24)
• Binning to make instructional decisions (38:20)
• How do we get better at the 7 moves? (39:40)
• STEM & misconceptions (41:10)
• Predict → Observe → Explain routine from Stanford (41:30) - use for your teaching
• Dr. John Hattie
• Dr. Lorrie Shepard, University of Colorado
• Jim Popham
• Robert Linquanti, WestEd
• Assessment-Capable Learners; student role in formative assessment (43:52)
• Transparency with students with FA (45:35)
• To learn more from Brent & Carrie: validitypartners.com (free resources & email links)
• Takeaways with Ben & Becky (47:55)
• Tweet us @VrainWaves with your Formative Assessment Moves!!