Most schools in Michigan have just completed their first week back with Professional Development & Open Houses and are now ready for students to show up bright and early Tuesday morning.
Norman Elementary at Reed City Public Schools is no exception. This week at Norman, the FAME team (Formative Assessment for Michigan Educators) presented information on specific focus points of the formative assessment process.
*After I gave a quick introduction and shared a short video clip, JACKIE CLARK and Teachers brainstormed on the differences between Formative & Summative assessments.
-Jackie- amazing job on helping us to understand the difference between the two-Thank you!
*Next up was JACKIE RINGLER who shared the importance of using Learning Targets. Each Teacher K-5 has a Ring with laminated cards that include each ELA Common Core Standard and Learning Targets that meet each Standard written in "Kid Friendly" terms. These cards are a visual teaching-tool and can be used in a variety of ways with students.
-Jackie, amazing job on highlighting the Learning Targets cards-Thank you!
*Kathy Sweet, Kylene Nix & Heidi Mellema modeled how to use Writing Folders as a tool for Self & Peer Assessment.
*You all did an amazing job presenting Ladies-Thank you!
Jackie C. was helping in the background (red) with the props.
*Amy Posey's topic was Essential Questions. She had the group assess themselves on how they were they feeling about Formative Assessment- Are they at the beginning stages of understanding; felt pretty good about it and am going to try Formative Assessment this year; or are they very confident and already do the Formative Assessment Process in their classroom.
Then she paired them off and sent them back to their seats to create some Essential Questions.
*Amy, amazing job presenting on Essential Questions-Thank you!
*Tracy Hansen shared Formative Assessment Tools and how to use them in the classroom. Some that she highlighted were Ticket-Out-The-Door, Using the "Sticks" and using the Stop Light or Pie chart. All of these tools help the teacher & the student to gauge their understanding--
Do they understand?/ They think they have it. / Their ready to teach someone else.
-Tracy, you did an amazing job presenting the tools-Thank you!
*Jackie Clark ended the PD with a Think-Pair-Share. She had everyone take a moment to think (think) about this PD and last Spring's PD. Then share with their neighbor (pair) about one thing that they learned and one thing that they want to try this year. Then she asked for volunteers to (share) their answer with the whole group.
-Thanks for starting & finishing for us Jackie- Amazing job!
-I'd like to end this Post by saying Thank you to the MI Department of Education for beginning this Formative Assessment Initiative and giving Myself & Jackie Clark the opportunity to engage in Learning opportunities that will help to have a positive impact on our District.
-I'd like to thank the Board of Education and Administration for supporting this initiative.
-I'd like to thank the FAME team for working so hard last year learning, researching and networking so that we can learn more and share more about the Formative Assessment process.
-I'd like to thank the AMAZING teachers at Norman Elementary for having an open-mind and be willing to try something new, even though your plate is overflowing.
*I'd also like to say that I am VERY exciting about starting another FAME Team...well actually we are starting two new Teams.
-Our first "Formal Team" members are: Myself (Coach), Heidi Mellema, Amy Posey, Kathy Sweet, Jackie Ringler, Kylene Nix and Tracy Hansen
-Our new "Formal Team" starting this year is: Jackie Clark (Coach), Willie Jacobs, Ronnette Boltze, Brian Mumby, Jesse Nix, Marci Hamond, Lia V. and Kelly Stearns.
-The other Team that we are starting this year is the "Formative Assessment-Learning- Community" Team. So far we have 32 Teachers signed up to be part of this Team (Amazing!!)
We will be meeting the 3rd Monday of each month starting in September from 3:30-4:30.
Agenda items will be (but not limited to...) FA videos, new FA tools, articles, strategies and sharing with each other about what kind of FA is going on in the classrooms as well as supporting each other as needs arise.
Vicky
