Office of School ImprovementDifferentiated Webinar Series

Formative Assessment – Uncovering MisconceptionsMarch 27, 2012

Dr. Dorothea Shannon, Dr. Greg Wheeler,Mrs. Thomasyne Beverly

The ultimate goal in school improvement is for the people

attached to the school to drive its continuous improvement for the sake of their own children and

students.- Dr. Sam Redding

Today’s Agenda

1. Welcome (2 minutes)2. Team reports (10 minutes 3. Research regarding uncovering misconceptions (20 minutes)4. Activity/Discussion for participants related uncovering

misconceptions (20 minutes)5. Reflections/Assignment for the subsequent webinar (8

minutes)

Purpose

• To define “misconceptions” and be able to identify “misconceptions”.

• To define “probes”.

• To identify 6 ways of uncovering “misconceptions”.

Team Reporting

• Take one minute and review with your team examples of checking for understanding and feedback that was observed in the classroom since our last session. Select one member to share with the group.

What do these quotes mean?

“ The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education”. Albert Einstein

“Students are emotionally and intellectually attached to their misconceptions because they actively constructed them”. Mestre, 1989

6

Source: Snow-Renner, R. & Lauer, P.A. (2005). Professional Development Analysis. McREL Insights, 1-24.

Jose Mestre said in 1989

1. Misconceptions interfere with learning when students use them to interpret new experiences.

2. Students give up misconceptions with great reluctance.

What the Research Says

How are misconceptions are formed?

1. False preconceptions stem from earlier education

2. False preconceptions come from past personal experience.

From Editure - 2010

Check for understanding

With your team, discuss a student misconception you have encountered.

Probes!!!!

Understanding what is getting in the way of students’ learning by using a formative assessment probe.

Probe? A question purposefully designed to reveal students’ thinking about the concept.

From Editure - 2010

Uncovering Misconceptions

1. The “clinical interview” – Jean Piaget

Ask an open-ended question to probe deeper into a student’s knowledge of a subject. When would be a good time to ask these questions? Write in the chat box.

Continued . . .

2. K-W-L - Donna Ogle (1982)Activate prior knowledge by asking what they already know.

Prepare for new learning by asking what do they want to know.

After instruction, reflect on what they learned.

Continued . . .

3. Anticipation guides – H.L. Herber (1978)

Making predictions about what concepts contained in the text.

Prior to reading have students make predictions, read text then see if predictions are correct. It is very important to discuss what was read and why or why not prediction was correct.

continued

4. Think sheets – P. Anders & B. Guzzetti (2005)

Contrast ideas before and after instruction by answering 1) my questions, 2) my ideas, 3) text ideas.

Continued . . .

5. What is your proof?

How do you support your statements? How do you know that? What is your evidence? Show me where it is in the text.

Continued . . .

6. Augmented activation – Kintsch, (1986)

Designed to cause surprise or incongruity in the mind of the learner.

Taken from Editure, 2010

Instructional Conversations.

Summing it up! Correct students’ misconceptions with a sensitive open-

minded approach Students are not always willing to immediately agree

their notions are wrong Have a classroom environment that is open and trusting Because some of the students’ prior knowledge may be

incorrect, a teacher can best teach new material by identifying, confronting, and breaking down whatever misconception about the subject students bring with them in to the classroom.

From Editure - 2010

What was one idea I learned during today’s webinar that I

plan to share with teachers at my

school?

Team Assignments for Webinar Session 7

Continue using the “Instructional Conversations” from the Editure website.

Begin collecting “artifacts” of classroom work to share in the April web session

Be prepared to discuss which indicators/modules you have worked with the most and how instruction is changing as a result.

Questions?

Next web session - April 24, 201210 a.m. and 1 p.m.