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What You Think Your Students Are Learning But Aren’t: Collaboration as Eye-Opener

Camille KingmanOrem Junior High School (UT)ckingman@alpinedistrict.org

NAfME National In-

Service Conference

2014

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What You Think You Are Teaching But Aren’t: Delusions Revealed

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Confessions of a Collaboration Hater: Learning to Love Group Work

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What You Can Learn from What Your Students Aren’t Learning

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GoalsTools and resources

What collaboration looks like: a professional learning community of music educators in action

How to collaborate

How to use data

How collaborative work ties into new National Core Music Standards

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Tools

choirplc.com

choirhelp.weebly.com

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Tools

+choirplc.com: Scope Page

+choirplc.com: Assessments

Page

Password: choirplc

+choirplc.com: Data Page

+choirplc.com: Formative

Assessments Pages

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Tools

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PLC by the Numbers4 years of high-functioning collaboration

11 junior high schools 17 choral educators0 district administrators3500+ students each fall3 levels of curriculum46 common assessments created to date

+How We Got

Started Monthly meetings

Summer grant in 2011

Unpacked our state core curriculum

Created specific benchmarks for 7th Grade Choir, focusing on music notation skills

Divided into sub-groups to complete work

Wrote a comprehensive pre-test and post-test

Made a SMART goal

Gave the assessment and collected student data

+Unpacking

“Identify and define standard notation terms and symbols for pitch, rhythm, dynamics, tempo, articulation, and expression.”

+Beginning Pre-Test, 2011-

2012

Proficient 9% Not-Proficient 91%

+Beginning Post-Test, 2011-

2012

Proficient 45% Not Proficient 55%

+How Did We Do?

We finally knew where we stood.

We made some progress, 347 more students showed proficiency.

We did NOT meet our SMART goal and we were SHOCKED.

We had taught the basics.

We had been more meticulous about our teaching than ever.

We had talked about teaching more than ever.

How many years had we been in denial about what our students were learning?

+Why Didn’t We Give

Up? Inexperienced

Mistakes

Unrealistic goals

Didn’t know how to write quality assessments

Difficult to collect data

Didn’t know how to use data

Worked so hard and still had many failing students

We didn’t receive a collaboration grant for 2012

+Why Didn’t We Give

Up? Greater organization

Heightened team collegiality

Accountability to members of the team

Improved teacher instruction

Increased student learning

Access to resources

Getting over the delusion “I taught it, they got it.”

+Beginning Pre-Test, 2012-

2013

Proficient 22% Non-Proficient 78%

+Beginning Post-Test, 2012-

2013

Proficient 69% Not Proficient 31%

+Beginning Assessments, 3-Year

Comparison

Pre-Test Post-Test

9%

45%

22%

69%

20%

75%

Proficiency

2011-2012 2012-2013 2013-2014

+This Year’s Baseline

Proficiency Data

9%

22%20%

15%

2011-2012 2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015

+Where We Are Now Meet 2-3 times a month

Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced Curricula

Collect common data on formative assessments, not only summative post-tests

Unified use of Mastery Connect software for data collection

Teacher website

Student website

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How do we collaborate?

+Collaborate with those who share your same

discipline. Specialize within music disciplines (band, choir, orchestra) if you can

You will need to have the support of your administrators

Reach out beyond your physical school site

Use technology to collaborate

Increase your collaboration proficiency, then collaborate with other educators who might not teach what you do

New national standards will help in collaboration amongst diverse arts educators

+Collaboration is NOT

CooperationEvent PlanningCollegiality

+Collaboration IS

Shared values and vision centering on students’ learning

Collective teacher learning and application of learning

Shared personal practice

Action and experimentation orientation

Shared leadership

+What do we want our

students to know? What do we want a 7th grade student leaving my choir class to

be able to know and do?

Intended, enacted, assessed, and learned curricula

Do we want our students to learn how to sing and interpret a piece of music they just picked up?

Do we want our students to memorize symbols and definitions?

Do we want our students to learn how to take multiple choice tests?

Do we want our students to learn that music reading skills are separate from the “fun” music-making they enjoy outside of the classroom?

+What is essential?

Must know

Good to know

Nice to know

Ultimately, only you know what is essential for your students in your situation.

Your list of essentials will evolve, and probably shrink, as time passes.

+What is essential?

Facility in solfege

Letter names on the staff

+What is essential?

Aural skills Terminology

+Start small.

The “easy” project will be far more difficult than you realize.

Choose one unit in one level of curriculum.

Choose concepts/objectives that are easily assessed.

In large PLCs (5+ teachers) divide work amongst subgroups.

Be patient with yourself and others.

+How will we know if

they learned it? Answers are more elusive than you think

This is the course in assessment writing that you never had. You have to write an assessment. It will take longer to create than you predict. You’ll finally finish, and you’ll be proud. You have to actually give the assessment. Once you have used the assessment, you’ll hate

it. Repeat.

+How will we know if

they learned it? Moment of truth

Nothing will be scarier than the first batch of data

Checkups versus autopsies

Assessments are just as much for the teacher as for the student

Allow a minute for you and your students to adjust, logistically and psychologically

+Common

Assessment Assessment is not common until data is

collected and shared.

Be very specific about data collection. When Where What How

Use technology: the computer is better at grading than you anyway.

+Avoid the DRIP

syndrome.Data

Rich

Information

PoorWhat do we do with data once we have

it?

+Pre-Test Data

Establish a baseline

Adjust curriculum for the classroom

Adjust curriculum for individual students

Inform assignment of students to teams for group work

Fix mistakes in assessment

+Formative Data

Assessment FOR learning

Not for the purpose of putting assignments in the grade book

Provide immediate feedback to students

You will need help Extra time in the day Student teachers and college students Students who are already proficient Technology

+Formative Data

Dialogue with students

“How did you get this answer?”

Validate students’ problem-solving skills

Learn how to think as your students think

Adjust future teaching to align with the styles of your students

+Item Analysis

+Item Analysis

Beginning 7th Boys Beginning 7th Girls

+Item Analysis

What is the content of Questions 20 & 21?

Is there a better way to assess the content of Questions 20 & 21?

What is Question 24 asking?

How did my colleagues teach that content?

Is Question 23 too easy?

Entire District Questions I Should Ask

+Item Analysis

+Formative Data

Reflect: What did I do to teach this the first time?

Re-teaching does not mean to repeat the teaching you did the first time.

Provide experiential learning before assigning verbal terms.

Take another look at the question. Is it assessing what you think it is? Is it unnecessarily tricky? Is it worded in student-friendly language? Is the graphic clear? Are the answer choices too similar to one another? Is it simply a bad question?

+Item Analysis

Questions 1-5 are terms matching.

Question 6: Give the note names for mi, sol, ti, do’ in G Major.

Critical thinking

Abstract

Many skills needed to answer this one question

Advanced Formative #1 For Your Consideration

+Formative Data

Which measure is louder, m. 39 or m. 41?

True or False: The steady beat is faster in m. 39 than in m. 46.

+Formative Data

Unpack all of the skills needed to answer the question in order to foresee incorrect student transfer of knowledge. Measures Beat versus rhythm Dynamic markings Articulation markings

+Teach each other how to

teach. Reflect on your personal students’ data.

What do you learn about your own teaching?

Reflect on the data of your students versus the student data from another school. What do you and your students do well? What can you share with your colleagues? At what do your colleagues excel? What can you learn from them?

Reflect on your team’s collective data. What is working? What is not working and how are we going to fix it?

Do not tell people how they must teach.

+Summative Data

Assessment OF learning

Accountability to the collaborative team

Celebrate student (and teacher) progress

Plan and revise for the next group of students in your class

This kind of data provides only one limited perspective

+Agree to disagree.

Consensus comes only after lengthy debate. Disagreements are inevitable. Your ego will heal. You will learn little if you are more concerned with avoiding

conflict.

Create group norms. Starting and ending on time Providing thoughtful agendas before meetings Not interrupting, allowing each member to speak REALLY listening and considering all ideas Bringing treats

Celebrate all of your team’s efforts, even the failures.

+Revelations

RIP: “I taught it, not my problem if they didn’t learn it.”

Brilliant, unassuming students are hiding in your classes.

The “Why do we have to learn this?” question is less terrifying.

The initial investment of time to teach curriculum at the beginning of the year leads to quicker learning of repertoire, more singing as the year continues.

There is no more your students and my students. They are our students.

Process versus product

Group construction of knowledge in the PLC

+New Standards

The Artistic Processes are Creating, Performing, Responding, and an overarching Connecting.

There is no Reading (music in notational systems) Process.

Can you still create, perform, respond, and connect to music if you cannot read notation?

Does reading notation help in the creation, performance of, response and connection to music?

Standard notation is explicitly mentioned in AS2 (Creating) & AS4 (Performing).

+Where Notation Fits in the

New Standards Specifically mentioned in:

AS2: MU:Cr2.1.E.8b AS4: MU:Pr4.1.E.8a, MU:Pr4.2.E.8a

Implied in: AS1: MU:Cr1.1.E.8a AS2: MU:Cr2.1.E.8a AS3: MU:Cr3.1.E.8a, MU:Cr3.2.E.8a AS4: MU:Pr4.3.E.8a AS5: MU:Pr5.1.E.8a AS6: MU:Pr6.1.E.8a AS7: MU:Re7.2.E.8a AS8: MU:Re8.1.E.8a AS9: MU:Re9.1.E.8a

+New Standards

Understanding by Design Stage 1: Big Ideas Stage 2: Real-World Performance Assessments Stage 3: Skills and Knowledge Required

1994 National Standards now constitute the Stage 3 skills and knowledge of the 2014 Standards.

Shift from behavioral objectives to constructivist objectives

The majority of our PLC work historically has focused on basic skills and knowledge.

A powerful conversation led us to develop performance assessments this summer.

+New Standards:

What’s the Big Idea? For this PLC work currently? Big Idea? Enduring

Understanding?

Essential Questions for Anchor Standards 4 & 5 How do performers select repertoire? How do performers interpret musical works?

How do people pass music on from one to another? Culture to culture Throughout history This question could be asked fruitfully over and over and

over… There are multiple answers and multiple avenues for students

to make meaning.

+PLC Practice: An Analogy

to New Standards Music - Traditional and Emerging Ensembles Strand

Anchor Standard 3: Refine and complete artistic work.

Enduring Understanding: Musicians evaluate, and refine their work through openness to new ideas, persistence, and the application of appropriate criteria.

Performance Assessment (MU:Cr3.1.E.8a): Evaluate and refine draft compositions and improvisations based on knowledge, skill, and collaboratively-developed criteria.

This is what you are doing with curriculum and assessment within a PLC!

+What now?

Use assessments with us; share and analyze data with us.

+What now?

+What now?

Use assessments with us; share and analyze data with us.

Use assessments within your own PLC; share data amongst yourselves to inform your teaching practice.

Use assessments as a starting point in your own PLC, and then adapt/create assessments that better meet the needs of you and your students. Will you share them with us?

Begin working in a PLC of music educators on curriculum of your choosing. Please share your journey with us.

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Camille Kingman

ckingman@alpinedistrict.org

choirplc.comchoirhelp.weebly.com