Teaching & Learning in the 21st Century

Narrative

Nightingale Middle School English teachers knew they wanted to provide their students with the type of feedback that could be leveraged into learning opportunities.  Often, test questions give an overall result, without a deeper look at particular standard performance. Most tests, whether formative or summative must also be graded “by hand” and this slows the process and efficacy of feedback for students. 

The English Department decided to utilize the Learning Management System, Schoology, to build question banks, and track standards, while providing immediate feedback to students.
    
“Teaching to the test” is never our goal as educators.  Providing real, actionable information to both students and teachers, identifying areas of need for students so that instruction can be both dynamic and personal, elevates preparation to empowerment of the individual.

“What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.” - George Bernard Shaw

The English teachers at Nightingale Middle School have been exploring how to improve exam feedback to students, particularly for the SBAC exam, to make preparation practices authentic and personal for students, rather than teaching to the test.  These dedicated educators have begun the process of answering this question:
 
How can test feedback and results analysis be functionally improved through the use of digital tools,
to empower learning beyond the exam?


This exemplar was curated during the development process.  The English Department had
created teacher groups, built the practice SBAC question banks, and planned the date for
delivery to students.  This narrative describes the process of setting up the Learning  Management System to target specific standards. The process will be replicated department and school wide to create more common assessments.

The English Department has found their team success!
Schoology - A Learning Management System Features used by the English Department in this lesson:
 
  1. Groups - The English Department created a teacher group to collaborate on the creation of practice exams and question banks.
  1. Group Resources/Folders - The English Department used this feature to store the exams and question banks, so that all teachers could access and edit the material.
  1. Question Banks - The English Department created these to make flexible banks of practice questions that can be added to or adapted over time.
  1. Align Learning Objectives - The English Department used this feature to tag and then track each question with its specific standard or learning objective.  This will allow the teachers to get specific feedback on which standards students need the most support with.
  1. Tests/Quizzes - The English Department used their question banks in the test generator feature to create the practice SBAC exams.
  1. Copy to Course - The English Department used this feature to copy the created questions and tests into each teacher’s course, to be used for their students.

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