Reflection
An Interview with Ms. Hernandez, English Department Chair
What is the benefit to students of practicing SBAC; where did this idea come from?
“For us, we decided that the more students are exposed to similar questions as they would see on the SBAC, chances are they are going to be more familiar when they take the official exam. The more practice they get reading and writing, the more they’ll be ready. Practice makes perfect. But it's not just that, we also needed a better way to look at what areas students needed support in.”How long has this been a department focus?
“We started recently due to the interim assessments we were using. We weren’t getting the data we needed. We started looking at how to get quicker, more beneficial data. I like to call this backwards planning: we are focusing on data and coming up with a lesson to address the issue. The interim assessments weren't giving us the information we needed; they weren’t saying whether students were struggling inference or point of view, for example. So we just started this work recently.”What have the students told you? Do they like the practice assessments online?
“They love it; anything through Schoology they love. They enjoy it. Its giving them the practice they need. They appreciate the feedback, and they come up and ask me for feedback all the time. The quicker we all know what it is, we can address the challenges. They want to know how well they are doing.”How has it been shifting to the digital tool for your department?
“Schoology has been super easy to use. We get to collaborate with other teachers through groups. We get the data we need from the tests. It cuts our grading time in half. But the best part for me is that we get to share ideas with other teachers despite scheduling issues, or lack of common planning time.”
Next Steps: Where could Nightingale Middle School English go next?
- The work at Nightingale Middle School is just beginning….
From here they could grow in a number of exciting directions:- Grow their question banks year by year to include more learning objectives, and more question types.
- Develop other department-level common assessments to be used department-wide.
- Act as thought partners for Math or Science or ELD to create their own common assessments, and grow the practice school wide.
- Increase the use of individually assigned assessments to promote and increase learner agency and rigor.
- Guide students in using the personalized feedback to reflect, self- assess, and determine next steps in their learning through reflective writing exercises that could be housed in Schoology and referenced over time.