Planning Assessments

Our current Teach-Now module has us planning lessons and creating assessments (formative and summative). The formative assessments I created for our most recent homework assignment are aimed at California Theatre Standard 1.1:  Use the vocabulary of theatre, such as acting values, style, genre, design, and theme, to describe theatrical experiences. Unpacked and reworded, the objectives for a lesson plan aligned with this standard are: Students will be able to recognize and understand the vocabulary of theatre. Students will be able to use the vocabulary of theatre to describe various elements of a theatrical production. The following assessments follow a progression from see it, write it, say it, to explain it, and finally, to use it. They require the students to actively engage with the vocabulary and the assessments are very much student-driven activities, both of which should reinforce learning.

Entrance Ticket - One Question Quiz

This assessment will take place at the beginning of a class period the day after the vocabulary has been introduced. The vocabulary terms will be on the whiteboard. Each student will be handed a slip of paper with one definition on it (a different one for each student). They will be asked to write the corresponding term in the space provided. (Depending on the ratio of students to terms, some students may have to get more than one term or students may have to work in pairs.) Students will have 90 seconds to write down the term they believe corresponds with the definition they have been given.

When the 90 seconds is up, I will read each definition out loud, one at a time, and ask the student who received that definition to tell us the corresponding term. After that student has shared, I will ask the class for thumbs up or thumbs (sideways means "I don't know.") If a student provides me with an answer that gets a lot of thumbs up (90% of the class), great! We move on. If the answer gets a lot of thumbs down, I will ask one of the students who gave a thumbs down to share what they think the answer is. If I get a lot of incorrect thumbs up to the answer or a lot of sideways thumbs, I will identify a student who knows the right answer and have them explain it to the class.

If a student doesn't have an answer for me when I call on them, they have one opportunity to "pass." I will come back to them at the end. By that time, enough terms should have been eliminated that they can make an educated guess.  Ideally, this exercise will only take 10 minutes. If it takes longer, if there are a lot of thumbs down or sideways or passes, I will know we haven't spent enough time learning the terms.

Think, Pair, Share - Reading and Recognizing Terms in Context

This is a passive recognition assessment. each student will receive a photocopy of a theatre review, a critique of a professional production that has appeared in a major publication so as to assure the highest quality of writing and to make a real-world connection. (Each student will receive a different review). Students will read the reviews on their own and highlight terms they recognize. Then they will be paired up to discuss what they each found.

Discussion Question: What theatre terms did the writer to use to describe the show? How did the use of each term help paint a clear picture of the show? In other words, what did you understand about the show because of the terms the writer used?

Be prepared to share with the class. Your partner should help you find any terms you missed and help you if you are struggling to explain your findings.

The think portion of this exercise should take 5 minutes. The pair portion should take about 20. And the share should take 3-5 minutes per student. This activity will likely take an entire class period.

There should be a follow up session to cover anything the students missed, whether they missed picking up on a term in their review or if they struggled to explain its usage in the text. This follow up could take anywhere from just 10 minutes, if the class has a strong grasp of the terms, to an entire period if they don't. If they are really struggling, I know I have not planned effective learning activities.

Watch & Write - Active Use of Terms

This exercise will demonstrate a student's ability to use the vocabulary to describe a theatrical experience. Students will watch 20 minutes of the Broadway production Into The Woods (on DVD). They will then be asked to write down three terms they can use to describe the production. I will check that they have three terms before they proceed to the writing component.

They will then write one paragraph describing what they experienced (saw, heard, experienced), incorporating the three terms and providing specific examples of each. This will take an entire class period. Students who do not finish in class will have to finish it as homework. This is a graded assessment and grading will be based on the following criteria:

Outstanding - student used more than three terms and used a specific example for each.

Proficient - student used three terms and some or all of them were supported with specific examples.

Basic - student used three terms but did not provide any supporting details.

Insufficient - student used fewer than three terms and not enough supporting detail.

I have come to understand two things about assessments during this module: (1) good assessments (ones aimed specifically at measuring how well students are meeting the objectives) lead to effective lesson plans, and (2) good formative assessments serve not only to gauge student progress but to reinforce learning and mastery.

Sources

Dyer, Kathy. 22 Easy Formative Assessment Techniques for Measuring Student Learning. July 12, 2013. Northwest Evaluation Association. Retrieved from https://www.nwea.org/blog/2013/22-easy-formative-assessment-techniques-for-measuring-student-learning/

Wormeli, Rick. Formative and Summative Assessment. Stenhouse Publishers. November  30, 2010. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/rJxFXjfB_B4

Backward Mapping & Lesson Planning

This week I was introduced to the concept of Backward Mapping, a method of lesson planning that begins with...the end. You start by asking yourself what you want your students to know and do by the end of the lesson, create assessments that demonstrate their knowledge and ability to apply that knowledge, then design the actual lessons. Formative assessments along the way are also helpful to help you gauge student progress along the way (Backward Design, 2013). Certainly, having worked as a Project Manager and Theatrical Producer-Director, working backwards is not a new idea. I started with the end goal, a successfully completed project or production, and worked my way backwards on the calendar, identifying what needed to be accomplished when.

But the focus was more on the required tasks and time frames, not learning outcomes, given these were not educational goals. I have applied this method to my teaching many times. But it has only been partly successful because there were not clearly defined learning/performance outcomes and applicable assessment tools. Take, for example, the high school theatre classes I have taught. While there was always an educational component thrown in, the end we were working towards was a final production with only loosely defined grading criteria. I am thrilled to learn and apply what had previously been missing.

So today, I am going to apply Backwards Mapping to a California Theatre Arts standard for grades 9-12. Published by the California Department of Education in 2004, many states use California’s standards as a jumping off point for drafting their own because theirs are rigorous standards specific to each discipline (music, dance, theatre, visual arts) with broad applications (Visual and Performing Arts Framework, 2004 and AFT Resolution, 2014). I especially like the standard I picked because it creates more broad relevance for the student, connecting skills learned in theatre to other areas of life. As an advocate for arts in education, I always strive to help people understand how, among other benefits, practicing the arts develops useful life and job skills.

For this exercise, I have chosen Standard 5.1: Describe how skills acquired in theatre may be applied to other content areas and careers. Students will need to understand the various skills learned in the process of mounting a theatrical production. They will also need to understand the kinds of skills students need to succeed in other subject areas as well as skills needed for a variety of jobs not theatre-related. They will demonstrate this understanding by describing the connection between theatre skills and the world beyond theatre, either in an essay, multimedia presentation, or oral presentation (differentiated according to student choice/special needs).

I recreated the design template created by Grant Wiggins to guide me through the process (Wiggins, 2005). I admit that I still struggle with this process because much of it feels redundant, like I am simply restating the same thing in different ways. But maybe that’s because I picked a simple standard for this exercise. Time will tell. The part of the process I appreciate most is that it ensures the activities in each lesson are relevant rather than random, always leading to up to meaningful assessments which exist to serve the originally stated goals. This is going to improve my teaching significantly. Click on the image to see lesson plan.

Sources

AFT Resolution: Require Comprehensive Data Collection In the Visual and Performing Arts. 2014. American Federation of Teachers. Retrieved from http://www.aft.org/resolution/require-comprehensive-data-collection-visual-and-performing-arts

Backward Design. 2013. The Glossary of Education Reform. Retrieved from http://edglossary.org/backward-design/
Wiggins, Grant. Understanding by Design - Overview of UBD and the Design Template. September 2005. Retrieved from http://www.grantwiggins.org/documents/UbDQuikvue1005.pdf
Visual and Performing Arts Framework for California Public Schools. 2004. California Department of Education. Retrieved from http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/documents/vpaframewrk.pdf