It's Self-Assessment Time!

Well, here I am, posting another blog entry. You know what that means? My maternity leave hasn't started yet. Yup. Still pregnant over here.

In another news, it's time for all of us to think about our SMART goals for this year (even if you're on a two-year plan carried over from last year, it's still a good time to reflect on how it's all going). Now, I know it's tempting to jump right in and just get those goals drafted, but I want to urge you all to go through the self-assessment process before drafting specific goals for yourselves. But, I also know that that teacher rubric that's part of the educator evaluation system is a bit verbose and cumbersome, and doesn't always paint a picture of how what it's measuring all breaks down inside the classroom walls. So, I've been fooling around with the idea of adding bulleted questions for each indicator on the rubric as a resource to use when self-reflecting. A couple weeks ago, I posted the questions I'd drafted so far. Recently, I've added substantially to this, so thought I'd re-post my new and improved version.

These questions aren't meant to be judgy or nit-picky or anything else. Just look at them as a way to make the standards and indicators come to life a bit more. In answering them, it's my hope we'll all be pointed in the direction of some really effective and impactful goals for our educator practice. (Plus, they could be helpful when determining how to provide evidence per indicator.)

(Also, I'm available -- well, primarily after I return from my maternity leave, whenever that starts! -- to provide instructional coaching in any/all of these areas!)

Here you go (note -- these are just for the first two standards of the teacher rubric, as these two standards focus on instruction and assessment, which is my thang, y'all):
 

The Goal/Vision	Focus Questions
Curriculum & Planning: Knows the subject matter well, has a good grasp of child development and how students learn, and designs effective and rigorous standards-based units of instruction consisting of well-structured lessons with measurable outcomes (Standard I, Indicator IA)	·      How rigorous are the tasks you engage students in? ·      Are students working within their zone of proximal development (ZPD)? ·      What assessment practices do you use that help you to determine where each student's ZPD is? ·      Are students working towards completing a task that’s too easy, too hard, or just right (for the time allotted in the class and for their readiness/skill level)? ·      How comfortable do you feel with your lesson planning formats and structures? ·      Do you consistently include challenging, measurable objectives (and do these objectives end up being "lived objectives" during the lesson)? Are these objectives truly measured/assessed (whether informally or formally) during each lesson? ·      Are all tasks students are asked to do during the lesson preparing them to meet the lesson’s objective? ·      Do your lesson plans consistently include structures like activators and summarizers? ·      Do your lesson plans consistently include opportunities for students to learn in groups, using a variety of different grouping strategies? ·      Are there opportunities for assessing student understanding during the lesson? ·      Are there opportunities for all students to practice and to receive feedback during the lesson? ·      How do you preview new content? How do you chunk content into “digestible bites”? What do you do to help students process new information? What do you do to help students record and represent knowledge? ·      What do you do to review content? ·      Is (lively) pacing ever an issue? ·      Are there built-in opportunities for students to receive support during the lesson should they need it, or to be challenged with extensions should that be their need? ·      What do you do to scaffold students to meet success?
Assessment: Uses a variety of informal and formal methods of assessments to measure student learning, growth, and understanding to develop differentiated and enhanced learning experiences and improve future instruction (Standard I, Indicator IB)	·      What types of assessments do students experience in your class? Is it a wide range? ·      How often do you use formative assessment data (this could be informal or formal) to inform your instruction for the next day(s)? Are you able to do this on a regular basis (weekly or even, ideally, daily)? ·      What do you typically do to track student progress? ·      How often do students learn through differentiated experiences in your class, whether they be differentiated by interest, learning style, or readiness? Are these differentiated experiences planned as a result of informal and/or formal assessments you’ve used to measure student learning and understanding?
Analysis: Analyzes data from assessments, draws conclusions, and shares them appropriately (Standard I, Indicator IC)	·      How often do you analyze student data (formal or informal) in order to improve student learning? ·      What do you typically do to track student progress? ·      How often do you provide feedback to students based on formal or informal assessment results? How is this feedback shared? Is the focus on student growth and improvement from both your perspective and from the student’s perspective, or is it more based on a summative-type grade?
Instruction: Uses instructional practices that reflect high expectations regarding content and quality of effort and work; engage all students; and are personalized to accommodate diverse learning styles, needs, interests, and levels of readiness (Standard II, Indicator IIA)	·      Are students provided exemplars and rubrics that help them understand assessment criteria and expectations? Do students know what “good work” looks and sounds like for the lesson? ·       Do you model as often as possible? ·      Do you use a "gradual release of responsibility" (I Do, We Do, You Do) so that students are scaffolded towards success? ·      What do you do to scaffold students to meet success? ·      How engaged are your students during lessons? ·      Is time on task an issue? Are students doing what you want them to be doing? ·      Are all students given chances to practice during lessons (not just those who raise their hands)? ·      What do you do to manage student response rates to questions posed? ·      What do you do to use physical movement? ·      How often do you tier your instruction in order to meet the needs and readiness levels of all your students? ·      Do you feel comfortable planning tiered instruction based on formative assessment data? ·      How often do students learn through differentiated experiences in your class, whether they be differentiated by interest, learning style, or readiness?
Learning Environment: Creates and maintains a safe and collaborative learning environment that motivates students to take academic risks, challenge themselves, and claim ownership of their learning (Standard II, Indicator IIB)	·      Do you use rituals and routines consistently in your classroom? Do these rituals and routines enhance opportunities for learning in your classroom? ·      What do you typically do to establish and maintain classroom rules, routines, procedures? ·      What do you do when there is a lack of adherence to rules, routines, and procedures? ·      Are your expectations so communicated and enforced (through rituals, routines, and appropriate responses) that students eventually "own" them as well? ·      Do your lesson plans consistently include opportunities for students to learn in groups, using a variety of different grouping strategies? Do you teach your students how to effectively work in groups so that these opportunities are as impactful as possible? ·      Do you provide regular opportunities for students to reflect on their own strengths and weaknesses? To goal-set? To monitor their own progress?
Cultural Proficiency: Actively creates and maintains an environment in which students’ diverse backgrounds, identities, strengths, and challenges are respected (Standard II, Indicator IIC)	·      What do you do to understand students’ interests and backgrounds? ·      Do you consistently enable students to demonstrate respect for their own and others’ differences (related to background, identity, language, strengths, and challenges)? ·      Are you able to anticipate conflicts or misunderstandings that might arise from differences in backgrounds, languages, and identities? Are you then able to effectively respond to these conflicts or misunderstandings?
Expectations: Plans and implements lessons that set clear and high expectations and also make knowledge accessible for all students (Standard II, Indicator IID)	·      Do your students clearly understand your expectations of them? ·      Could they describe these expectations to someone else? ·      Are students provided exemplars and rubrics that help them understand assessment criteria and expectations? Do students know what “good work” looks and sounds like for the lesson? ·       Do you model as often as possible? ·      Do you use a "gradual release of responsibility" (I Do, We Do, You Do) so that students are scaffolded towards success? ·      What do you do to scaffold students to meet success? ·      Do you model ways students can set challenging goals for themselves? Do students have opportunities to set such goals for themselves in your class? ·      Are you able to consistently adapt your instruction and/or assessments in order to support all students (including ELL students and those on IEPs)?