The A Team: Love when a Plan Comes Together

What Does It Look Like when a  Backward Plan Comes Together?

     This video clip if from a television show from the 80's, the A-Team.  Yes, it was a bit violent and cheesy but was one of only three shows on network TV when I was a kid.  Often the team had to overcome great challenges and solve a crime or dilemma.  Every week there was a plan developed.  George Peppard was the brains and always saw the solution first and then created the plan.  At the end of each episode where all was resolved he'd say, "I love it when a plan comes together."  As I reflected on the recent walkthrough with Dr. Mausbach I thought about this quote and realized that we are working our plan.  I believe positive result is on the horizon.

     Successful middle school engage student in all aspects of their learning.  The answer to this is to balance bother summative and formative classroom assessment practices and information gathering about students.  The key is to think of summative assessment as a means to gauge, at a particular point in time, student learning relative to content standards.  Summative assessments happen too far down the learning path to provide information at the classroom level and to make instructional adjustments and interventions during the learning process. It takes formative assessment to accomplish this.  Formative Assessment is part of the instructional process. When incorporated into classroom practice, it provides the information needed to adjust teaching and learning while they are happening. Our school improvement plan has focused on using formative assessment to guide Tier I intervention.  While we may not have seen it come to full fruition with our Iowa Assessment Result we have seen huge changes in the assessment culture within our classrooms.  

     Specifically, evidence of strong alignment to curriculum was seen in 7th and 8th grade social studies classrooms.  The seventh grade examples had written response using evidence from text to support their answers.  The teacher asked kids to persuade their audience.  This use of close reading gave students the opportunity to apply their knowledge in a relevant way.  The second seventh grade example also asked students to respond constructively to a specific prompt.  Again, students were asked to cite evidence to support their answer.  Most importantly, it was clear that these teachers used their common planning with a mindset of backward design to develop their lessons.  These student work displays were excellent examples that should be reviewed by staff.

     I also want to highlight an 8th grade example also.  Again, curricular alignment was evident.  The teacher had highlighted anchors and student models with cited evidence.  The work was clearly tied to the rubric that was used for assessment.  The student work was rigorous and specifically tied to a relevant task.

Backward Design Graphic

Ask yourself how did your student work display align with this view?  When you compare it and what you ask students to do daily; does it align with our lookfors?  Backward planning is the key to reaching A-Team status with highly engaged students and higher achievement.

  Let's get this plan to come together!