Authentic Assessments: How Shurley English integrates real assessments

So, what’s happening “testing-wise” in your school and in your classroom? Let’s continue the conversation about real or authentic assessments.  (If you missed part one, click here.) In my opinion, it is vital to add these authentic assessments to your “testing bag-o-tricks.” Just look at some of the benefits:

Authentic assessments…

*provide direct measures;

*capture the true nature of learning;

*focus on the process-integrating teaching, learning, and assessing; and,

*provide a myriad of ways for students to demonstrate their knowledge.

Did you know that Shurley English integrates authentic assessments throughout the curriculum?  Let's take a deeper look...

Shurley English provides the opportunity for students to learn grammar and the connection to writing at such great depth that, when the process is taught correctly, the evidence of this knowledge is seen in a child’s writing. We teach students how to really think about using the knowledge they’ve acquired…we teach them to know the content, think about the content, and process the content correctly. 

By demonstrating a Jingle, the teacher is showing the student how to learn a language arts definition and think about it, not just memorize it. 

The questions asked during the Question & Answer Flow are the set of criteria by which we measure a student’s understanding of specific grammar concepts.  So, that’s your rubric, and when your students correctly identify the parts of speech of each word in a sentence or classify a sentence type, using the Q & A Flow, you have an authentic assessment opportunity!

Even though the Classroom Practices/Chapter Check-ups are essentially paper assessments, they’re still authentic.  Students take the information learned and apply it to questions they’ve never seen.  This is teaching them how to think about using the knowledge they’ve learned.

Have you ever witnessed your students revising their Sentence Blueprints/Practice & Improved Sentences and discussing word choice with another student, or simply thinking through the process of finding a synonym/antonym to improve their word choice?  These actions will eventually become second nature to them.  This is a form of an authentic assessment…because it is observable.

Writing is the obvious authentic assessment in Shurley English!  Whether it’s an entry in a journal, a short constructed response answer, a presentation, or the final paper of a formal piece of writing, the teacher can observe a student’s depth of knowledge.  The teacher can see and hear where grammar, usage, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling have been used correctly or incorrectly.  In Shurley English, the Writing Evaluation Guide (WEG) and Teacher Rubric are key components to the process. The WEG teaches students how to start thinking about what they write and how to apply the skills they’ve learned to their writing.  The Teacher Rubric is used to measure the student’s work against specific criteria. 

I’m suggesting this…

If you imagine the process that the student experienced in learning specific information, understanding the information, and then actually applying the information in a meaningful and realistic scenario, it’s clear that IS an effective form of assessment.

So, don’t just leave your academic assessment up to the paper test, AND AVOID TEACHING to TEST! Be creative and assess your students’ knowledge with authenticity and purpose.

“Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted, counts." -Albert Einstein

Are complex sentences all that complex?

Are complex sentences all that complex? Not really! If you want to see how simple complex sentences can be for young writers, read on.

When I work with young, developing writers, I like to make new concepts seem like they’re no big deal, even if they are a bit abstract. Take writing complex sentences, for example. When you write a complex sentence, all you are doing is making two related ideas compromise a bit in the message they carry. In other words, one of the two sentences will be dependent on the other. By using a simple tool called a subordinate conjunction, you can make one of the two sentences subordinate to the other. It does not matter which of the two sentences gets subordinated, nor does the order or position of the sentences matter—they just have to make sense.

Look at this:

Because the traffic in town is so jammed, I take a different route.

Now watch:

 I take a different route when the traffic in town is jammed.

In the examples above, I have the same complex sentence written two ways. The first one requires a comma after the “Because Phrase.” The second one does not require a comma. Now, did you notice I called the first sentence in the first example a “Because Phrase?” The key to getting kids to write complex sentence is all in how you say it! When I want to see my students stretching their writing, grasping at abstract concepts, and wielding their word power, I ask them to use a “______ Phrase” to start their sentence. In the chart below, any of the subordinate words or phrases work with this writing strategy.

I might say something like:

“Okay, writers. For the next sentence practice, please write me a sentence that begins with an “If (insert any subordinate conjunction here) Phrase, followed by a comma.”

Most students seem to naturally infer that a second independent sentence must follow! I always call attention to the comma that comes after an initial subordinate sentence. If the students decide to make the second sentence subordinate, I tell them to “kick out the comma.”

I will do the same many times throughout a week of writing. I might ask for a “When Phrase,” a “Because Phrase”, a “Since Phrase,” or any of the subordinate words from the list above followed by the word “Phrase.” I don’t bother to get into all the nuts and bolts of complex sentences with very young writers, but the point is—students can learn to write complex sentences easily when you use this strategy.

The Importance of Teaching with Enthusiasm

As a certified elementary teacher, I came to realize the tremendous amount of power and influence I had on my students very early in my career.  It was clear that my energy and delivery during certain lessons (either high or low) made an impression and greatly affected the outcome of “how” and “what” my students learned.  Since my goal was to be an effective teacher, I purposefully taught every subject with enthusiasm in an attempt to influence my students in the most positive, productive ways possible to increase learning.

Teaching with enthusiasm became my mantra!  I actually incorporated the words “with enthusiasm” into my daily lesson plans as I prepared for every single lesson.  I focused my attention on teaching with as much knowledge, positivity, and energy as I could.  By doing so, I noticed that my students’ attention, interactions, and test scores followed.  The enthusiasm was contagious!

There are many characteristics that effective teachers display, and it’s important to know that showing enthusiasm is one of them.  An enthusiastic teacher can be described as:

-Energetic

-Seems to enjoy teaching

-Conveys a love of the field

-Has an aura of self-confidence

Engaging students in the learning process can be a challenge, but demonstrating a high level of knowledge and enthusiasm can increase student learning.  

Authentic Assessments: Breaking the Paper Test Cycle

When you think of testing, do any of these statements come to mind?

“I want to see what my students have learned at the end of each chapter.”

“I want to make sure I’m teaching effective lessons.”

“My administrator says I have to have a certain number of scores in my grade book.”

“I’d like to see the strengths and weaknesses of each student so I can know how to differentiate my instruction.”

We’re all familiar with national standardized testing, the numerous true/false or multiple choice tests a teacher gives throughout a school year, along with the benefits these assessments can provide.  One school of thought says that assessments are a key component of learning because it helps students see how well they understand subject specific material.  Others say assessments can help motivate students.  Still, testing often feels like a necessary evil that all teachers must do to show evidence that students have learned the content teachers worked so hard to teach.

I’d like you to consider looking at the way you assess your students through a different lens.  What if your student assessments consisted of noting missed cues while a child reads from a real book; recognizing correct or incorrect grammar usage and punctuation in a student’s essay or hypothesis in Science; or the actual act of using measurement to build a raised garden bed as opposed to solely using typical paper, true/false, or multiple choice assessments?  Assessments do come in all forms!

If you’re differentiating your instruction for students in the classroom, then differentiating the way your students are assessed is a strategy for best practice.  To me, it makes sense why, in school, I thrived with hands-on and oral work, but struggled taking paper tests; I’m still a horrible paper test-taker, but ask me to “show” you how something applies to a real life scenario, and I’ll nail it all day long. That’s what a REAL Assessment or Authentic Assessment is all about!  You might have heard the terms, Performance Assessment, Alternative Assessment, or Direct Assessment-all common names for the Authentic Assessment.  These kinds of assessments ask students to demonstrate the knowledge and skills they’ve learned when applying them to real-world tasks— then measuring their performance against a set of pre-determined criteria in the form of a rubric.  REAL Assessments value the thought behind the work and the process, as much as the finished product.

So, before you start planning all of your paper tests, consider learning more about and creating a real, authentic assessment. Your students will welcome the opportunity to show their knowledge in a new way! 

“Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted, counts." -Albert Einstein

-You have just read part one of a series on Authentic Assessments. Are you ready for part two? Click here.

Can I teach Shurley English out of sequence?

The Shurley English curriculum is uniquely designed to teach students about language arts in a logical, sequential, and systematic way.  Each feature of the curriculum scaffolds into the next as students learn how to make the connection between grammar, writing, speaking & listening, and reading.  So, have you ever wondered if a lesson could be taught out of order? As a consultant, I’ve heard this question before, and the short answer is: Teach it in sequence. Let me explain.   

Periodically, you may need to locate a specific English Language Arts (ELA) rule or to teach a skill in isolation, and that is fine; however, you must realize that Shurley English follows a distinct scope and sequence.  The scope includes the depth and breadth of ELA skills being taught in a specific grade level and the development of that content across grade levels.  The sequence includes the order in which the ELA skills should be taught within each grade level and across grade levels.

Most ELA skills are taught and practiced in ways that are unique to Shurley English.  The techniques for teaching these English skills have been carefully developed to make sure students understand the entire thought process necessary to learn a new skill.  The curriculum is designed to provide ample practice so that students can master concepts.  

The Question & Answer Flow (Q&A Flow) is a multi-sensory strategy that teaches students how to identify and label the role of each word used in a sentence.  The Q&A Flow must be taught in a succinct, consistent order for abstract language arts concepts to become clear and logical to all learners.  Teachers must follow the oral classification scripts provided in the teacher’s manual with fidelity.

Shurley English writing instruction uses student-friendly writing scaffolds that pave the way for exceptional writing.  Chapter 4 (in most grade levels) teaches students about the traits of effective writing as well as the six steps of the writing process.  Once students learn how to engage in each step of our standard writing process, it is okay to teach any particular purpose for writing out of sequence if the need arises.  In some states, one particular writing genre might require attention earlier in the school year than it is taught in the curriculum. As long as the writing steps have been mastered by your students, just use your best judgment about teaching the genres out of order to fulfill those requirements.

So, let’s get back to the original question of teaching Shurley English out of order.  While some teachers may know the curriculum through and through, it is best to teach Shurley English curriculum in sequence.  That way, you won’t miss any of the phenomenal growth and success your students will have when they learn English the Shurley English way!

Vitality in Veteran Shurley English Teachers

Visualize this scenario:  It’s early August, and as you scroll through your inbox you see the first of many emails from your school administrator.  “Already!?!” you say to yourself as you hesitate to open it.   You guessed it!   It’s your new school year Welcome Letter and Professional Development Schedule. On the agenda, you notice a full-day training scheduled for Shurley English! Your next few thoughts go something like this: “I’ve taught Shurley English for 5 years now!  I don’t need training!  Maybe I can get out of it this year!”  

Warning:  Thoughts like these are exactly why veteran teaches still need our support!  Take these thoughts as a sign! I know because I’ve been there!

Certified Shurley English consultants typically train new and seasoned teachers from all grade levels at the same time…WHY?  Well, I would say from my experience, we do this because it is an excellent way to ensure consistency across all grade levels.  It also gives us the opportunity to re-motivate and re-inspire teachers who have been instructing Shurley English for many years.  Veteran teachers, me included, tend to develop habits of comfort that can lead to getting stuck-in-a-rut, or so to speak.  We want to make sure all Shurley English teachers understand the BIG PICTURE of what the curriculum was designed to do in order to successfully teach it with confidence and enthusiasm.  A Shurley English-Full Day Training can energize and inspire a veteran Shurley English teacher with what I like to call the “Vital V’s!”

The Four “VITAL -V’s” of a Veteran Shurley English Teacher:

1. Know that YOU ARE VALUABLE!  YOU are the best RESOURCE for new Shurley English teachers. (Never forget what it was like your first year.)  You have a wealth of experience and knowledge to offer the newbies…SHARE IT!  Take the LEAD & step up to the next level, especially if Shurley is your “thing!”

2. Add VARIETY to your lessons! Keep challenging yourself to stay in alignment with the curriculum (teach with fidelity), but add your flare of creativeness to Shurley English; this gets easier the longer you teach Shurley.  Get more engaged in the Enrichment Activities, Discovery Time Activities, or try creating Learning Centers.

3. BE VIEWABLE & VISIBLE! YOU ARE A LEADER & A MODEL TO NEW TEACHERS! Make sure you’re a part of the professional development opportunities no matter how long you’ve been teaching-never stop learning!  With grace, show them how it’s done…because they ARE watching you-observing how you make it work.  INVITE them into your classroom for a Shurley English demonstration.  Mentor them.  Collaborate with them.  Lead them.  Help mold them into a successful Shurley teacher like you are!

4. VOCALIZE with AUTHENTICITY & SINCERITY!  Your thoughts, questions, and concerns need to be heard and can be validating to teachers not willing to speak-up.  When you do speak-up, be genuine, honest, and tactful.  If you see teachers not staying in alignment with the curriculum, I encourage you to say something.  A broken cog in the wheel makes it difficult for the wheel to roll, and the Shurley wheel needs all cogs in place.

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.” -Martha Graham

What is the value of a pretest?

What is the value of giving the Shurley English Pretest if students are not familiar with the curriculum?  As a consultant, I’ve heard this question before, and I want to urge you to listen up!  Even though the pretest may appear extraordinarily difficult, you should never avoid it!  Let me explain. 

You may be new to the curriculum, but as the classroom teacher, you must always keep the main goal of Language Arts instruction in mind.  The goal, of course, is to give students the tools they need to become competent, confident communicators!  Simply stated, you want your students to be able to speak and write with fluency.  

One way to support this goal is to allow students to see their own progress for themselves. The Shurley English Pretest can be used to compare with the Posttest at the end of the year.  You do not need to formally grade the Pretest; all you have to do is file it away in a safe place and pull it out at the end of the year.  Then, students will see the value of the Pretest and the Posttest as they compare the two assessments. They (and their parents) will be amazed at what they have learned during their first year in Shurley English.

So, why give our Pretest? It is simply a benchmark which measures the beginning of the journey into making the grammar/writing connection. As your students grow in their skills, both you and they will be glad you took the time to mark where they began the trip.  That, my friend, is the value of our Pretest.

How to Use the Hyphen Correctly

Knowing how to use punctuation marks correctly is important in any type of writing.  As many of you know, it takes years of practice to apply punctuation rules like an expert.  Recently, the proper use of a hyphen sparked my curiosity, and even though I’ve been using hyphens for years, I decided it was time to revisit the rules for using that “little line.” 

A hyphen is a punctuation mark (-) that is used to form some compound words and adjectives. It is also used to connect the syllables of a word that has been divided at the end of a line. The rules for using a hyphen are straightforward, but a writer can choose to add them for clarity if necessary.  Let’s take a look at the rules!

Whether you’ve tried to use a hyphen in your writing or completely avoided them like so many do, now that you know the rules, you can try adding them once in a while.  The use of hyphens can add voice and personality to your writing! So, go have some fun experimenting with hyphens! 

How to Correct Usage Mistakes

As a teenager in the 1980s, I incorporated some ungrammatical words and phrases from pop culture into my day-to-day dialogue.  One of the worst habits I picked up was saying the word “like” to accent almost everything that came out of my mouth.  (Like, I was totally, like, bad about it!)  Eventually, I stopped, but my bad habit left a scar.  I still have a grammar usage problem with the word like!

It turns out that there are certain words in the English language that create special problems in usage.  These words can cause confusion in both speaking and writing, and the word like is on the list!  The only way to combat the problem is to 1) learn more about the word and 2) use it correctly. Completing a word-study exercise with your students is a great way to discuss word usage. Here's an example: 

Like has multiple uses in Standard English, and it can be used formally and informally when speaking and writing.  Formally, it can be used as a noun, a verb, an adjective, a preposition, and a conjunction.  Informally, it can be used as an adverb.

Etymology explains that the formal usage of like as a conjunction began in the mid-14th century, but many grammarians regard this usage as an error.  Also, since the mid-19th century, grammarians have been engaged in a long and complicated dispute over the use of the word like as a preposition or not.  Many prefer to use as or as if instead of like.  

Here’s a simple way to keep the information straight:  The word like, meaning “similar to,” is a preposition, not a subordinate conjunction.  Use like to introduce prepositional phrases.  Use the subordinate conjunctions as or as if to introduce subordinate clauses.  Examples:

Informally, the word like can be used as an adverb when speaking, but it’s rare to see it written that way.  Authors will use it on occasion for emphasis or to capture colloquialism.  (So, that means I wasn’t totally wrong back in the 1980s!  Right?) 

Remember, a good command of the English language requires mastering the rules and applying them correctly when speaking and writing. I encourage you to make word-study a part of your language arts time. This activity will help you understand the word meanings, how to spell them, and in what situation to use them.

Bonus Activity:

From your word-study activity, create a list of common English usage problems and study it!  You will speak and write with more competence and confidence once your master the lists. We have provided a few example lists for you below, but you can find more resources located in your Shurley English book!

Becoming a REAL Teacher

“It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept."  -The Velveteen Rabbit

When my teaching career began, my brain was full of idealism, brimming with dreams about how effective I would be, how I would influence kids and their families and MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE!!! Well, not unlike the Velveteen Rabbit, my journey was a bit precarious, but the journey was worth it. Let me explain.

It was the fall of 1987, and I was about to embark upon my first teaching assignment. The first day I stood in front of a classroom of 22 fourth graders and introduced myself as “Mr. Lutz, their fourth grade teacher,” little did I realize at that moment how unprepared I was. Sure, I had pored through all my teacher editions and written copious lesson plans in anticipation that my eager young scholars would be begging me to offer them daily golden nuggets of knowledge. The first important step, as I had been told repeatedly in college, was to get the kids writing. So, I did. After the usual first-day-of-school-getting-to-know-you stuff was out of the way, I instructed every student to pull out their journals and write their first entry. I pulled out my journal, too, because MODELING is so important. I was taught that if you write with your kids, they will feel less inhibited. They will value writing more because they can tell that I value it. I discussed a little bit about what I thought I would write about to model HOW to think about journal writing. I was on a roll! The kids seemed receptive with their smiling facings nodding how well they understood and how they just couldn’t wait to put pen to paper and reveal their innermost joys from the previous summer.

I had directed my attention to my own journal after feeling exhilaratingly satisfied with how well I had introduced our journal activity. I suppose I am glad that I didn’t notice immediately that only two or three of my fourth graders had actually started to write something in their journals. After a couple of minutes, I did the teachery thing by asking how things were going.

Crickets…

That’s when it hit me like an intercontinental ballistic missile to my gut... these kids had absolutely no idea what they were doing (and neither did I)!

I hate to admit it, but I floundered for years, trying to find the best way to teach kids reading and writing, knowing in my heart that all of the other subjects I was teaching them were dependent on these two core areas. I was failing, and I knew it, and I hated it. I changed schools and grade levels twice during those first hard years. I kept going to lower and lower grade level assignments in search of answers—answers for why my students couldn’t write a complete sentence off the cuff, why they didn’t seem to notice shifts in tense or issues with subject-verb agreement. And creative writing??? Really??? I finally ended up in a combined classroom of first and second graders. That was where I started to understand that kids were coming to school with little to no background knowledge or schema about the world of school. Many of them had never had a parent read to them past the age of three. Most of them had learned poor language habits by the time they hit Kindergarten. Writing experiences had been limited to learning how to form the letters of the alphabet. They had almost no awareness of words or the sounds that composed them. The list went on and on and on.

And then one day, I stumbled upon Shurley English, quite by accident. It was like waking up first thing in the morning after a soul-refreshing night’s sleep. In literally less than four weeks, I had first and second graders who could read a sentence aloud, tell me the subject and verb of the sentence, tell me the adverbs that were modifying the verb, tell me the adjectives that were modifying the nouns, and tell me if the sentence was a statement or a question. As the program unfolded and I followed the teaching script as if it were my bible, my little learners were identifying prepositional phrases in sentences. When I was a student in school, I didn’t learn how to do that until about the sixth grade!

When I began teaching my primary kids about the various tenets of the language, such as singular and plural nouns and verbs, subject-verb agreement, and punctuation rules in the systematic, methodical, rhythmic way Shurley prescribes, every day became a joy to me because I had literally found the proverbial key to the Secret Garden. I was finally able to teach kids how to understand language the way I understood it. Not only was teaching becoming an even deeper passion of mine, I could tell that my students were loving it, too! Those days in the classroom were glorious days for me. Let’s see…how to describe it—have you ever studied magnets? If you have ever taught fourth grade, I know you have! I remember a fourth grade science experiment I did with my very first class back in the day. We sprinkled iron filings on white paper and observed how randomly the filings were arranged on the paper. There was no order, no pattern, nothing about their position on the page was organized. Then, we gently picked up the sheet and laid it on top of a polar magnet—one that has a north and south pole. Like magic, as we centered the random pile of the spilled filings on the page over the magnet, they immediately moved into a beautiful, almost artistic pattern of curves and arcs that with a bit of gentle vibrating of the page turned into what appeared to be almost a figure eight. We were all astounded!

What does this have to do with teaching Shurley English? Well, for me, having the privilege of teaching this curriculum was just as polarizing for my teaching as that magnet was for the iron filings! What was once chaotic, unpredictable, and just plain frustrating about teaching had transformed into a logical, systematic method of helping students become excellent writers and speakers. With the help of a curriculum that contained both the content my students needed and the methodology I needed, I was finally on the right road to becoming a real teacher.

So…how ‘bout it? Interested in becoming a REAL teacher? Remember, it doesn’t happen all at once. You become. It takes a long time, but with a curriculum like Shurley English, you will be able to stay the course—and it is so worth it.