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Workshop Featuring Grant Wiggins

The Role of Feedback in Differentiated Instruction:

What it is, What it isn’t, and How to Ensure that

‘Formative Assessment’ is Really Formative

A Workshop Featuring Grant Wiggins

The phrase “formative assessment” is on everyone’s lips these days in education. But many so-called formative assessments are just ungraded tests or quizzes with do-overs. Formative assessment is fundamentally about useful feedback against long-term goals and opportunities to use it – as an observation of any good coach or a person playing video game reveals. The last two decades of direct research and meta-analysis also converge on the idea that some of the greatest gains in learning come from improving the feedback loop for both students (and teachers).  This workshop will build on the participants’ working knowledge of differentiated curriculum by focusingthe lens on the essential component of formative assessment.

Feedback is not evaluation, nor is it advice. Feedback is information about how you are doing against a goal. In this thought-provoking and practical workshop, Grant Wiggins will provide a conceptual framework for understanding what feedback is and isn’t, and numerous practical tips on how to seek, receive, use, and give feedback to others.

Workshop Directors:

Lisa Wright, Ed.D. and James Borland, Ph.D.

Dates and Times:

March 30, 2012 9:00 – 4:00 with Grant Wiggins (for all participants)

April 27, 9:00 – 4:00 with Lisa Wright, James Borland and other conference staff (for participants enrolled for non-degree credit)

Requirements:

BA or equivalent

Target Audience:

Teachers, administrators, consultants, college professors, curriculum designers, and other interested practitioners and researchers.

Requirement for Participants Enrolled for Non-Degree Credit:

Attendance at both days March 30 and April 27, 2012

Preparation of assigned readings for April 27

Short paper with topic to be determined by student with instructor approval. (Students graduating May 2012 are welcome to submit the paper early so a grade can be posted in time to meet the graduation deadline requirement.)

Enroll Now!

Non-Degree Credit (March 30 and April 27): $1231 per 1 credit

Non-Credit (March 30 only): $220                    

Conference Faculty:

Grant Wiggins is the President of Authentic Education in Hopewell, New Jersey.  He earned his Ed.D. from Harvard University and his B. A. from St. John’s College in Annapolis. Grant and his AE colleagues consult with schools, districts, state and national education departments on a variety of reform matters. Over the past twenty five years, Grant has worked on some of the most influential school reform initiatives in the world, including Ted Sizer’s Coalition of Essential Schools, the International Baccalaureate Program, the Advanced Placement Program; state reform initiatives in New Jersey, New York, and Delaware; and national reforms in China, the Philippines, and Thailand.

Grant is perhaps best known for co-authoring Understanding By Design, the award-winning book on curriculum design used all over the world in schools of education. He is also an author for Pearson Publishing on more than a dozen textbook programs in which UbD is infused. His work in UbDhas been supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and the National Science Foundation.  Grant is also widely known for his work in assessment reform. He is the author of Educative Assessment and Assessing Student Performance, both published by Jossey-Bass.

For the past twenty-four years, Lisa Wright, Ed.D. has been the Director of the Hollingworth Center, a program within the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University that functions as a service, research, and demonstration site. Under Dr. Wright’s leadership, the Center develops model programs and offers enriched educational services for graduate students, children, families, and educators.  Dr. Wright is also an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at Teachers College where she teaches graduate courses in curriculum design, education of the gifted, and early childhood; supervises student teachers and practicum students; hosts conferences for educators; and co-directs an annual summer institute on differentiated curriculum for teachers and administrators.  Lisa holds a Master of Arts Degree in Education from New York University and a Doctoral Degree in Curriculum and Teaching from Columbia University’s Teachers College. Before coming to Teachers College, she taught in private and public schools at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. She has published in peer review journals and in co-authorship with James Borland has received two Paper of the Year awards from the National Association for Gifted Children. Lisa presents nationally and internationally with private and public schools. Most recently, she shared the work of The Hollingworth Center with several schools in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Lisa’s research interests include curriculum design, middle school girls and science, and twice exceptional students.

James Borland, Ph.D.