7+Glossary+of+Terms

Accommodation: The term used to refer to the special teaching and assessment strategies, human supports, and/or individualized equipment required to enable a student to learn and to demonstrate learning. Accommodations DO NOT alter the provincial curriculum expectations for the grade. Accommodations are listed on the student's IEP (Individualized Education Plan) and are specifically required by that individual student in order to demonstrate mastery of curriculum expectations. Some examples of accommodations are: duplicated notes, use of headphones, extra time, etc. These are strategies that are in place for the specific individual student. The student is able to demonstrate mastery of curricular expectations when these strategies are used but would be much less able to demonstrate the expectations as completely without the accommodation. Credit integrity is NOT compromised by the implementation of these accommodations. These are skills and tools that assist the student with demonstrating what they know and are able to do. Think of it this way. I can see without my glasses but I see much more clearly and with greater detail when I wear my glasses

Achievement Chart:  The achievement chart for each subject area and discipline is designed to:  • provide a common framework that encompasses all curriculum expectations for all grades and all subjects/disciplines; • guide the development of assessment tasks and tools (including rubrics); • help teachers to plan instruction for learning; • assist teachers in providing meaningful feedback to students; • provide a variety of aspects (e.g., use of thinking skills, ability to apply knowledge) on which to assess and evaluate student learning. Categories of knowledge and skills. The categories, defined by clear criteria, represent four broad areas of knowledge and skills within which achievement of the curriculum expectations for any given grade is assessed and evaluated.The four categories should be considered as interrelated, reflecting the wholeness and interconnectedness of learning. The categories of knowledge and skills are described as follows: Knowledge and Understanding. Subject-specific content acquired in each grade (knowledge), and the comprehension of its meaning and significance (understanding). Thinking. The use of critical and creative thinking skills and/or processes, as follows: – planning skills (e.g., focusing research, gathering information, organizing an inquiry) – processing skills (e.g., analysing, evaluating, synthesizing) – critical/creative thinking processes (e.g., inquiry, problem solving, decision making, research) Communication. The conveying of meaning through various forms, as follows: – oral (e.g., presentation, role play, debate) – written (e.g., report, journal, opinion piece) – visual (e.g., chart, model, movement, video, computer graphics) Application. The use of knowledge and skills to make connections within and between various contexts.

Achievement Levels:  There are four levels on the achievement chart with level 1 being lowest and level 4 being highest  Level 1 - 50-59% Level 2 - 60-69% Level 3 - 70-79% Level 4 - 80-89% Students achieving below level 1 are failing the course. Students achieving level 1 or 2 are considered to be "at risk". Students who meet the curriculum expectations are considered to be level 3. Students who exceed the provincial expectations will be level 4.

Assessment: is the process of gathering information from a variety of sources (assignments, quizzes, day-to-day observations, conversations, conferences, demonstrations, projects, performances) that accurately reflects how well the student is achieving the curriculum expectations in a subject/course. As part of the assessment, teachers provide the students with descriptive feedback that guides their effort towards improvement.

Assessment for Learning: is designed to give teachers information to modify and differentiate teaching and learning activities. It acknowledges that individual students learn in idiosyncratic ways, but it also recognizes that there are predictable patterns and pathways that many students follow. It requires careful design on the part of teachers so that they use the resulting information to determine not only what students know, but also to gain insights into how, when, and whether students apply what they know. With assessment for learning, the key assessor is still the teacher.

Assessment of Learning: is summative in nature and is used to confirm what students know and can do, to demonstrate whether they have achieved the curriculum outcomes, and, occasionally, to show how they are placed in relation to others. Teachers concentrate on ensuring that they have used assessment to provide accurate and sound statements of students' proficiency. With assessment of learning, the key assessor is still the teacher.

Assessment as Learning: is a process of developing and supporting metacognition for students. Assessment as learning focusses on the role of the student as the critical connector between assessment and learning. When students are active, engaged, and critical assessors, they make sense of information, relate it to prior knowledge, and use it for new learning. This is the regulatory process in metacognition. It occurs when students monitor their own learning and use the feedback from this monitoring to make adjustments, adaptations, and even major changes in what they understand. With assessment as learning, the key assessor is the student

BIP: Board Improvement Plan

Building capacity: the process by which individuals, groups, organizations, institutions and societies increase their abilities to: a) perform functions, solve problems, define and achieve objectives; and b) understand and deal with their development needs in a broad context and in a sustainable way. Capacity-building implies the enhancement of capabilities of people and institutions in a sustainable manner to improve their competence and problem solving capacities.

Diagnostic Assessment: A test given to students prior to a unit of instruction in order to determine the level of students prior knowledge.

Differentiated Instruction: The way in which a teacher addresses the different needs of students in a class. Lessons may be differentiated in a number of ways:  1. Differentiated groups 2. Differentiated tasks 3. Differentiated texts When using differentiated instruction, the expectations of the course are not altered.

EQAO: Education Quality and Accountability Office

Evaluation: is the process of judging the quality of student work on the basis of established criteria and assigning a value to represent that quality. A means of testing students to determine if they meet the curriculum expectations. Evaluations are converted into levels or grades which contribute to a student's overall mark in a course. Evaluations tend to be summative in nature and equate with assessment of learning.

Exemplar: An Exemplar (as opposed to an anchor chart) is an actual sample of a level 3 or level 4 work. Using the above examples, exemplars would be actual samples of a paragraph, a scientific report, and a fine plastered/painted wall.

Modification: Changes made in the age-appropriate grade-level expectations for a subject or course in order to meet a student's learning needs. These changes may involve developing expectations that reflect knowledge and skills required in the curriculum for a different grade level and/or increasing or decreasing the number and /or complexity of the regular grade-level curriculum expectations.

OSSLT: Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test is a mandatory requirement for graduation from secondary school. It is a standardized test of literacy skills (reading and writing) set by EQAO. The OSSLT is developed by the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) and is based on the expectations for reading and writing that are outlined in the Ontario curriculum policy documents for all subject areas up to the end of Grade 9. There are two components to the OSSLT – reading and writing. For the reading component, students are asked to read a variety of selections and answer questions about each selection. The reading questions are designed to measure student achievement in these areas: • understanding of ideas and information that are stated directly in the reading selection • understanding of ideas and information that are stated indirectly and that require the reader to make inferences • making of connections between personal knowledge and experience and the ideas and information in the reading selections (e.g., interpretation of meaning) The reading selections reflect the types of reading materials students should encounter every day, including the following: • informational materials, such as explanations and instructions • graphic materials, such as schedules, graphs, and tables • literary materials, such as stories, descriptions, and dialogues. The questions on the selections include short-answer questions, multiplechoice questions, and questions that require a brief explanation. For the writing component, students are asked to produce four pieces of writing. The writing tasks are designed to measure student achievement in these areas: • development of a main idea • provision of supporting details • organization and linking of ideas and information • use of an appropriate tone for the purpose and the intended reader • use of correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling. The kinds of writing include the following: • a summary • a series of paragraphs expressing an opinion • a news report • an information paragraph. Multiple attempts at the test may be written until it is successfully completed. Conversely, students who have been eligible to write the OSSLT at least twice and who have been unsuccessful at least once are eligible to take the OSSLC (the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course, OLC4O1).

OSSLC:The Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course (OSSLC) was designed to provide students who have been unsuccessful on the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) with intensive support in achieving the required competencies in reading and writing, and with an alternative means of demonstrating their literacy skills.The OSSLC is designed to help students acquire and demonstrate the cross-curricular literacy skills that are evaluted by the OSSLT. Students who complete the course will meet the provincial literacy requirement for graduation. Students will read a variety of texts and will produce a variety of written forms. Students will also maintain and manage a portfolio containing a record of their reading experiences and samples of their writing.Students who have been eligible to write the OSSLT at least twice and who have been unsuccessful at least once are eligible to take the course. Students who have already met the literacy requirement for graduation may be eligible to take the course under special circumstances, at the discretion of the principal.The credit earned for successful completion of the OSSLC may be used to meet either the grade twelve compulsory English credit requirement, or the Group 1 additional compulsory credit requirement. The curriculum document can be viewed at the link provided. http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/secondary/english12curr.pdf

Pre-assessment task: A test or task given to students in order to determine whether students possess the necessary skills and/or knowledge to proceed with the next unit. The results of the pre-assessment task will be used to differentiate the instruction of students in the class. Rubric: A scale that uses brief statements based on the criteria provided in the achievement chart and expressed in language meaningful to students to describe the levels of achievement of a process, product, or performance.

SIP: School Improvement Plan. This plan which is developed by staff, the directions team, and admin addresses four pillars. They are:  Literacy Numeracy Pathways Community of Culture and Caring

SMART Goal: Goals set by teams should have several criteria. The word SMART is an acronym where each letter represents a feature of the goals to be set. There are several variations of the acronym, but the main ones are highlighted in red:  S - specific, significant, stretching (we must know what we want to achieve) M - measurable, meaningful, motivational (we must have data as a basis for our goal and to measure our results) A - agreed upon, attainable, achievable, acceptable, action-oriented (must be something that we can actually achieve) R - realistic, relevant, reasonable, rewarding, results-oriented (must have to do with topics related to student success) T - time-based, timely, tangible, trackable (when will the goal end and how will we know that we have been successful?)

Student Success Teacher: Not a punching bag

Summative Assessment/Evaluation: refers to the assessment/evaluation of the learning and summarizes the development of learners at a particular time. After a period of work, e.g. a unit for two weeks, the learner sits for a test and then the teacher marks the test and assigns a score. The test aims to summarize learning up to that point. Summative assessments/evaluations generate marks. They reflect activities, skills and concepts that were covered, developed and improved upon during formative assessment tasks. For example: unit test, a final essay, course culminating activity.

TLCP: Teacher-Learner Critical Pathway.

What is Evidence? Relevant: Evidence is… • suited to the context of each school • important to the work being done with children at this particular school • rooted in the research of effective schools…what to look for is based on a body of knowledge Example: Students are practicing reading but are not being explicitly taught reading.

Verifiable: Evidence is… • proven to be useful to the whole department • verified by other people who reach similar conclusions (After a discussion and explanation as the team might be defensive when they first hear comments) Example: A SMART Goal is being implemented inconsistently across all courses taught.

Representative: Evidence is… • painting a picture of what students are being asked to do • serving as an example for discussions (Remove anything that would identify an individual or a program) Example: Use of time in a school: students enter the building and do not begin their work until 20 minutes later due to PA and interruptions)

Cumulative: Evidence is… • becoming a way of life at the school; part of the fabric and the way the team operates • being added all the time • supporting earlier observations (School Self-Assessment is on-going and new evidence is identified and added to previous observations) Example: All classroom libraries are now sorted and organized in an agreed upon manner.

Actionable: Evidence is… • causing action to take place • characterized by energy Example: All students now enter the classrooms and move directly into independent work or other purposeful activities.