A Proficiency Sequence in Action

In my post, “I want to change the world one proficiency sequence at a time,” I explained that with regards to proficiency sequences, “the real beauty is in how unpacking the standard and developing the process gives teachers the chance to teach each level.” A proficiency sequence, then is a useful tool for students, but it’s also an effective road map for teachers looking to immerse themselves in a standard.

One of the challenges of the BC curriculum is comprehending the curricular competency standards. They are incredibly vague. But there is beauty and opportunity in that vagueness.

Unpacking a Curricular Competency Standard

Let’s examine one of my favourite English curricular competencies, Recognize and identify the role of personal, social, and cultural contexts, values, and perspectives in texts.

If I were to create a proficiency scale rather than a proficiency sequence, it might look something like this:

EMERGING	DEVELOPING	PROFICIENT	EXTENDING
The student can show an initial understanding the role of personal, social, and cultural contexts, values, and perspectives in texts.	The student can show a partial understanding the role of personal, social, and cultural contexts, values, and perspectives in texts.	The student can show a complete understanding the role of personal, social, and cultural contexts, values, and perspectives in texts.	The student can show a sophisticated understanding the role of personal, social, and cultural contexts, values, and perspectives in texts.

The language from the BC proficiency scale is used. It’s unclear what each level would look like, so one could add more criteria:

EMERGING	DEVELOPING	PROFICIENT	EXTENDING
The student shows an initial understanding of the role of personal, social, and cultural contexts, values, and perspectives in texts.   The student is just starting to show their understanding but doesn’t have enough details.	The student shows a partial understanding of the role of personal, social, and cultural contexts, values, and perspectives in texts.   The student shows a limited understanding with a few details. Some details are clear, but some are not connected to the topic.	The student shows a complete understanding of the role of personal, social, and cultural contexts, values, and perspectives in texts.   The student shows many details. The details are clear and connected to the topic.	The student shows a sophisticated understanding of the role of personal, social, and cultural contexts, values, and perspectives in texts.   The student has gone beyond expectations with several clear details connected to the topic.

As proficiency scale, an evaluation of learning may seem clear. At Developing, for example, a student knows their evidence is unclear and needs more detail. Great, right? But, let’s take a slightly closer look at the curricular competency standard.

Personal, social, and cultural contexts, values, and perspectives are distinctly different.  The scale, above, suggests that students must touch on all three contexts, values, and perspectives in any given learning opportunity. As such, growth in all three must be shown to be assessed at the next level. What if the student only understands personal and social contexts, values, and perspectives? Would they be assessed at Emerging? What if they had a sophisticated understanding of these two, but not the other? Emerging? Professional judgment might suggest Developing or even Proficient, but then the scale is flawed in its criteria because those evaluations don’t line up with the scale. Hmm.

Additionally, if this scale was attached to a learning opportunity, would the student understand what specifically was incorrect about their evidence? Now a teacher could, of course, add feedback, but does the expectation of all three contexts, values, and perspectives put students at a disadvantage? Is the language made with deficits or strengths in mind?

On that note, let’s examine the curricular competency standard through a sequential lens rather than a proficiency scale lens.

I already stated that personal, social, and cultural contexts, values, and perspectives are distinct; personal contexts, values, and perspectives are different that social contexts, values, and perspectives which are different than cultural contexts, values, and perspectives. What, then, do each of these contexts, values, and perspectives really mean? Time for a deep dive.

Personal contexts, values, and perspectives in texts could refer to the originator, author, main character, or speaker of the text. What is important to them? How do they feel? Why do they feel that way? What was their point in creating the text? Social contexts, values, and perspectives in texts could, then, refer to the originator’s, author’s, main character’s, or speaker’s social connections in a text. Who are the people they interacted with? How did those interactions impact them? How did they make them feel?

Psst…see it? Already, there is a sequence forming. In its simplicity, the originator, author, main character, or speaker of a text is at the center and the people they are connected to form an atmosphere around them.

Personal contexts, values, and perspectives

Social contexts, values, and perspectives

To understand cultural contexts, values, and perspectives, students need to understand that cultural includes habits, beliefs, traditions, and ways of life for a group of people. Elements can include, race, politics, clothing, sexuality, family, food, religion, technology, upbringing, language, sports, dance, appearance, lifestyle, etc. The sheer scope and magnitude of the word, cultural, lends itself as a more complex context, value, and perspective.  I’ll put it after personal and social.

Personal contexts, values, and perspectives

Social contexts, values, and perspectives

Cultural contexts, values, and perspectives

At this point the sequence aligns to the proficiency scale, sorta. It could look like this:

Then…this is what I SHOULD DO	After that…this is what I CAN do	Next…this is what I COULD do	Finally, this is what I can TRY to do
EMERGING	DEVELOPING	PROFICIENT	EXTENDING
Personal contexts, values, and perspectives	Social contexts, values, and perspectives	Cultural contexts, values, and perspectives

or it could look like this:

Then…this is what I SHOULD DO	After that…this is what I CAN do	Next…this is what I COULD do	Finally, this is what I can TRY to do
EMERGING	DEVELOPING	PROFICIENT	EXTENDING
	Personal contexts, values, and perspectives	Social contexts, values, and perspectives	Cultural contexts, values, and perspectives

At this point in the build, one needs to decide if there’s an entry point at Emerging left or more sophisticated criteria at Extending. I prefer to interpret the curricular competency standard in itself as Proficient. In other words, if a student can recognize and identify the role of personal, social, and cultural contexts, values, and perspectives in texts, then they are Proficient in the standard. My rationale for this is that Proficient means to have a complete understanding so to show understanding for all three contexts, values, and perspectives then they are Proficient.

So, let’s go with the former and reduce the language so it is student centered and uncomplicated. I don’t think we need all the words, contexts, values, and perspectives in the wording, so I chose to just keep perspectives.

Then…this is what I SHOULD DO	After that…this is what I CAN do	Next…this is what I COULD do	Finally, this is what I can TRY to do
EMERGING	DEVELOPING	PROFICIENT	EXTENDING
I can recognize personal perspectives in a text.	I can recognize social perspectives in a text.	I can recognize cultural perspectives in a text.

Let’s be sure the criteria are clear and explains what is required as well as how well it should be completed:

Then…this is what I SHOULD DO	After that…this is what I CAN do	Next…this is what I COULD do	Finally, this is what I can TRY to do
EMERGING	DEVELOPING	PROFICIENT	EXTENDING
I can recognize, give specific examples, and explain the personal perspectives in a text.	I can recognize, give specific examples, and explain the social perspectives in a text.	I can recognize, give specific examples, and explain the cultural perspectives in a text.

Let’s also add in definitions. I like this step because if a student cannot provide evidence for a level, we might not actually know if it’s because they don’t understand the curricular competency standard or if it’s a content memorization issue. Interesting, eh?

Then…this is what I SHOULD DO	After that…this is what I CAN do	Next…this is what I COULD do	Finally, this is what I can TRY to do
EMERGING	DEVELOPING	PROFICIENT	EXTENDING
I can recognize, give specific examples, and explain the personal perspectives in a text.   Personal – emotions, feelings, values	I can recognize, give specific examples, and explain the social perspectives in a text.   Social – who one is connected to and how those individuals/groups make them feel.	I can recognize, give specific examples, and explain the cultural perspectives in a text.   Cultural – place, race, gender, sexuality, religion, lifestyle, food, history, upbringing, technology, sports, dance, appearance, clothing, story, politics, language, etc.

Now, there is the tricky business of Extending. The final level needs to connect to the former three and, when done well, surmise a sophisticated understanding of the entire curricular competency standard. No pressure. I chose to turn the attention of the criteria towards the audience, empowering them to explore their personal perspective. One could say the personal perspective wording in the standard could refer to both the authority of the text as well as the reader. Here’s how it looks:

Then…this is what I SHOULD DO	After that…this is what I CAN do	Next…this is what I COULD do	Finally, this is what I can TRY to do
EMERGING	DEVELOPING	PROFICIENT	EXTENDING
I can recognize, give specific examples, and explain the personal perspectives in a text.   Personal – emotions, feelings, values.	I can recognize, give specific examples, and explain the social perspectives in a text.   Social – who one is connected to and how those individuals/groups make them feel.	I can recognize, give specific examples, and explain the cultural perspectives in a text.   Cultural – place, race, gender, sexuality, religion, lifestyle, food, history, upbringing, technology, sports, dance, appearance, clothing, story, politics, language, etc.	I can recognize, give specific examples, and explain how the text has shaped or impacted me.

Teaching to the Proficiency Sequence

Now that the sequence is finished, it’s time to put it into action.

Before firing the sequence at students to apply to a text, it’s important to teach each level of the sequence, beginning with personal perspectives and ending with how a text has shaped or impacted them. Formative learning opportunities are the perfect opportunities for student to develop their collaboration and communication skills. It also gives you the chance to explore how students respond to a variety of texts.

In my English class, we were reading Stoney Creek Woman. For the first level, personal perspectives, I asked students to find three emotions Mary John had in chapter 4 of the novel. Groups created a tableau for each emotion.

Next, I had students write about Mary John’s social perspectives.

In both exercises, students were successful, so in a formative context, they were ready to move on to the next level. It really was that simple.

For the cultural component, we read a poem, “I Lost My Talk” by Rita Joe. We brainstormed what culture means and I asked small groups to come up with cultural perspectives. This is where is got interesting. Students could identify the cultural aspect of language and give the example of the title and the line, “I lost my talk,” but really struggled with the explanation. I had hoped they could see that language shaped the speaker and the loss of it, stolen by residential schools, scarring her, but they couldn’t quite reach that depth. After the whole class discussion, there seemed to be a better understanding. With that said, formatively, I knew I needed to reteach the lesson.

After reteaching the lesson, students watched a Ted Talk, “Why Lunch Ladies are Heroes” and they created short skits about the cultural perspective. Students not only identified the speaker’s impact on the school culture as well as the identity of the lunch ladies and how the stereotype of them morphed into a superhero. Success!

Afterwards, I had students generate answers on white boards for the last level of the proficiency sequence, looking for the personal impact on them. Many groups struggled with finding a profound connection to the text. Many answers were simplistic: I will treat my lunch lady with respect. I learned that lunch ladies are superheroes. When I eat lunch in the cafeteria, I will thank the chef. None of these answers were created with the depth and breadth I was looking for. Then, I noticed that one group wrote this: We often go to the cafeteria, purchase our food, and move on. I never considered the impact they have on teenagers who pass by them. They offer a smile, ask us how our day is, and if we’re shy a quarter or loonie, tell us not to worry about it. They are genuinely compassionate humans. Boom.

Each group shared their answers out loud to the class. Many were in awe of the longer answer by that one group. We discussed why this answer met the criteria. The answer felt personal, there was a clear connection, and it encapsulated emotion.

I learned other important details from the formative assessments besides what to reteach and when to move on. I learned that the complexity of the sequence was on target. As students progress through a sequence, it should increase in difficulty. If each level is similar in complexity, the sequence is not a proficiency sequence, but a series of tasks students need to complete. Seeing the struggle in the last two levels reassured me that the sequence had the complexity required to match to the proficiency scale.

From Formative to Summative

The final step on our proficiency sequence journey is a summative learning opportunity. After teaching each level of the sequence, I needed a learning opportunity that showed their independent thinking. Collaboration is a fantastic skill to practice, but it was obvious that not all students contributed equally to each learning opportunity. Sometimes one or two students in a group of four did all the labour. As a result, I could not justify assessing every student using the group work exercises.

For their summative assessment, I showed students a Ted Talk called, “What I Learned from 100 Days of Rejection,” and asked them to fill out the chart. Students were already familiar with the language of the sequence and while I didn’t formally call the learning opportunity a test, I explained why I needed them to avoid collaborating with their peers, reassuring them that if they didn’t meet their or my expectations this go around, they would get another chance.

Students received checkmarks for each column they were successful. Students then got together, did corrections, comparing others’ answers with their own. Then, we went over the entire learning opportunity, so students knew why they were successful in the levels they received check marks and why they were unsuccessful in the others. I don’t write a lot on the actual papers because the sequence and the subsequent group and class discussion takes its place; teachers need not bog themselves down with repeating the same feedback on all papers when a whole class discussion will meet the same goal. Trust me, this is a time saver.

The next day I gave students an opportunity to tackle the standard again. Students who received Proficient or Extending did not need to retake the assessment (but they could, and some did!), but students with Emerging and Developing did. This time, I gave them the option of watching another Ted Talk (which all students could enjoy regardless of whether they were doing the assessment) or read a short, non-fiction article. A few students told me that they found it more difficult to concentrate, take notes, and recall what they watched because once the Ted Talk was over, they could not rewatch it, so they requested the article, a text that stayed still for them to read and reread. This is a simple anxiety-easing differentiated strategy.

In conclusion

Remember a couple of things before deciding to take on building proficiency sequences.

First, if you can, collaborate with your colleagues on a sequence. I’ve generated many of the sequences on my own. I’ve gotten pretty good at it over time, but consider how powerful it could be to use the same sequence across a grade level or department.

Second, don’t try to make sequences for every single curricular competency standard. Choose a handful of standards. You’re not ignoring the other standards, but you are choosing to highlight a handful.

Third, make your sequences and settle into them for the semester. There will be errors and you will want to tweak, photocopy another 60 for your two classes, and teach it all over again with the changes. That will only frustrate you and your students. (Been there, done that. Chaos I tell you!) Be content with your sequence, avoid wrestling with it, and then tuck into a modifying it at the end of the year or beginning of the next semester.

Next, cycle through the sequence a few times so you gather multiple pieces of evidence of learning. You can still follow your History units chronologically, your Science units can be in the same order as the textbook, and your recipes for Foods can stay the way you’ve always taught them. The question is, do you want to focus on one standard per unit cycling through it a few times within that unit, or do you want to cycle through multiple sequences over several units. The choice is yours.

Lastly, showcase each student’s best evidence of learning. There is enormous pressure to assess equally versus equitably. Remember that you are assessing the curricular competency standard through the sequence. That means, when you ask yourself, To what extent can the student…? you need to answer it with your students’ best interest in mind. That might be the best of two pieces of evidence or the best of five. Each child comes with their own set of unique needs and experiences. Use the sequence to assess with grace.

#MyGrowthMindset