What Happens When You Evolve Assessments From Paper To Pixels

Transcript

Kris (00:00)

Welcome everyone to the Learning Loop Podcast, your best source for educational insights and trends. I’m Kris, your host. Today’s special guest is Lindsay. She is a Seesaw Power user and a multi -year Seesaw Connect presenter. Lindsay is a first grade teacher in Maine and we are so happy to have her on the show. Lindsay, welcome.

Lindsey Davis (00:35)

Thank you so much for having me.

Kris (00:38)

So excited to hear all your awesome answers today. We’re gonna kick off with just a baseline here. What role do assessments have in your teaching approach?

Lindsey Davis (00:48)

Well, assessments are a really big part of driving instruction, especially for younger learners. We really have to check in with where they’re at because they make so much progress in such a short amount of time. So we always want to make sure as educators that we are checking in with where they’re working so that we can hopefully continue their learning and continue their progress the best way possible. So I know that Seesaw has been able to make a really big impact on that because we can have students you know, working independently on assessments when they’re using Seesaw and now with the really awesome advancements with the self -check feature, you know, we can do some really great things in the classroom to make sure we’re keeping track of where our students are at.

Kris (01:34)

The, for sure, first graders grow a ton, as do all students, but I think in the lower years, the primary years, they’re just blossoming. And so being able to make sure that you’re on top of that, know where they’re growing, that’s such a great mindset to have and one thing that you’re keeping tabs on with that. You mentioned a little bit about Seesaw. I wanna lean into this whole aspect of digital assessments here for our next question.

How have digital assessments, and they can be within Seesaw or not, how have they really helped to enhance your students’ learning?

Lindsey Davis (02:07)

Well, I think one of the things that’s been really important in my classroom is the availability of technology to give kids a choice in how they show what they know. Because I know that we have students that maybe don’t feel as comfortable taking a video. They don’t feel very comfortable recording their voice. So we can give them the option to draw or type or write what they’re thinking. And then on the same token, just on the other side, we can think about how there are some kids that really would prefer to just to video record, you know, what they’ve done maybe with a set of pattern blocks in math or maybe something that they were able to circle or do with manipulatives or letters during our reading centers. So video or voice recording would be something that is more comfortable for other children. And I think being able to give learners that choice and give students the ability to pick how they’re going to show what they know can make a really big impact in how comfortable they feel in their classrooms as a safe space to not really worry about an assessment as a test, but being able to display what they’ve learned and then be able to hopefully show their teacher that they’ve mastered it.

Kris (03:19)

And you said it throughout that the whole response to is like having them share in a way that fits them so that they can share the most possible ability of what they’re actually understanding and where they are Such a great approach to make sure that you’re personalizing all those responses as well Our next question here, I just want to I heard a couple examples of some assessments that you do I’d love to just have you share one example of something that you did and

between transferring something from a paper pencil assessment to now a digital assessment. Can you share an example of one of those that you did where you found a profound improvement in transitioning something from a paper pencil to a digital assessment? Can you share any examples of something that you did for that?

Lindsey Davis (04:07)

Absolutely. So the phonics program that my district uses gives the children these word and letter tiles which come on a piece of paper and the students have to cut them out. And when we first began using the program in the district it was a really cumbersome thing to have young learners cutting and having to store their things in you know a little bag and you lost your bag today. Mrs. Davis I can’t find the word cat today. I don’t have that one or my letter J is missing.

when you’re trying to work on all of these letter building, word sorting activities to hopefully help the learners develop those phonics skills. So one thing that my grade level team and I have done is we have taken those word sorting and word building activities and we have moved them into Seesaw. So being able to use the feature where the students can self assess and hit their little check work button has been really, really amazing. Not only does it save us time as educators, but the students are able to show what they know so much quicker. The words are already on the screen. They can read the words and move them and then they can self check. Typically what I like to do is I will pull a small group while the rest of my class is working on their sort because they can see if they’re getting it or not and then I can revisit with kids that maybe have made a mistake or that maybe have made an error or can’t read the words quite yet. 

So it’s been really wonderful to be able to use that feature and the self -assessment as well. And you know the word building, we just use the text box to create our little word, our little letter tiles and they can build their words on the screen and says educators we can walk around the classroom and see in the moment exactly what they’re doing in seesaw and what words that they’re building with the tiles that they have available. So that’s really been just such an impact on not only the efficiency of our lessons but just calming those sorts of executive functioning things that little learners are not always as strong in. So it’s made it a much better time and much more efficient time for real learning and real progress to be made.

Kris (06:22)

Absolutely, and you said it too, is giving you back minutes to actually deliver instruction, to customize learning, to provide more accessible instruction for those students who might need it. Maybe you have time now to pull a couple students over to your table and talk with them and really customize that instruction for them. Whereas before you might have been picking up little pieces on the floor, making sure that you had an extra baggie for the students. It just helps you to just be a more efficient teacher. I love that.

Lindsey Davis (06:51)

Yes, it’s like you’re in my classroom. That’s exactly what happened.

Kris (06:56)

Well, I know that world, being a former kindergarten teacher, I recognize that and I know too that the power that Seesaw can have to just give you back that time to be a powerful teacher and to deliver more instruction to your kids. I love to hear that testimonial and I know too that it warms my teacher heart to hear that that’s actually being a help for you.

Lindsey Davis (07:17)

It is for sure. And even the feature where as a teacher on my end of seesaw, I can look and see the results of those sorts and you know which students were able to sort their words in just one single try and they got it and which students maybe had to try four or five times to get the words into the correct boxes. That also allows me a way to create some small groups that I can be pulling for next time so that I can revisit and reteach if needed.

Kris (07:45)

Love, love, love that information and that data too that you can use. So powerful here as a teacher.

Kris (07:51)

I’m gonna lean into one more question, kind of on this same realm of how assessments are making an impact in your specific classroom. Can you share an example of a time when either an assessment or just Seesaw in general made a profound impact in a student’s growth? Maybe it was providing them differentiated activity, maybe it was something that really allowed them to be able to show what they know in a specific way. Can you just share an example of how Seesaw just had that profound impact, on a specific student’s growth.

Lindsey Davis (08:24)

Absolutely, so one of the things that I like to do in my writing block is make sure that I have a seesaw activity that I share with the students that displays many different pages and each page has a goal that we are going to be working on during that writing unit and one of the things that has been really amazing for some of my writers who are not necessarily struggling but a lot more hesitant to write, they have become really motivated.

by seeing those goals and I use a frame on the screen so that they can take a picture or a video to show evidence that they have mastered that goal. So for example, yesterday we were learning about ending punctuation.

So one of my more hesitant writers, he just really didn’t feel like writing yesterday. He didn’t want to get started. He just wanted to sit and kind of bother the other students that were around him. And so I just had to walk around and remind him, hey, we’re going to be taking a picture or video at the end in the last five minutes. So you might want to think about getting started so that you can take that picture. And that has really been motivating for kiddos like that, that want to have the time to display not only to their

teacher, but to their peers and to their family members that are connected to our seesaw class that, hey, this is what I learned today, this is what I can do when I’m working all by myself. So it’s been a game changer for some of those kids that really just don’t feel like getting started on their work, but want to show evidence of their mastery.

Kris (09:57)

and you spoke to that authentic audience that comes with Seesaw, the family members, the peers, and you as teachers or your co -teachers too even if they’re part of your classroom.

Being able to see what’s happening and see that growth portfolio come to life in that journal and having those students almost hold themselves accountable to say, I want high quality stuff to go in there. I want to make sure that when people see this, they can see what I know and not have to guess at all those things too. So I love that they’re starting to feel that ownership over their portfolio as they grow.

Lindsey Davis (10:34)

Absolutely.

Kris (10:36)

We talked about assessment and now I want to kind of pivot into feedback and kind of how that plays a part in your classroom. I know you’re a first grade teacher so feedback might not be as robust as it could be in like third, fourth, fifth grade. But I do just want to ask you what role does feedback and potentially even like annotation features in Seesaw, what role do those play in your classroom?

Lindsey Davis (11:00)

So one of the things I really like to teach my students at the start of the school year is about the voice comment feature, especially since students that are coming into first grade are probably not as strong readers or maybe they’re not reading yet. So I always like to teach them about how they can notice the voice comment and they can hit the play button if they see that under one of their posts. And one of the nice things that I tend to notice is after I show a lot of that in their seesaw journals for the first few weeks of school, I’ll notice that they’re reading.

parents doing the same when they are checking out their students work instead of just hitting the like button. They will also leave a voice comment and that is really motivating for the students to see their parents name under their post and have that voice comment. And also one of the things I like to do is teach my students about what valuable feedback looks and sounds like. So usually I will tell them that one thing I want to do is I want to tell you one thing that you’ve done a really great job on that I’ve noticed and that you’re doing really well and then the next thing I’m going to tell you is what you can work on for next time so that they know to be listening for those two things. And I’ve noticed also that parents do tend to hear what I am saying to their kiddo and they tend to start to model that structure as well. I know that some parents, they will tend to say, you spelled this word wrong or I didn’t see that you labeled that one correctly because they want what’s best for their kids. 

They want them to know what they can be doing better. But they tend to start to use those compliments as well at the start of their feed which I think can give kids a lot of confidence in their learning and knowing that not everything has to be perfect. We’re always looking out for at least one thing that you’re doing really well and then we can tell you what to move on to for next time.

Kris (12:49)

that approach to provide that compliment, provide that motivation, and then also an opportunity for improvement. I think that having that structure is not only helpful, like you said, for your students, but allowing parents to be a part of that as well so that they can have the conversation points. They can have that information and they know exactly where their student is so that when it comes time for conferences or grading or whatever, there’s no surprises. We’ve all been on this journey together the whole time so that we all know where we need to grow and where we need to continue to move forward. I absolutely love that.

Lindsey Davis (13:23)

Absolutely.

Kris (13:25)

I want to ask you one more feedback question here. I know you talked about feedback that you provide for either like from the teacher standpoint or from coming in for parents to be able to see. Does any type of peer feedback or self -assessment feedback kind of things, do any of those play a role in your first grade classroom?

Lindsey Davis (13:46)

Well, a lot of the time what I really like to do is show off examples. I tend not to show non -examples of student work in my current students class. Sometimes I might save a screenshot or I might save a video of past students work to show as a non -example. But I really do like to be able to call out and celebrate those students that are doing exactly what they’re supposed to do or showing mastery or are making a great example of their work for that day. So it’s

So it is nice to be able to point my students in the area of the class journal, not just tapping on their own name, but being able to look through the feed of what everybody in our class is working on and doing so that they start to notice, you know, so -and -so really tried to start their writing today with a capital letter. I noticed what they did, so I’m going to give that a try today too, because they really enjoy having that call -out, having that celebration for them in that moment. And I have a projection.

where I can show the whole class that example and you know that’s a really big deal for young learners to be able to see their work displayed up on a big projector screen so that is something that I really like to do in order to show students that are headed in the right direction that they are noticed and they are doing a great job but also to the rest of the class like hey this is something that you could try when you are working on your own.

Kris (15:13)

it’s you’re using it also as like this digital, we’ll call it a digital bulletin board, where you’re kind of showing all the best work and making sure that you’re highlighting that, elevating that, even such a simple act as just kind of highlighting that student work, showing it as an example and saying you know great job and showing the whole class that in front of them. That’s such a great way to empower your students but also provide them a sound North Star where you want them to continue to move forward with.

Lindsey Davis (15:42)

Yeah.

Kris (15:44)

We’re gonna jump to our second to last question here. And this is always our loopy question. This is just a silly question that we ask everybody who’s joining. I would like to know what is your teacher slogan? If there’s like one phrase that you say over and over again in your classroom, what would your teacher slogan be?

Lindsey Davis (16:03)

goodness, probably have fun, but work hard. One of the things that I always want my students to know is that it’s definitely okay to have fun. We don’t want things to get too out of hand that we’re not going to still be able to get done what we need to get done though. I really do enjoy being able to work with this age of children and the things that we get to learn are always really, really fun. But I do let my first graders know there is a lot that we have to learn before you’re going to be ready for second grade. So we do have to be ready to work hard at the same time that we’re having fun.

Kris (16:37)

and having fun is so important for wanting to come back to school, wanting to stay motivated to learn, and just enjoy the experience that we have too because, you know, students, especially first grade students, when they’re seven, six, seven, eight years old, they eventually grow up. And we want to make sure that we’re also enjoying those moments too with them and just enjoying them as small little children too.

Lindsey Davis (17:00)

Yeah.

Kris (17:01)

Final question here, Lindsey. If we had somebody who is listening in, maybe they’re a new teacher, maybe they’re new to Seesaw, what advice would you give to teachers who are really aiming to enhance their assessment practices within Seesaw? What advice would you give them, maybe one or two simple steps for them to get started?

Lindsey Davis (17:19)

Yeah, I mean, I feel like anytime that I talk to somebody that is new to seesaw or looking to kind of extend what they’re already doing is to start small. I think that there’s so much that we can do with seesaw, so many different people that are doing amazing things with seesaw in their classrooms, that it can feel a little overwhelming because you want to try everything that sounds so great and wonderful. But just to start with one thing.

pick one thing that you’d like to try in one content area for one week that you would like to implement in your classroom, or to learn from one person, just one strategy that you can take away from what they’re already doing with Seesaw in their classroom, and try to implement that first and see if it works out, see if it’s a routine that you can continue, and then you can add on from there. Because if you get overwhelmed with all of the different choices or all of the things that you could try, then you’re probably not

to try much of anything because it can be hard to implement 10 things all at once. So just starting small is my advice.

Kris (18:24)

Spoken like somebody who’s been a long time educator and someone who also understands technology integration at such a deep level. I absolutely love that advice. Lindsay, we are out of time. I just want to say thank you so much for being here this morning. Thank you for sharing your expertise around Seesaw, assessment, feedback, and all of the things that help to grow your students in your classroom. We just want to say thank you so much.

Lindsey Davis (18:47)

well, thank you so much for having me. This was really fun. I always love a chance to talk Seesaw. Yeah, thank you. Bye.

Kris (18:52)

Thank you so much. Bye!