#standards-based grading

[garth48]

A Gnostic Gospel: Gradelessness in the Time of Covid

I just published "A Gnostic Gospel: Gradelessness in the Time of Covid". It's not as Heretical as it sounds.

From Amy J. Ko

(Like many teachers, I’m suffering from so many feelings right now.  July is winding down.  I’ve been taking classes on distance learning, working on new units, and rethinking how to build a culture of caring, community, and creativity on-line, as it seems that’s the way things will be heading for a while.  I’m also, as my friend @MonteSyrie notes of himself (and so many…

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[antioppression]

How Teachers Are Changing Grading Practices With an Eye on Equity

Joe Feldman contends many of the earnest practices teachers continue to use are hold-overs from how they were graded and may actually be doing harm to student learning.

[mattcoaty]

My third grade students have been working on rounding and estimating this week.  It’s been a challenge as these concepts are fairly new to the entire class.  We’ve only been in school for only three weeks but I feel like we’re in stride now.  Kids and teachers both are in a routines and tests are already on the schedule.

Back to rounding and estimating.   So students have been struggling a bit with these two concepts as we head towards using the standard algorithm. With that struggle comes a shake in math confidence.  Students needed to be reminded of our class expectation of “lean into the struggle” many times during the past week.  It’s interesting how a student’s math confidence changes throughout a unit, or even throughout the year.  This third grade class in particular is working on becoming more aware of their math performance compared to what’s expected.  In order to reach that goal, I dug back into my files and found a simple, yet powerful tool that might help students on this awareness math journey.

Basically, students first read the top row goal. They were then given a die to create an example of the goal.  During this process students circled one of the emoji symbols to indicate their confidence level.  The extremely giddy emoji indicates that they could teach another student how to complete the goal.  The OK smiley means that you’re fairly confident, but feel like you might not be able to answer a similar question in a different context.  The straight line emoji means that you’re confidence is lacking and you might need some extra help.  This paper wasn’t graded and that was communicated to the students.

Regardless of the emoji that is circled, students are required to attempt each goal.  Some students were very elaborate with explaining their thinking, while others tried to make their answer as concise as possible.  After completing this students submitted their work to an online portfolio system so parents can also observe progress that’s been made.  So far it’s been a success.  I’d like to use this simple tool for the rest of the first unit and possibly the next.  It takes time, but as usual in education, the teacher has to decide whether it’s worth that time or not.  In my case, the student reflection has meaning and it’s directly tied to the goals of the class.  I’m looking forward to seeing how these responses change over time. Feel free to click here for a copy of the sheet if you’d like one.

Third Grade Math Confidence My third grade students have been working on rounding and estimating this week.  It's been a challenge as these concepts are fairly new to the entire class.  

[msmcclendon]

"If you’d like to see assessment amount to more than a meaningless exercise in classroom control, if you’d like to see cheating drop and confidence rise, if you’d like to see a higher correlation between the grade you feel a student deserves and the grade on that student’s transcript … take something from this page."

Not just for math!

[msmcclendon]

July 8: Standards Based Grading, Where to Start and How to go Deeper

Presented by Jessica Bogie (@algebrainiac1) & Matt Owen (@_mattowen_) Standards Based Grading is mentioned quite often as we delve deeper into CCSS. We will talk how we started with SBG, how we keep it organized, share a few favorite sites & pointers and turn to the audience to help discuss how to make it even more beneficial for our students and their understanding.

Regan links to this webinar in her presentation, and it provides a very useful foundation.

[msmcclendon]

The presentation that Regan made at a faculty meeting.

[msmcclendon]

Learn how to develop your standards-based grading system with this easy step-by-step process. Turn grading into a meaningful conversation that empowers students.

Includes a .pdf workbook. Though it’s designed to get you started with ActiveGrade (now part of Haiku Learning), it can help you develop your standards-based grading plan regardless of what grading software you decide to use.

[anjimoto]

Working towards future classroom goals

This year's goal was more rigor and I truly think I accomplished that. I got my alternative school students through a novel which I never thought would be possible (and I was told would never happen when I was first hired) and we have been working hard in both semesters and working through the complaints! Next year I think I want to consider more student-centered learning and/or standards-based grading because I think they would lend themselves well to my environment although it would take a lot of work to change our particular culture towards these. Does anyone have any advice, anecdotes, or resources they would be willing to share? For background I teach 12th Grade English to at-risk students so things that work with older students and at-risk students would be especially helpful. Thanks in advance!!!!!