G+Stout



I've created a new page! What a personal and professional triumph!


 * Activity || Group Time || Individual time ||
 * Large group 02/26/08 || 2.0 hrs ||  ||
 * Group work 03/03/08 || 2.0 ||  ||
 * Wiki into/comment 03/04/08 ||  || .75 hours ||
 * Group work 03/05/08 || 2.0 ||  ||
 * Wiki work 03/05/08 ||  || .25 ||
 * Discussion of grading practices with students 03/05/08 ||  || 1.0 ||
 * Rubric evaluation/ looking a grading practices 03/06/08 ||  || 1.0 ||
 * Group work 03/07/08 || 2.0 ||  ||
 * Reading from resource pages; posting link 03/09/08 ||  || 1.0 ||
 * Group work 03/10/08 || 2.0 ||  ||
 * Group work 03/12/08 || 2.0 ||  ||
 * Group work 03/16/08 || 3.0 ||  ||
 * Posting comments 03/30/08 ||  || 2.0 ||
 * Reading supplemental resources 03/09/08 ||  || 2.0 ||
 * Peer discussion (Tami, Rochelle, Ginger) ||  || 2.0 ||
 * Review of 3rd quarter grades 03/30/08 ||  || 1.0 ||
 * Total || 15 hours || 11 hours ||
 * Total || 15 hours || 11 hours ||

03/04/08 I entered a comment about Chapter 1 and lost it somewhere before it was complete. Will try again. 40 minutes

03/05/08 Learning about Wiki 20 minutes

03/05/08 I spent time with students discussing their points of view concerning grades. I received some interesting comments from them. Our author says student participation in grading is essential and the students with whom I spoke are clearly interested and invested in their grades. 40 minutes

03/06/07 I spent time today looking at rubrics to see how come students can earn good grades in English III and not know a lot. It's homework, conventions, formatting, and preparation instead of product, I guess. 60 minutes. I did some reading from the resources page and posted a link (at least I hope so) on the resources page. 60 minutes From the text: Fixes for grades that distort student achievement... We didn't feel like this was a big issue for BHHS, but we did like the idea about a separate reporting device for effort, organization, and other behaviors. It was difficult to conceptualize what that might look like--but we feel that it is important if grades are not to be based on these issues at all. We discussed that there actually are penalties in the real world for lateness (contractors are fined for not finishing a job on time, tax returns must be filed on time, etc). However, the real life skill of talking to someone of authority to negotiate or re-negotiate a deadline is a valuable skill that students would benefit from. Finally, the point about accepting late work being difficult for teachers to get scored and organized was brought up. We all do it. What is five points for a box of kleenex? The issue was that if that bonus seriously impacts reporting academic achievement, then there is a problem. We felt that as professionals we are capable of discerning between 5 points for a box of kleenex and 61 percentage points for physics worksheets. We discussed the fact that this is a huge problem at 7:30 in the morning as students cluster together to copy each others answers and the fact that they do this is based on grades being more important than learning. What do we do when students refuse to do their homework? What do we do when we catch students cheating or plagerising (sp?)? What is the school policy on cheating? What about classes like gym? Vocational classes where attendance is important? We all agreed that cooperative learning is powerful and can effectively raise student performance. We didn't really get to the pro's and con's of grading that way. Maybe on Friday. :)
 * Chapter 2**
 * Fix #1** (Don't use student behavior in establishing grades)
 * Ginger: I really agree with and like this fix. Behavior is an entirely separate issue from mastery of standards, but it's pretty darn easy to slip into awarding for good behavior or penalizing for poor behavior.**
 * Fix #2** (Don't penalize late work--suppport students that have timelines issues with a strong, directed pyramid of interventions)
 * Ginger: This is one of those fixes that sounds so great in the book and on paper, but the logistics of actually implementing it are pretty daunting. Perhaps, an unspoken (what's the word, Sara, for the curriculum that's part of the classroom, but never discussed?) prescriptive approach to individual students may be fix-ish.**
 * Fix #3** (Don't use extra credit or bonus points to skew grades)
 * Ginger: yup.**
 * Fix #4** (Punish academic dishonesty not by deflating grades)
 * Ginger: The cheating thing is pretty huge at BHHS and it's entirely pitiful when the biggest cheaters are the kids who struggle the most with learning. They are the fragile ones. That old pyramid of interventions might help here. When learning is the goal, cheating doesn't get you there.**
 * Fix #5** (Don't count attendance as part of grades)
 * Ginger: This needs to be a part of the culture. Pyramid for students with attendance problems.**
 * Fix #6** (Don't count group scores in final grades)
 * Ginger: I never do. But, what the heck. If we do count group scores, couldn't we just keep the weight minimized and encourage good participation.**

Fix # 7: Reorganize reporting by standards and learning goals.** That would certainly take some thinking and looking at what I do. Reporting student progress chronologically seems the simplest, most expedient way to report. If we look at it through a different lens, the idea is a good one, especially if we intend to teach in a standards based enviornment...shouldn't we report in that same enviornment? That would take a lot of community education, but it could be done over time.
 * Chapter 3

This one is really snaggy and sits at the biggest point of confusion for me about grading. What the heck does an "A" mean? What letter grade is proficient? Novice? etc. But without these letter grades, how would we figure GPA?....Unless we send every BHHS student to St. John's in Santa Fe, we have to continue to issue letter grades which are assigned a point value. I'm a child of the 60's and not opposed to revolution, but this grass roots movement will take some time! What I really liked about this fix were the definitions of achievement, growth and progress. I believe that each of those are worthy, although the fix wants to focus on achievement. In a more holistic teaching enviornment those three nouns would all reflect the effects of our efforts on students.
 * Fix #8: Provide clear descriptions of achievement expectations.;**

I agree with this one. Obviiously clear learning goals and quality assessments preclude that.
 * Fix #9: Don't assign grade based on comparisons of students to one another**.

Absolutely. Do they carry quality assessments at Walmart? Having access to quality assessments is probably the only reason I would ever stomach a statewide curriculum...or a nation wide one, for that matter. This will get sorted out in my lifetime, if I live a nice long while. Meanwhile, I believe that we can not train too much in alignment of learning goals with valid and reliable assessments.
 * Fix #10: Always use quality assessments**.

Fix 11: Get rid of the mean...use other measures to grade and include professional judgement (gasp!)** Oh, the math! It's so easy this way. I am going to look at a more considerate weighting of tasks and assessments.
 * Chapter 4 (03/10/07)

Fix #12: **Don't us zeros when evidence is missing, etc. Consider using other measures to assess ACHIEVEMENT**. For those of us who sort of dig the power of the well placed (and motivating) zero, this is taking away some serious control. However, students used to be regularily beaten for the sake of their education, so maybe we should entertain this notion. I dunno.....

I liked this chapter in spite of all the math. Of course, all of the scoring I do is by the numbers....from the rubrics that are added up to the total points grades given at the end of the quarter. Guilty, guilty, guilty. And I thought we were so clever.

I think Lee's points about quality assessments are very valid. We **must** have quality assessmets before we assign indicators of learning. As I ponder a first step, I'm pretty sure that's it. It's pretty wild to think about how we report learning when our measures might be less than stellar. Of course, they might be pretty darn good, too. That's a big hurdle, but, a manageble one, I believe. When we convince **ourselves and our stakeholders** that we accurately assess student learning, then the grades we give to students that reflect that learning are lots more palatable. TA DA!

I believe that folks will **always demand** some sort of mathematical, read emperical, proof that grades are fair.

So, basically I like the idea of changing our grading system from a purely points based, mean grade to a wiser reflection of learning....With all deliberate haste. of course.

Fix #13: Don't use formative work/assessments for grades; use summative only.** Now this is like communism...lovely on paper, but tough in practice. Teaching Englishi s a tricky business because students are always using, re-using, learning, re-learning and refining skills in so darn many areas. It's hard to determine just what is summative and what is formative some of the time. I can use the old "assessment FOR learning / assessment OF learning" template" which helps. But what about the year long repeated practice...(MLA style, for example)? Do I break this down into more bite sized bits learning goals and call it summative?
 * Chaper 5

This would certainly take care of those students who do not have a level of acheivement that is commensurate with earned grade. If I simply used summative assessments with no accumulated evidence...BAM down the tank with some of those high grades that keep me awake nights.
 * Fix #14 Which took me to this fix. "Don't summarize evidence accumulated over time when learning is developmental and will grow with time and repeated opportunities; in those instances, emphasize more recent achievement."**

__

What I've noticed about the study so far...Aside from frequent mention of student motivation, the affective nature of student/teacher/school/community interactions aren't mentioned. So, what about all of that? Where does that fit in with what we do? If at any time, teachers can separate the affective side of adolescence from the adolescent, I'll surely be interested. Is it all about student proficiency?


 * I especially appreciated that today we (with Cheryl's prompting) found a couple of points on which we agreed: 1. Cheating is a problem at BHHS 2. We need to address how we grade students.**

Thanks, Kathy for the additional readings.

Over and out.

March 14, 2008** The formative vs summative as a basis for grading debate rages on. It seems to really boil down to a homework question. If we give homework and don't count it toward a grade will students give a learning sufficient practice and make timely progress? Can we rely on class time alone to give a student ample opportunity for learning or are we obligated to encourage students by adding high stakes homework? I think that we need to find a middle ground between a do-your-homework-or-else approach and the summative assessment as the summit of learning and grading. I liked Kathy's idea that suggests a changing percentage as students grow, Older students are probably more able to apply intinsic motivation and mature approach to learning.
 * Chapter 6

So much of this PDP was incredibly interesting and ....confusing. We found that for the most part we, as teachers at BHHS/MS, aren't doing very much of what O'Connor suggests. That leaves us with the question: Are our grades broken? As I spent time with an open mind (well, sort of) looking at the 2008 3rd quarter grades, certain students lept forward. I found several who received grades that reflected diligence, lots of compliance, and good attendance but not actual achievement. I found much too much of the grade that students earned was based on formative assessment with plenty of daily work and completion scores thrown in the mix. On top of that, the grade was determined by a mean score determined from the beginning of the quarter until the last day. In the interest of full disclosure (confession?), the semester grade is the final mean score from both quarters. So. there it is. I have to face that some kids are not earning grades in English class that reflect actual achievement.
 * Final Thoughts:**

So, I guess the answer to both essential questions is: "not 100%," I know that, for a good number of students, the grade they earned in English III is an accurate reflection of achievement (and progress and growth..sometimes). But, for a significant number that's not the case. Darn. Broken, I guess.