Standards-Based Grading Presentation on Monday

I have to present on Monday to my department the information I learned from a workshop on standards-based grading two months ago, and the presenter used the following works to base his presentation, of which I have read only three:

• A Repair Kit for Grading by Ken O’Connor,
• Mindset by Carol Dweck,
• Transforming Classroom Grading by Robert Marzano,
• Classroom Assessment & Grading that Work by Robert Marzano, and
• Classroom Assessment For Student Learning by Richard Stiggins, et al.

Based on his research the presenter provided a number of points about how standards-based grading works, and these are the primary points I noted on my tablet as we discussed this new type of grading.

1. Student behaviors (effort, attendance, etc.) should not be a part of a student’s grades.

2. Late work does not result in a lower grade.

3. Extra credit should not be part of a student’s grade.

4. Academic dishonesty should not result in a lower grade.

5. Attendance should not be a part of a student’s grade.

6. Group scores should not be factored into individual grades.

7. Performance standards must be clear.

8. Grades should not be based on the mean.

9. Zeroes should not be factored into grades.

10. Homework should not be part of a student’s grade.

11. Grades should be based on more recent evidence.

How do you feel about these eleven points?

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Previously I have blogged about my feelings on grading, and I’m still slowly molding my grading system, but it’s definitely moving towards standards-based grading. Here are some posts of mine on this topic and grading papers:

1. Standards-Based Grading

2. Standards-Based Grading (cont.) (featuring Jim Van Pelt, an excellent blogger)

3. Excused vs. Unexcused

4. Changing Grading May Change Failure Rates

5. The Rule of 24 and Anchor Papers

Teachers Teaching Teachers

I’m a firm believer in teachers helping their own, and I sure wish our professional development days were much the same. Having said that and being a new department head, I figure I have to walk the walk.

This year we have had three department meetings where we have taught one another with the following sessions:

• Socratic Seminars in the Classroom,
• the Thesis Statement and multiple levels of depth,
• Best Practices for teaching To Kill A Mockingbird, and
• the Summary Paragraph.

We have also started a year-long conversation regarding our department’s philosophy about vocabulary.

On Monday we have another meeting where we will look at the students with failing grades to see what is the major cause (which may allow us to help one another with some interventions), and then another teacher and I will share what we learned at a standards-based grading workshop we attended. When I put together the hand-out for the session on grading, I’ll post the major points in another post.

No matter how the standards-based grading session goes, I think The Science Goddess and The Repairman will be proud of me for starting the conversation.

Happy Turkey Day

Don’t forget to count your blessings! These turkeys did.

Small Town Classroom

Even though I work in a large school, I felt like I was in a very small town today. I walked into my classroom and five students (all girls) were knitting scarves and hats. They continued to do so throughout the discussion we had about The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn while remaining engaged and being active participants. (By the way, fish bowls are wonderful tools if you haven’t used them.)

Who says kids can’t multi-task?

Anyway, I just found it quite interesting that in this day and age of the pager, the hand-held video game, and the cell phone, the simple skill of knitting took center stage as students created holiday gifts for friends and family.

Maybe we, the adults, are a bit unfair when referring to our students. I posted the question “Are We Dumber?” and maybe instead of focusing on the kids, I should have focused on how dismissive we can be of our students and their skills. Granted, I defended the kids in my recalling the conversation I overheard, but I don’t think I fully expressed why.

My students regularly create short films, video essays, and technologically advanced presentations for my courses, and I never taught them how to use the technology. They already know how to do it! Yes, maybe another teacher taught them how to do it, but I don’t think it matters. These kids today do things I never had the opportunity (or the inkling how) to do.

Basically, some kids knitting in class impressed me. They made me reflect on how much they really do know that I rarely get to see.

Power Standards

Our district is currently working through a process using what are known as Power Standards to align our K-12 English curriculum and to facilitate a conversation horizontally as well as vertically during the alignment. I think we entered the process believing that this was essentially a scope and sequence conversation among grade levels but now are convinced it’s more about assessment than alignment. Grrrr.

At its heart the idea of Power Standards seems to be a sound one. We take the state’s essential learnings for reading and decide which ones will be a focus at each grade level. Of course, each standard must be assessed and no one objects to this. Where the difficulty lies is what the assessments should look like.

The teachers want to use authentic assessments like the paragraphs, papers, speeches, and the like that we use in the classroom while the district wants state test-like assessments which can be entered into a data matrix, a chart. We’re told the data and assessments are for us, so we want to use what we already do in the classroom since these are common and fuel our conversations already. Simply adding assessments for which we already have data seems redundant.

However, if we’re told how the assessments are to look and how they will be used, are they really ours? This is the question with which we are currently wrestling. We meet again in January to work through this impasse.

Is your district working through this process? How is it going?

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Off-topic, but I have always thought it odd that we assess reading through writing. Do we think this may skew any of the data?