Shouldn’t Be In That Position

As I watched the highlights of the Sunday NFL games, one coach was asked about his team’s one-point loss. He replied, “We shouldn’t have been in that position” and said that the final drive of the game for the opponent did not decide the game. He noted that the team bungled numerous opportunities throughout the game and that no game should come down to the final play.

This is exactly how I feel about the end of each semester; one assignment (i.e. the final) should not determine a student’s success or failure.

I know, however, I will have 5-6 students whose passage in a course will be decided by the final. Of course, the odds would seem to indicate that at least one student won’t make it as well. The parents will beg for extra credit or something else, but I always hold firm; no extra assignments and no retakes on the final. After 18 weeks, a student is ready or is not. If a student can’t pass the final, I don’t want to hear anything.

This would seem to go against my allowing students to retake tests belief, but it really does not. Other tests are the first summative assessment after numerous practices. The final is all review material, so the students will see no surprises. All of the material has been seen before. Plus, my finals are always objective. No excuses, especially when (in reality) the final did not determine the student’s success.

Anyone else feel this way?

ABC For Learning

I have been thinking for the last few days (sad, I know, during vacation time) about how I want to conclude the first semester with my Sophomores. We will be reading The Princess Bride during the final two weeks of the semester before finals begin, so I wanted one more writing assignment to finish off the first half of the class.

Now, I have decided. We will compose an ABC paper. “What is an ABC paper?” you may ask. Well, it is a 26 sentence paper with each sentence beginning with a different letter of the alphabet. The first sentence begins with the letter ‘A’ and the second sentence begins with the letter ‘B’ and the third begins with a ‘C’ and so on. Since we will be reading a parody of the fairy tale story, I think I’ll have the students retell a fairy tale of their choosing.

But, there’s a catch. The 26 sentences have to be perfect! That’s right: no grammar errors, no punctuation errors, no misspellings, no word usage errors, etc. The paper will be worth 100 points or zero points. In a sense this will be the final exam for writing in the class (and the rest of the final will be the vocabulary, literary terms, and the rest of the course content), and I’ll allow the students to rewrite as many times as they want until the day before the final.

I will split my final two weeks of classes into two parts: the first half will be for discussing The Princess Bride, and the second half will be writing and editing time for the ABC paper. I will help students as well without telling the students answers. When I help edit the students’ papers, I will simply put a check beside the lines where I see an error, and the kids have to figure out the error and make the necessary corrections. I will mark the first three errors I see and then hand the paper back to the student, so he/she can make the corrections and ensure the errors do not repeat. I think this will be a good practice for the students, and this group is extremely driven to locate every error, essentially making everything perfect. Here’s the opportunity for perfection.

What I like about the ABC paper is that the students have to become creative. Varying sentence structures must be used, new words are learned, past vocabulary words are used, the writing is entertaining, and the students can’t just shrug off simple errors for the loss of a few points. I think they’ll appreciate the challenge and rise to it.

The Peanut Butter Bandit Is Charged!

The peanut butter bandit in the small Cascade Mountain town of Wenatchee just received four days in jail. Here’s the story:

A former Wenatchee High School student will spend four days in jail for smearing peanut butter on the forehead of a fellow student who he knew was allergic to peanuts.

Joshua Hickson, 19, of Malaga, was convicted of simple assault Tuesday in Chelan County District Court.

“What were you thinking when you did this?” Judge Nancy Harmon asked Hickson before sentencing.

He did not answer, only grinning and shaking his head. Harmon pressed, several times questioning Hickson about his motivation. He did not answer.

“Well, why did you do this?” she said again, asking Hickson if he was trying to be funny, or if he wanted to watch the victim die.

Hickson then answered that he didn’t know about peanut allergies.

“I’ll accept the fact that maybe you didn’t know,” Harmon said.

Hickson had entered an Alford plea, meaning he maintained his innocence but conceded that a jury would likely convict him at trial because of the weight of the evidence. The outcome resulted from a deal between the defense and prosecution. Both sides recommended a four-day sentence.

During lunch at Wenatchee High School on Sept. 8, Hickson heard a conversation in which it was mentioned that a student sitting near him was allergic to peanuts.

Hickson then grabbed someone’s peanut butter sandwich, put his fingers in the peanut butter and wiped it on the boy’s forehead, according to a Wenatchee Police report.

The boy did not suffer an allergic reaction.

“The incident turned out to be fairly innocuous but could have been fatal,” Wenatchee Police Officer Steve Evitt wrote in the report. The victim told police he had suffered a severe reaction to peanuts in the past.

In court Tuesday, Hickson denied touching the boy. But several witnesses told police he did.

“He understands what he did was wrong,” said Lee O’Brien, Hickson’s lawyer. Before sentencing, O’Brien called the four-day jail sentence “severe,” saying that such school-place incidents are common and routinely handled by administrators. In this case, WHS officials sought the charge, according to the police report. The victim’s family did not.

Harmon said she honored the four-day jail sentence recommendation in part because a recent mental health evaluation concluded that Hickson suffers some cognitive deficiencies.

“Had it not been for that, the court would have punished you severely,” Harmon said. She could have imposed a jail sentence of up to one year.

9. Zeroes Should Not Be Factored Into Grades.

In my Standards-Based Grading post three weeks ago, Anon Y. Mous asked that I explain the rationale behind each of the core guidelines involved in the S.B.G. system. I think it’s a good suggestion and here is the ninth core guideline. Please comment with any corrections as I am still learning this new system.

When grading many have popularly disagreed with the notion of the zero. Some argue that it’s mathematically skewing while others say that a zero does not show that no learning has occurred, only that there is no evidence of learning (meaning a zero is unwarranted).

Previously, I had posted this:

Zeroes are not mathematically just. When looking at mathematical formulas, a zero (on a 100 point scale) is an overwhelmingly unfair measure. Zeroes should be counted as 50% when considering grades. Using a GPA scale this makes sense because each grade is a factor of 1 (4 = A, 3 = B, 2 = C, 1 = D, and 0 = F). On a 100 point scale the F range is 60 points versus the 10% each other grade receives.

Also, I have posted this:

A zero may be an unfair grade anyway.

The idea of a zero may be wholly unfair when looked at mathematically or statistically (see case_against_zero for an in-depth explanation). Basically, the article shows how a zero may be unfair to a student because of the way it destroys a student’s average and how difficult it is for a student to recover.

Missing assignments, according to the linked statistical analysis, reveals that a 50% for a missing assignment may be more fair to a student. I changed the value of a missing assignment from 0% to 50% after I had finished grades in June, and—because I weight grades—only one grade actually changed (from a C- to a C). For me, making this change in a missing assignment value has a minimal effect, but for others this could have a drastic effect. In any case, eliminating the zero could be more fair to students and help them excel.

After all my talk I have finally tried not using the zero this semester for formative assessments. So far, I have noticed little change except that the ‘A’ and ‘B’ grades have moved a bit higher in percentage (i.e. 85% grades are now 88% grades). However, my grades in the ‘C’ and below ranges are relatively unchanged. I do weight grades, which tells me my weights must be making overall grades somewhat similar to aspects of standards-based grades.

However, I still use zeroes for temporary markers in my grade book. If a student misses a test or project, I put the zero in until the student makes up the assignment. This is more for parents because they see the immediate impact of a missed assignment, and they help me get the students n to make up work.

Well, what do you think about the zero as a grade?

A Bit Stressed

I’ve been a bit absent from the blogging scene lately. I have a major presentation to the superintendents tomorrow, 90 papers coming in tomorrow, and a broken water line (just after we had a big snow). I will feel quite a bit more relaxed after tomorrow.

On a positive note, Nutter Butters with chocolate fondue is amazing. Thanks to the wonderful person who brought the chocolate fountain!