Chapter 2
Chapter 2 talks in great length about shifting our thinking about grading. A new grading paradigm is needed if grading practices are going to change.
“The new standards-based paradigm is really a philosophy that redefines learning. Learning is defined by the standards--not by what students know, but by what they can do with what they know. Evidence of learning is not repeating information but demonstrating the action of the standard.”
Question #2 Think about your current practice. Do you ask students to show what they know or show what they can do with what they know? How can you change a “know” task into a “what they can do” task? How does your feedback to students differ between the two types of tasks?
As far as how to ask students how to show what they know vs what they can do, I would say that would lean more to project based learning. So for example, I am teaching classes about empathy. Instead of saying to the students, please list three examples of empathy. I would instead ask for the students to point out actual examples of students in their class who have shown empathy. They would actually demonstrate actions that would show empathy. I think we would also need to offer choices to our students as to how they can show what they learn. For example, we may ask students to build a diorama, draw a poster, or if they wanted to write a new ending to the story they read they could. We would be giving students a chance to choose the way they wanted to demonstrate their knowledge so they could pick the avenue they felt they were most comfortable with. Chapter 2 also brought up an interesting point regarding the last assignment penalties. The author mentioned we should grade students based on academic skills separately from skills of organization and work ethic. That statement has been floating around in my head since I read the chapter because it has me intrigued how we could implement that and still keep our kids working hard in their classes. It definitely makes sense to me, just have to figure out how to pull that off.
ReplyDeleteIt takes the development of skills to be applied into higher level of thinking tasks. Students would have to have a good foundation in the skills/knowledge to be able to show what they can do with their learning. I believe this leads to more project based activities. My concern is how the teacher evaluates the various levels of learning. Is it subjective? When students come at different levels of aptitude, do we grade their efforts, or ability to show what they've learned? This is still gray for me.
ReplyDeleteIn my class the students learn how to use quotation marks correctly within their writing. I could have the students show me their understanding/learning of this skill by writing a story with the characters talking back and forth to each other using correct punctuation, rather than simply editing sentences in isolation on a worksheet.
I think at the 2nd grade level, the students would need more one on one conferencing as their feedback. I believe it would be effective, but have concerns about the amount of time it takes. Less content would be covered, but more learning would take place.
In my current practice, I do a combination of both. I test what they know, but also look to see if they can apply the skills. I think the end goal is to turn our students into critical thinkers. My thinking is we help them develop these skills by teaching them the fundamentals, but ask them to apply their skills instead of just regurgitate back facts. How do we do this? We can do this through projects, open-ended investigations, and writing where students are asked to apply what they know.
ReplyDeleteI had a history professor in college that put an interesting spin on her class. We still learned historical facts, but instead of taking tests that focused on facts, we had to take the point of view of a common woman, man, etc. from that historical event and write essays on how those events impacted our lives. In the essay, we had to include facts, but we also had to think deeper and apply our knowledge to a different view point.
In my own classroom, the Foss kits do a good job of helping the students develop scientific skills by having the kids interact with materials hands-on. Instead of giving a letter grade, I grade by walking around and asking questions and taking notes. This helps me to observe what types of scientific skills they are using to complete the tasks.
If this the direction education is leaning, the textbook companies need to start providing more support for skills based learning. Teachers are already crunched for time with all of the materials we are expected to teach, as well as all of our other duties. It requires a lot of extra work to put together a new curriculum with new ways of teaching. I am supportive of the concept, but feel like teachers need more support in this area.
This entire topic is very well timed for us as we look at updating our social studies curriculum. I am absolutely convinced that social studies is an excellent area to begin to make that important change from testing what students know (rote memorization), to what they can do with what they know. I have always been a believer in project based learning which, I think, provides a foundation for this paradigm shift. I am in the process of beginning a project that will dovetail with the 4th grade social studies standard for students to "analyze the impact of technological changes in Iowa, across time and place." The whole Question Formulation Technique Process that Pat Lehman has been introducing us to has the potential to fully engage our students in dynamic learning because they--the students take our initial presentation of facts and guidelines and direct the learning in the direction that connects most strongly with their interests. In my opinion, all of this is a positive move. I absolutely agree with the reality that Katie mentioned--all of this takes a large amount of planning on the teacher's time, and will also take a large amount of classroom time for students to complete. I still know that it is worth the time and is, ultimately, much more effective teaching.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I do both with math. Students show what they know with the basic formula or math concept, but then they are also asked to take the basics of what they know and apply it to a situation or more difficulty task. In this application process, they are being asked to show what they can do with what they know about the math concept. This is where I notice my junior high students struggling the most - application. They have difficulty transferring what they know to what they know how to do.
ReplyDeleteI also feel that I combine the grading practices that are mentioned. My students are graded on their daily work; however, the grade combines accuracy with completion. I want the students to realize that it is practice, it is acceptable to make mistakes, and the consequences are just right and wrong. My students are also given the opportunity to redo their daily work in order to achieve mastery of the concept.
I also agree with Katie; we as teachers are going to need support in implementing the procedures outlined in the chapter in terms of standards based grading. Textbooks do not provide much in terms of differentiated learning tasks. Enrichment sometimes just seems like more work for the student, and reteaching involves simpler problems and still more work.
I think it's important to use both practices in class. As Janice said, students need a strong foundation of skills and concepts - what they know - before they are able to use these in applied tasks. I also agree with Liz and Katie regarding the practice of showing what students know vs. what they can do with information in science and social studies. The new FOSS kits do a really good job with asking students to apply their knowledge. For example, 8th grade students learned about gravity, force, and collisions, and the summative task was to create a helmet for an egg and explain their choices as they relate to the concepts learned. My job as the teacher was to make sure that they understood the concepts well so that they would be successful in their task. In social studies, they new focus on compelling questions lends itself well to asking students to apply knowledge and use what they've learned to analyze and evaluate new situations. Some of the questions that my students have discussed and written about are "Who owns land? What does it mean to own land?" and "Is war ever justified?" It seems as though students enjoy thinking through these questions and are motivated to prove they are "right" with information they have learned.
ReplyDeleteThere are challenges in implementing a new grading system, though. When students are all in different places in their learning, how does the teacher manage the planning and monitoring? And how long do students have to master a particular skill or concept? What about student motivation? If a student isn't motivated to master a concept, how long should he/she work on something? When standards seem subjective, how does the teacher grade?
I feel like I for the most part do both. I think I can do a lot better at improving on focusing on applying what they know. Thinking about an upcoming project I have planned (Cascade History Project) I got thinking back to last year and how I mainly focused on the ideas they learned and making sure they had a certain number of facts about the topic. I never really focused on looking at the things we have talked about in reading all year. This year I plan to look more at the language they use and can they use different synonyms and antonyms. Also looking at the correct use of prefixes and suffixes. These types of things will show that they can apply the knowledge they learned in reading into the writing assignment they have to create.
ReplyDeleteI think the biggest difference that the feedback gives is that it shows the students "why" they are learning the things they are. Students are obsessed with knowing why they do things and often times you can explain it to them and they still won't understand why. Having them do it and then reinforce it in other projects will help them understand why they do it and show them the importance in the things they learn.
I think we have a perfect opportunity at Aquin to implement Standards Based Grading because we have the environment for differentiated instruction and learning. Our student teacher ratio helps us to know each student individually. We watch through the learning process and are able to teach and reteach to their individual needs. We can look at how learning is defined and structured through a microscope, identifying instruction as needed for our students. The learning experience is then structured to meet their needs, teaching across the curriculum to enable higher level learning and transfer. We can constantly teach, check, apply and give feedback as needed because we have that constant student contact.
ReplyDeleteTechnology also has given us the resources to expand student learning. The classroom is no longer confined to the four walls around us. We can connect and research through many different resources. This collaboration of many resources allows students to learn in various settings, perfect for them to see the benefits of many answers and solutions to a problem. Discovery is part of the learning, so answers are not so black and white. I have seen great changes in education, but the change does not happen so easily. It is a process....so grading has to transition along with the new and rigorous availability of the learning climate. It allows students to make mistakes through the process of learning, and to take risks when they know that they have opportunities to revamp their work as they move to solutions.
Computer class is a little different as far as standard based grading goes. To show what they know or show what they can do with what they know is almost the same thing for many grade levels. Middle school should already know how to perform many tasks that are assigned, but are they doing anything with what they know? I look for students who go above and beyond the task and try something more with the robots, animation or Newscast. This is really hard for most of them because they want to just do a task to complete it instead of doing the task really well to make the project stand out. Newscast and robots are a few of the areas that this is pronounced. Some groups do the minimal basics and others invent their own ideas. Of course the standards that are graded on the report card do not reflect any of this, but I make sure to recognize those in other ways who have gone above and beyond.
ReplyDeleteI found several ideas in this chapter interesting. First of all, I feel that as a teacher I just need to keep higher-level thinking in mind when planning my lessons. The students also need to have experience with this in class. They know how to answer rote questions,but I need to teach them (especially since I have the little ones) how to use their higher level thinking skills. The more they do this the better they will get at it. This will help them in the grades to come. For example, on our last religion test it had several rote test questions, but also added some that required the children to apply what they had learned. Mary said she wanted to serve God. How can you show that you want to serve God too? How is Jesus the Light of the World? God has given us many gifts. What do you do to thank God for these gifts? It is a mind frame that starts with the teacher but will benefit all types of learners.
ReplyDeleteI feel I use both practices in my classroom. Since it is very important for the students to have the basic skills and concepts I probably spend more time on the foundational skills. In math class we work on the basic skills but each day they have a "Do you understand" question and the students have to use the skills to answer the question. They definitely have a harder time answering this question and takes more time. The FOSS kits are great at having the students apply their knowledge. The students find science class fun and exciting and don't realize they are using higher level thinking in their learning.
ReplyDeleteIn my classroom, I check for understanding each day by calling on different students throughout the lecture based lessons. During class where group participation is the main form of assessment I check for understanding using visual cues and student ability. In a music classroom the grading setup is much different. I rarely give written exams. The written tests usually include both forms of questions. I check to make sure they understand the facts, then ask them to apply the knowledge. Music includes so much participation that most of the class time, other than written tests, is the student application of what they have learned, such as making their own rhythms or songs. I love teaching in a way that is fun. The students do not realize how much they are learning. Music is a fun subject and a break from the norm. Students move at different speeds because of natural talent and their ability to understand more abstract concepts, however, I have found that each student can find success in music.
ReplyDeleteIn my classroom I do a bit of both. I check to see what they know for a unit test. However, I see what they can do for math. I tell my students that it is important to show their work for math so that way I can see what they can do and what their answers end up being. If their answers are incorrect, I look back at their work to see how they tried to solve the problem. If part of the method is correct, and somewhere in between they got lost, I give them some credit on what they are able to do. I also do observations each day to see if they are participating, using skills they have learned and applying it to their seat work or a new concept. In science, I observe how they investigate and come to a final conclusion.
ReplyDeleteIn my classroom, I have a wide range of ability. I have been trying to focus on having all my students use higher level thinking. This looks different from one student to another. It is sometimes a challenge to make sure all students are being stretched to their fullest potential as that looks different for everyone. As Betsy said, in Math, we teach many basic skills but students do have to answer a Do you Understand? question. This is an easy, quick assessment for me to see who is grasping the lesson at a higher level.
ReplyDeleteIn social studies, we have content/skills assessments at the end of each unit, but I also add my own higher level thinking questions to the end of the test. This provides me with how well I taught the unit- I want my students to apply the information we learn during class to a real life scenario. For example, the pre-made test may ask: Which of the following is a job that provides a service? I will then add to the question with: Why do we need service jobs in our community?/Why are service jobs important to us?
When we met to "unpack" the S.S. standards earlier this year, I was struggling with how I could do more to move toward project based learning. Tyler pointed out that I was using PBL. My projects were just culminating activities. For a long time, I have been having the students do a culminating project for each chapter/unit. It seemed that the idea for the project based learning was to have the project do the teaching rather than the assessing. I really struggled with the idea that they might not "happen onto" the important information. How was I going to "guide them toward" the information, with students leading their own way, and everyone going in different directions. The control freak in me doesn't like there to be "too many variables". As far as higher level thinking skills, my SS assessments always have a question or two for students to hypothesize or extrapelate the basic info (rote memorization) into a use or real life situation. Right now we are talking about natural resources and where communities start/why. There is an essay question (which takes forever to correct!) about why Cascade is right her by the river and not 5 miles west of its current location. If you were one of the founders of Cascade, how would you explain why the town should be here? How can you validate your choice?
ReplyDeleteThese types of tests and projects are very time intensive. Curriculum companies definitely need to help us in this area of teaching. We shouldn't each have to reinvent the wheel.
In resource, I do a combination of both of these. In order for the students to move on in the skills they are deficient in, I need to know what they know before I can move to higher level foundational skills in regards to phonics. If we working on comprehension skills, I am always trying to expand their thinking through higher order questions. For some students that is a challenge, but when I least expect it some of the students will challenge themselves with questions. Therefore, I feel that I am always assessing what they can do each and every day as I build upon those skills each day. If students can show/tell me what they know, I then change it to what they can do for tasks by having them create and expand their learning. The positive feedback is given each time or attempt, shows the students that they are learning and working up to expanding their knowledge and learn them using various methods.
ReplyDeleteI do both of these practices in my classroom, and as many have said I see using project based learning as a way for students to demonstrate what they know as well as for them to show what they can do with what they can do with knowledge.
ReplyDeleteLike Liz, I recently assigned a social studies assignment where my students all need to interview an adult who is over the age 50, and then they will use the information they gathered in their interview to further research how the technology they chose has changed over time. When I introduced this assignment (a day after Liz due to our different schedules.) I explained that my son was going to interview more than one of his grandpas because he wanted to know each of their answers to the questions. I further explained he would only use one grandpa's interview answers to do the project, but he wanted to learn more about each of his grandpas. I had several students immediately get excited for this project, and they were quick to say that they too were going to interview more than one grandparent.
I LOVE how excited my students are for this first part, but I know the second research part will take lots of class time. As others have said I know this is the kind of learning I want my students to have, but it takes more time, so there is less that will get covered. Also as many have said it takes a lot of time on the teacher's part, so support from textbook companies is crucial because let's be real we already have full or overflowing plates.
By looking at the charts in Chapter two comparing the old pardigm and the new...process of learning and progressing, I have concluded that at the Kindergarten level I use both hand in hand. With this being said, I want to explain. First I look at facts of what needs to be a foundational skill and learned as the acceptable model in a skill. For example; making a Zaner Bloser "A" and moving to the De'nelian style of forming the letter "A" does not have any gray areas. A student is on a developmental spectrum and the writing is simply a process of practicing until the student is able to form their letters correctly. However, the process is going to have mistakes, it is going to take time and yet growth is made along the way. In order to foster this growth I might as a question to a child who has formed their "A" that might look like this: "Would you like to look at the "A" in the box and see how your "A" differs or is the same? In other words teaching the student how to use resources and understand the end product and then rewarding them where growth has been recognized. I believe that during these Formative years (birth - age 7) it is crucial that I plan project based instruction and teach students what is expected, how they can apply new learning to their current knowledge (ie: form words from sounds they've learned or write a word from letters they have gained proper strokes). By using the new paradigm for instruction and Standards based learning I feel that this open ended style of grading and the time involved in giving feedback is crucial to the students' ability to keep a positive mind about their own learning and understand that learning is different from each student.
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ReplyDeleteI believe that I use both in my classroom. I think that I have to give a foundation so that they understand. In phonics we learn the sounds and then I give the sounds and they write the letter for that sound. The next step is I give a word they sound it out then they write what they hear. We do have to go through all the sounds before they can start writing the letters. They need the skill of knowing sounds and letters to get to this point. I think that in Kindergarten we need to teach skills and then they can learn how to do the skill.
DeleteIn Math we have a question of the week. They all need to work together to figure out the answer. I enjoy how they talk to each other to achieve the answer. The same question is asked everyday of the week, but could have a different answer. They may not solve it the same way each day. The conversations are really interesting.
In fifth grade I believe that I use both standards-based grading and traditional grading. As it has been mentioned before, students must have a foundation of basic knowledge before they can launch into higher-level thinking. The beginning of the year comes with a more traditional approach to grading with the goal of moving to standards-based grading. Our small class sizes allow us the opportunity to identify students' individual needs, and to vary our instruction to meet their needs. It also allows us to create an environment of Project Based Learning where everyone has the opportunity to demonstrate what they are learning.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Janice and Gina that it is difficult and sometimes confusing to evaluate a variety of learning levels. How do we grade the students who are not motivated, struggle, or are not yet ready to display higher-level thinking?
English is an how area where, thankfully, I can often see what the students have learned by how they're applying that knowledge. Discussion comes to mind right away--in both my 7th and 8th grade classes, discussion has been a foundation for our novel units. Earlier this year, the 8th grade read "Unwind," a fictional novel that questions the worth of life when it doesn't meet certain standards. The 8th graders really dug into this one, and till now, those discussions over that novel are the most impressive I've heard. Because they, as a class, have such a strong foundation of our Catholic beliefs and values, they were able to approach class discussions with a solid notion of right and wrong, which is where I, as the teacher, challenged them with difficult questions. I think they really enjoyed trying to answer tough questions through that novel, such as, "What does it take to be a hero?" and, "Is the taking of a life ever justified?" They challenged each other on several questions too, which was great to see--they certainly weren't afraid to speak out and share ideas.
ReplyDeleteWriting comes to mind also--for instance, we go over the correct usage of grammar on an almost daily basis in class, and we practice everything from commas to homophones together there. Then, later, when the students are writing their own papers or essays, they're asked to be mindful of their grammar usage, and ask themselves whether or not they're using their grammar correctly. If not, they're asked to correct themselves, and to correct each other through peer-editing.
Lately, too, as the 7th graders are completing their second research paper of the year, I've been reminded time and again of the difficulty of reaching 18 students, most of whom need extended help with writing, in the time given in class. I've experimented with an idea I gleaned from another teacher--to take the students who are mostly self-sufficient, who have a very strong grasp of what's been taught, and have them help those students who need a little extra help getting started on something. For instance, one of my male students was having trouble coming up with a final sentence in his conclusion paragraph, but behind him in line, I had two students waiting for me who, I knew, would need much more of my time. I asked one of my strongest writers to help the first student with that one sentence, while I helped the two behind him who needed me more. I was pleasantly surprised with the results--two or three of my helping students really enjoyed feeling useful and helping someone else with their understanding, while the students who were helped came to good results. I've heard it more than once that to really understand something through and through, you should teach it, and if those students can help others understand something, I know they understand it very well themselves.
Of course, I cannot say that for all of my students--there are several who consistently seem to need help with something they've already been taught, and this encourages me, as a teacher, to examine my own methods and question what works best and what doesn't. In regards to this issue, I completely agree with Gina--it's a struggle to know how to best evaluate those students who, while they may be intellectually capable, are not motivated, or who, being motivated, aren't quite capable yet. I have both kinds of students in my classes, and several others in between. Another issue, of course, is time--the point was made that ideally, students would be able to learn at different times than each other--so some may take longer than others to learn a new skill or concept. My question, then, is how do we consistently grade our students fairly and equally if they're learning skills at different times? And what would that look like on paper, on report cards? How do we explain these differences to parents?
I think that it is necessary to use both traditional and standard based grading to some extent in the classroom. I agree with Meg and Heather that we are lucky to have class sizes where we are able to interact with each student to truly learn their strengths and weaknesses. I believe this would be a lot more difficult for those teachers who have several classes of 25 or more students.
ReplyDeleteEven in 6th grade, I still find that there are students who have poor retention skills regarding the common rules of language arts, even though they are a part of the curriculum at every grade level. I spend a lot of time reinforcing parts of speech, mechanics of writing, etc. I am curious to see how the new grading system will impact performance. There are students who can score 100% on a written test on a test they have prepared for, but are not capable of carrying any of that knowledge over to explain to me in their own words what they have learned. In that sense, standard based grading allows teachers a chance to gain more insight into the areas where students are struggling and hopefully work with the student to learn the skills without causing anxiety and frustration. I think that most reading and writing skills are easier to assess using the standard based model because students are consistently providing concrete examples of their abilities through read-alouds and writing projects. I like that as a teacher I can work with the student in those areas and they feel that they want to keep working at something until they feel they have done their best and feel proud of what they have accomplished.
ReplyDeleteIn physical education I feel like it is pretty easy for me to see what they can do with what I teach them. I will teach the skills needed first for the activity/unit we are doing. So if we are doing a soccer unit, I make sure to cover dribbling, passing, scoring, etc. first. We do drills and activities that help them with those skills. During those activities I go around and help the students improve on those skills so they are ready for a game towards the end of the unit. When we get to the end of the unit, they are playing games. During the games, I can observe each student and how they took those skills into a game setting. I also give plenty of specific directions and rules to each activity/game so I can again observe them and see how they pick up on each concept needed for that game or activity.