As the semester comes to a close, my takeaways from the course will have lasting effect on my teaching career. Assessments and grading are vital to teaching and I have been questioning these two areas for several years. I know I want to make changes to my assessments and grading practices but I am still not sure what those changes will be. My first takeaway from this semester is backward design. This was very difficult for me to do in my EDU 52000 class. I am completely for starting with the standards and having a strong understanding of what is being taught. I will continue to play with it and see if it becomes any easier but I feel like I am missing something with this concept. Another possibility is I am overthinking it and making it harder than it is.
My second takeaway is to write the assessments first. This one really has me switching my mindset. When I went to college in the late 80’s, early 90’s, the concept of writing the assessment before you had taught your unit would had been wrong. I do agree with having a clear understanding of what I want the students to learn in this unit. My final takeaway is that there has to be a better way to grade. Especially in an English class. I was not pleased with our book; I felt it did a poor job of guiding us to a better grading system. Maybe the grading system I am looking for does not exists. This might be true. Now I know I want to really research and try to find out what I can on my own. There has to be a better way. I have to find it. I cannot walk away with talking about this book for just a minute. This book really frustrated me. On multiple occasions, I would be reading and the book would stop talking about a topic and say, “Well, we are going to refer you to these other books and you will have to read them if you are interested about them.” You read the others books, tell me what you found. I need answers, not 20 more doors I have to jump through. I also do not know if I have ever used the word “Fair” to describe my grading before. Life is not fair. My dad always said, “Fair is where you show the hogs.” Today everyone wants everything to be fair. This theme of fairness is going to keep reoccurring as long as society keeps trying to make education fit into a box that will benefit only a select few. I will differentiate and try to individualize each student’s needs. Lastly, I will walk away knowing I need to learn more and be better. I will strive to write better assessments and find that golden grading practice I so desperately desire. I am looking forward to the summertime when I may find more time to research these areas for next year.
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Students stress when they take test and I stress when I write test. Assessments are vital to the learning process and it is an area I focus on in my curriculum. At the end of the unit, I will give a study guide to use for the test. There will not be any questions on the test that are not included on the study guide. My purpose is not to trick or confuse the kids. I want them to know what is expected. While taking the test, I do not give them any assistance other than reading the directions or answering a direction question. My test rarely include a bonus question. Sometimes, I will include one on a difficult unit like Shakespeare if we discussed a topic and I had too much information for the test.
After an assessment is graded and I notice that the majority of my students missed a question, I will review the question. If it was a poorly constructed question then I will throw the question out and not count it. That is my mistake, not the students. I have not used a curve in my class before, but I do allow my students to retake the test. Maybe they had a bad day and it was not a true representation of what they know. I understand and I am willing to work with my students. On that same train of thought, I do not give my students homework. I want them to finish their work in class with me. Sometimes the students grade their neighbor’s paper. I only have them grade papers when it is clearly a right or wrong answer. If the students are writing, I have them peer edit but I am the one to give a grade. Grading is difficult and my least favorite part of teaching. I know elements of behavior do influence my grading like late papers. I do take off for turning in papers late. This is a behavior issue, not an issue of mastery. I also have given a higher grade when I know a student has pushed himself or herself and exceeded their abilities. Stress and assessments go together. I will continue to improve upon my assessments. This is an area that is vital to the learning process and as I continue to grow as a teacher, I hope to learn better ways to grade and create assessments. Teachers are required to give a grade for a class. Students, parents, administration alike all need to see what progress the student is making toward mastering the standards the class curriculum is built upon. The only problem with this practice is in theory it works but what are we actually giving them the grade for? Are the valedictorians of the graduating classes really the smartest kids or are they the kids who figure out how to work the system the best? I worry grades are a reflection of participation and behavior as much as they are mastery. There has to be a better way to show if a student has mastered a skill. I just feel like our system is broken and we are not fixing it, nor do we even try to fix it. In my classroom, my grades do have some components leaking into them that are not strictly mastery. When a student turns in a late paper, I will grade it and take just a few points off depending upon how late it is. If I am to only grade on the mastery of the work then I should not take off for the lateness. Is this right? Is this wrong? Obviously, I am still using this system but I am do not like it. I do like the idea of a pass/fail system but I feel as a nation we are way to competitive and must know who the smartest person in the room is. In a dream world, students would come to school because they were excited to learn and there would not need to be grades. I do not live in a dream world nor do my students. I will continue to look at the practice how to grade and hope I can find a system that will be better for all of my students.
Life is challenging. I understand school and grades are stressful for our students. It has been a challenge for me to see how defeated my students are. If not daily, then every other day at least one of my kids talks about dropping out of school. They are often joking but there is an element of seriousness to the humor that always has me on edge. I am well aware that anyone of my students may walk into my class carrying that orange colored dropout paper and it will break my heart. Wormeli would argue that I am creating the situation for my students to fail when I write a zero in the gradebook.
Yes, a zero in the gradebook is difficult to overcome. Yes, it is adding to their frustrations and can make their lives stressful. Yes, maybe they had to choose between going to work so they have money to live on and getting their homework done. I know my kids are making these types of choices. I know my kids have lives I can never understand, that is why I try to give them class time to finish their assignments and I will stay to help them if they ask me for help. I do accept late work but I cannot give someone a 60% for doing nothing. Students must earn a grade, whether it is a 0 for doing nothing or it is a 100% for a beautifully written essay. Sometimes a student will earn a 60% on an assignment for the work they have done. I cannot justify giving someone the exact same grade when they did nothing. Working with special needs students is enjoyable for me. I find the ah-ha moments so rewarding. Grading my students based on their IEP and their improvement is acceptable, if that if best for the student. Not all of the students need to be given a different grading system. I believe it is a case by case situation. In my honors class, I do not give them more work. I give them work in which the rigor is increased. I want to challenge them, not overwhelm them. Due to the increase in rigor, I feel a weighted grade point average is an acceptable way to handle the differences between the classes. If more is expected from the honors or dual credit students, then why shouldn’t they receive a weight grade? As time goes on, my opinions have changed and I believe my ideas about grading, assessment and weighted grades are not completely solidified yet. I feel I am still finding the best path for the students and it continue to evolve as I grow as a teacher. Portfolios, rubrics and self-assessments are three diverse forms of assessments. Out of the three, rubrics are the one that I use consistently in my class. For papers and projects, I will hand out rubrics to guarantee all of the students understand the requirements. This allows for less confusion and more focused energy. The drawback to rubrics are having to create one for each assignment.
At my last school, my class sizes were considerable smaller than they are now, eight to fifteen. With such small class sizes, I was able to use a portfolio assessment with them. The students were able to see the improvements and I feel that was a great benefit for them. However, I could not imagine trying to handle the paperwork for my classes of 30 students now. I do believe the larger classes posse grading difficulties. Finally, the self-assessments are another form I have not played with much. I like the idea of the students grading themselves, I believe it makes them more aware of the standards we are teaching in each unit. My class does peer editing, which is a form of self-assessment. However, I feel I have room to improve this format within my class. This week in my Written Communications class, we watched a ten minute clip on preparing for interviews. I previewed the movie and came up six questions that I placed on the cube assessment strategy. While watching the movie the students were actively listening for the answers. Then they seem to enjoy cutting out the cube and displaying them. I felt that this activity engage my students to listen while focusing on the content of the movie. After Spring Break, I plan on trying to incorporate the Tic-Tac-Toe board in this class. I want to try new and different assessments. I feel this will help keep the students engage and focused. When evaluating my formal assessments, I realized I am very predictable in my formatting process. I depend upon short answer and essay questions for the majority of my assessments because in an English class students should be reading, analyzing and writing. In looking at this particular assessment, it includes a few multiple choice questions designed to resemble the ACT or EOC style of questions and the rest short answer. The multiple choice section is the only section of the test the students receive immediate feedback. Schoology will tell them how many correct answers they have on this section but I have to individually grade all of the short answer and essay questions. Grading this style of test is time consuming. It is not efficient and requires a serious time commitment to grade the test in a timely fashion. This assessment did assess the standards covered in the unit and allowed sufficient time for the students to complete it during one class period. Overall, I believe this assessment is doing what I want it to but I am having to do the majority of the work in order to get it back to the kids in a timely factor. Looking at different ways to assess is something I need to be seriously researching. My students may also becoming complacent with my assessments and if I change things up I may be able to increase complexity. For my next assessment, I will be trying to do something different.
So which came first the assessment or the test? Breaking the ice with a joke is humorous, but good assessments are not a joking matter. I find assessments to be one of the most difficult elements of good curriculum. I feel this is one of my weakest areas in my teaching. I know I need to increase formative assessments but I don’t want it to be cheesy stuff the high school students hate. I have always relied on students to write for me. I often have them do a five minute response to a reading or a reflection of what we just went over in class. I feel like if they can use their words to explain it to me then I am finding a reliable gauge to their learning. However, am I boring the kids with the same thing daily? I need to be using variety in my assessments.
This year I have tried new things including using KWL charts. I began to use them when we were discussing the non-fiction units. It was beneficial to understanding where each student was in their knowledge of the historical events we were discussing. I then was able to know how much of the basic information I needed to give to the student to make the current story relevant. The KWL was a helpful assessment tool for me and I plan on using it again. When I read the article 52 Ways to Check Understanding, I found two more ideas for assessments I would like to try. The students are used to limiting their writing to short, concise thoughts due to the limitation of social media. So when I read idea #39 Twitter Post, 140 Characters or less response, I thought it could be successful. Incorporating art into an assignment is something I want to do more of in my English class. Idea #20 is a Collage that represents the main idea or theme of what the students are reading. I loved this idea. Blending of the arts is a great way for the students to express their thoughts. However, these are all just individual assessment tools and if I am not looking at the bigger picture to see that they are all working together then they really may not be helping. Grant Wiggins discusses the topic of backward design in the article Defining Assessment, “So you have to think about how it is going to end up, what it’s going to look like. And then that ripples back into your design, what activities will get you there.” This is strange to me. I have to start with the end product and work my way back when I am planning my lesson plans. This is so different from when I went to college 30 years ago. This year has changed my view on many educational topics, including assessment. I am slowly understanding the reason for backward design. I still feel it needs to be solidly grounded in the standards. I feel that if I understand the standard and what I am focused on teaching then the assessments will fall into place and no jokes will be needed. Work Cited “53 Ways to Check for Understanding.” Edutopia, www.edutopia.org/resource/checking-understanding-download. “Grant Wiggins: Defining Assessment.” Edutopia, 21 Jan. 2002, www.edutopia.org/grant-wiggins-assessment. Teachers tend to be passionate people. It is not a profession that anyone enters into to become rich, it is their chosen profession because teachers feel called to the subject matter or to the children. So image a room full of passionate people who feel strongly about educational topics like differentiated instruction, assessment, and grading. Opinions will be given freely, because they are daily dealing with the situations being discussed. Not everyone in the room will agree because we do not all have the exact experiences, but we respect each other and listen to what the others are saying.
Differentiated instruction is defined by Wormeli as, “doing what is fair for students. It’s a collection of best practices strategically employed to maximize students learning at every turn, including giving them the tools to handle anything that is undifferentiated.” (pg. 3) When I read this definition, I liked it. I have a different background than most of my counterparts. I was diagnosed as a dyslexic in the first grade. I was blessed to have my mother and father’s complete support. I was the student who used differentiated instruction but I feel mine was done incredibly well. Scaffolding was in place for me and then removed when I progressed. Within my classroom, I try to know my students and learn their strengths and weaknesses. Then I am able to offer different options to help them. I try to find audio books for my students who need that support, I will offer different types of graphic organizers based upon what my students’ thinking process is, and I will allow students to sit at my desk if close proximity is helpful. It is important to me to reach my students but with that said, I have classes of 30+ kids. It is extremely difficult to get to know all of my students and to really have the time to give each of them what they need. I do the best I can but I know it is never enough. My counterparts are often opposed to differentiated instruction. I understand their arguments, we are not preparing students to handle the real world because it will not offer differentiated options. The word crutch is often used in this negative connotation. I believe it can be done well or it can turn into an excuse that the student uses to avoid work. I have a harder time wrapping my mind around assessments and grading than I do differentiated instruction. Maybe this is because I do not have a clear-cut definition of “mastery.” According to the Center for Media Literacy in New Mexico: “If we are literate in our subject, we can access (understand and find meaning in), analyze, evaluate, and create the subject or medium.” (Wormeli pg. 12) For myself, the word create is the key. I know that when I truly understand something I can create it in different environments. For a long time, I have used essay test as my standard tool of assessment. I have placed a great deal of emphasis on the end result. My disappointment occurs when I often feel that the students are just stating what they think I want to hear, not speaking their voice. I am not happy with the assessments and how important grades are in the classes. I wish we could just be learning to learn but the students would just sleep through class. This class will be my opportunity to really research and dig deep into the subject and find the answers to make my class better. Passionate people can make a difference and create amazing opportunities in the world. I am looking forward to the opportunity to hear the passionate people in my class discuss how to improve assessments, grading, and differentiated instruction. Work Cited Wormeli, Rick. Fair Isn't Always Equal Assessing & Grading in the Differentiated Classroom. Portland: Stenhouse, 2006. Print. Brainstorming ideas is something we have all done. When I am teaching and my students are going to write for me, I tell them to brainstorm some ideas using a graphic organizer. In my classroom, brainstorming sometimes turns into, “I am ignoring the assignment,” for those not interested in doing it in the first place. Then I start pushing for everyone to go quickly and get this done. After reading Chapters 7 and 8 of LAUNCH, I begin to ponder if I am rushing my students through this process too quickly. Also, I am hyperactive and want to go at a fast pace, so I constantly struggle with giving my kids the answer to the question I have asked because I need to keep the pace and move. I loved the idea from Chapter 7 of beginning the brainstorming session in isolation. If you can’t talk to your neighbor about the latest gossip then possibly we will write down a few things. Then maybe when we move into a think, pair, share group and their buddy will like their idea and encourage them. I will try this in the upcoming weeks and see how it works for me.
Once we have moved to the think, pair and share, I watch the room to see how the group dynamics will work. It amazes me how often I see one students in a group doing all the work. The social dynamics are real. My challenges as a teacher is to try to manage the groups but allow the students to interact with each other and learn how to handle working with other people. Learning flexibility and strong communications skills is a lifelong skills everyone needs. It is hard to sit back and not control the situation but allow the students to work it out together the way they will have to in the real world. I do keep a very close eye on any group I feel may have a strong reaction because I do want to be there to help if needed. Once the creative juices are flowing, I can count that at least a couple of kids will tell me they are not creative and don’t know what to do. I try to share with them that I too, often feel like I am not creative. At this point I try to pull something out of my head that have had done that was creative and praise them for it. I love that our art teacher believe everyone is an artist, each person is just on different proficiency levels. We all drew things as a child, and if we were lucky enough, our art made the refrigerator. Then we get older and start comparing ourselves to our neighbors. Do we stack up or not? It doesn’t matter, we should try creative things that make us happy. I think we have to just encourage our students to try and see. Hopefully, over time the students will see the value in creating and focus serious time and energy into being creative. Work Cited Spencer, J., & Juliani, A. J. (2016). LAUNCH: Using design thinking to boost creativity and bring out the maker in every student. San Diego, CA: Dave Burgess Consulting. I, like so many other teachers, have often assigned a project at the end of a unit. My projects were assigned after the class had taken the assessment. I used projects as an additional element. This is not Project Based Learning. True PBL will allow the students to find their own path with the process being the important part, not how pretty the project turned out. When students graduate and become a part of the American workforce, employers want workers who can problem solve and think outside the box. PBL units encourage students to practice this process under the guidance of a teacher. Hopefully, the teacher will be there to show them the necessary information on how to research and find the answers.
The unit should begin with a challenging problem or question. If the students don’t buy into the problem then it will be a long unit for the teacher and student. Teachers should be teaching the students to question things in the inquiry stage, question, question, and question some more. There must be an element of authenticity. Students know when you give them busy work. Now the students need to have some power within this process. As a teacher, I teach better when I am interested in what I am teaching. Students learn better and more when they too find elements they are interested in and focus their energy on that. As the students is working on the challenging problem or question, they need to reflect on the process. I have learned by blogging about my teaching and really reflecting on my actions, I am adjusting things in my classroom and making improvements. Some of my greatest gains come when my principal, Mr. Meier, comes into my class and evaluates me. An outside expert point of view helps me look at things in a different light. If I put my emotions aside and take honest criticism, I then can reflect and adjust to improve my teaching method. This same process is important for the students. Listen to others, using active listening may allow for the “I got it!” moment to occur. Then my student’s project doesn’t just stay in my classroom but is allowed to venture out into the real world. Someone on the outside must see it. (BIE) Now my students graduate and their boss gives them a project to complete. After completing PBL units in high school, our student will say, “Hey team, I have done a similar project before and we can handle this.” Work Cited Gold Standard PBL: Project Based Teaching Practices (by BIE) | Project Based Learning | BIE. (n.d.). Retrieved December 11, 2016, from http://www.bie.org/object/document/gold_standard_pbl_project_based_teaching_practices1 |
AuthorMy name is Lisa and I teach English Language Arts at Forsyth, MO. Archives
May 2017
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