The demands of grading and the shorter class periods this year and impacted how we have implemented grading this year.
We had to adapt our test grading so that 70% of the test was level 1, 20% was level 2, and 10% was level 3. This still allows students to demonstrate mastery.
Summary of session
Have students keep an Assignment Notebook with the following information for each out of class assignment.
Assignment:
Due Date:
Learning Goal: As a result of doing this assignment, I should
Know more about….
Understand better….
Be more skilled at….
1. Homework should be designed to enhance essential learning goals
2. Homework should be appropriate to learning goal
3. Feedback should be timely and specific
Debra Pickering suggests that homework should not be a part of academic grade because you cannot determine how much of the work was done by the student. It should be apart of the non-academic grade (or work ethic grade) . If it is going to be counted as part of the academic grade, she suggests no more than 15% so that it doesn’t drastically impact the grade one way or the other. Homework should be used as a tool to determine readiness for assessment, check to see if it is complete, give feedback on errors either by checking together or having the teacher check and provide written or verbal feedback on errors. Other measures to determine mastery include observed performance, tests, quizzes, class work, or some other form of alternative assessment.
Pickering suggest that students should not be deprived of recess or be assigned detention for NOT doing homework. They need the scheduled breaks in the day. We need to communicate to students that homework is a way for us to help them become better students by improving their skills. Homework is a practice for preparation for learning. The exception to this is reading.
Homework should be used to track progress, provide feedback on what has been done, and to determine readiness for assessment. If the assessment shows that a student does not have mastery then that student might need to consider that the reason is that they are not prepared because they have not practiced the material nor sought help when needed. There are plenty of opportunities in the classroom setting to determine mastery, so don’t let homework be the nightmare it has been when grading.
What if students are not good test takers? Teach test taking skills, provide differentiated forms of assessment, build a classroom environment that provides more 1-1 instruction through interest and skill groups. Will this be a difficult thing when parents are used to 50% homework/50% test in the middle school? Probably, until we are all on the same page about alternate ways to assess besides pen and paper and a better understanding of standards based grading.
Suggestions for Homework:
Give students the choice to complete as many as they need to feel comfortable with the concept
(ie. Do several of the level 1 questions if you understand them, move to the level 2 questions, if you are doing ok on those, then attempt the level 3 higher level thinking questions. We will go over any questions next class period.)
Limit time required to complete homework.
This does not mean that there won’t be homework, however, studies show that more than 1.5 to 2 hours per night TOTAL on the 9th-12th grade level actually has a negative impact on performance. This means we are going to have to communicate with other teachers outside our discipline to see when major test or projects are going to take up large amounts of preparation time outside the classroom. She also suggest that homework only be assigned when it is determined that students need more practice, this might mean that due to the nature of a course there will be frequent homework, but it has to meet the guidelines mentioned above.
Suggestions for allowing students to continue to improve on previously measured standards.
To allow students to continue to improve on a standard, provide Internet resources, book resources, practice in class, peer mentors, grouping based on skills and or interest, and tutoring. When the student feels that they are ready to demonstrate mastery, they should come and request that opportunity. It is not up to you to prod them to do so, just provide the resources and opportunity so that they can. This does not mean that you have to keep looking for things. Identify the resources as the beginning of a unit, make them available either on your web page or post it to a bulletin board in your room. Make it clear to students that these resources are there for them at any time. Build more 1-1 time into the classroom to address lack of understanding.
How can we justify allowing students to revisit standards through out the year?
The reason we can continue to go back and allow them to re-attempt and improve learning is simple. The state standards state that by the end of the grade they will master these skills. If that is the case then October is not the end of the year. Do we need a cut off during the year to have a snapshot of student progress? Yes, and will continue to do so. Will this snapshot continue to impact eligibility for UIL and progression to the next grade level? Yes, as long as the state says it will. So how do we justify going back to prior learning objectives or powerstandards? Again the state says by the end of the year the student will…….
session 211oT Saturday, June 27, 2009 8 a.m.-10:00 a.m. Houston, Texas
Are we ready to be completely transparent? How about using USTREAM to present instruction from one teacher into the classrooms of every other Algebra 1 teacher. For example: Have 1 instructor share how to use the Calculator with all the classes meeting that period. This would mean that all students received the same instruction.
When could we do this?
In Plain English
If you have not seen these types of videos see the example below:
When could we use this?
The day before TAKS one of my students came in to go over Functions, Slope, Quadratics and more. We reviewed the impact of the rate of change on the graph, the shift of graphs both linear and quadratic and discussed strategies to use. For example Mrs. Douglas showed us an easy way for students to remember domain, range, independent, dependent using the x and y axis on the graph. We left the diagram up for several weeks prior to TAKS. This student used her recall of the diagram and other strategies on the test.
She came to me the next day and said that she knew that she had passed and it was all because we went over those things again the day before the test. She said she would have failed otherwise. Well not only did she pass, she scored Commended. Way to go the extra mile and get the most out of your resources! She and another student in the same class have had several ups and downs all year and both scored Commended because they stayed after school to get help. I am so proud of them and can’t wait to tell them on Tuesday!
Yesterday I told my students about the final exam and what to expect. When I mentioned that there would only be 25 questions over 3 units I had 2 interesting responses.
1. WHAT? that means the every questions counts 4 points each, I can’t miss very many and still make the grade I want.
2. Really only 25, last year we had what seemed like a 100, thanks Mrs. Hoover for a shorter test, how come it is so much shorter though?
My responses:
Don’t panic the test is still leveled and we don’t need more questions to determine mastery by level.
Reactions:
Oh, it’s 25 and Leveled. YEAH!
Great, your nicer than the teacher I had last year. (this from the student that didn’t want 100 questions)
Now whether or not I’m nicer is not the issue here, the issue is, that it is not necessary to have so many questions.
On another note. On a recent homework assignment, students were asked to chose 5 Level 1 and 5 Level 2 questions to complete. They were exactly right in their selections, because they understand so well the difference between basic recall and multiple step problems. What took the teachers a book study and months of practice, the students have grasped in a few weeks. We struggled many times with the difference between 1 and 2 because so many of the questions we thought were level 1′s seemed easier than they really were. After reflection on students performance on those questions we had to re-evaluate just how complex they were.
I began to wonder why this method was no easy for them to understand and it dawned on me that they are so entrenched in a video game society that has multiple difficulty levels for each game and a “BOSS” that has to be conquered at each level, they have internalized the concept outside of the educational setting. If they don’t beat the “BOSS” they are stuck on that level. How does that relate to us, well the boss is the level 3 questions. If they can answer those then they have completely mastered the concept and are ready to move on.
Preliminary scores for 9th grade math TAKS are approximately 76% passing. These are rough estimates and the percentage could go up or down but probably not by much. Our goal was 74% so we are VERY pleased with this information.
This is a 6% improvement over last year’s scores and I believe it is a direct result of our TEAM approach to Algebra 1. We re-aligned our curriculum at the beginning of the year to allow for more time on pre-algebra review and it made a difference. I am so proud of our students and our team. Everyone worked very hard to make sure students could be successful.
Our goal next year will be 80%, one step closer to Recognized, before we transition to End of Course Exams.
Students will be going to the computer labs to begin working on their alternative assessments starting on Monday. Teachers will pair up and 1 will take students to the computer lab for training and the other will remain in the classroom with students as they review material already covered. This will prevent students in the lab from missing instruction as well as provide for continued practice for those not participating in the project.
Students will be expected to complete the project on their own time either at home, in the library or using the computers in the classroom when they have finished their classwork. Computers will also be available before an after school in the library.
http://bhsgrading-algebra.wikispaces.com/04.+Alternative+Assessments
Today we met with the rep from Excelsior Software about a gradebook program that will automatically calculate the power law as well as straight average. We were very impressed the possibilities that are available with this program. Not only does it provide a standards based report card but it integrates with Skyward. It is totally web based, has all the same features we have now, and provides “roll over” graphs that show a students progress on a standard. We look forward to the opportunity to pilot this software for Algebra 1 next year pending approval.
The students are responding favorably to the opportunity to correct assignments, quizzes, and tests. The homework has been leveled now along with the quizzes and assessments. The downside here is the re-grading of all work. Here is what I am doing. I grade, marking all errors by level, then if they have a 60 or 65 because they missed some level one questions (mainly because of a simple error or lack of attention to directions) I calculate what they would make if they fixed the L1 questions and show it as a double grade 65/80 with a note, fix L1 for the higher grade. I record the 65 with a note in the comment showing what the grade can be raised to. It is up to the student to correct and when they do (and they are) I check the few L1 items and post the new grade. (I am also keeping a paper grade book so I circle the grade when it is corrected so I can update Skyward when I have time)
For next year …. keep in mind that not all assignments have to be graded. We can circulate through out the room and check for understanding on L1, L2 and L3 questions. We can use the student response systems (clickers) from EInstruction provided that the Making It Happen Grants come through. We can have 5 question quizzes at the end of class or at the beginning of the following class to check for understanding. DON”T get bogged down in thinking every paper has to be a grade.
Use your powers of observation to gather a preponderance of evidence to support your measurement of assessment.
I thought that the most difficult part of bringing in Standards-Based grading would be convincing teachers to buy in. Nope…it’s figuring out HOW to do everything. We have been so well trained – by pre-service courses and classroom experience – to do things the way we’ve always done them that coming up with practical, replicatable ideas for how to grade by standards and alternative assessment can be really hard.
I think we are finding our way, however. Especially with the alternative assessments. We were aiming a little to high – or perhaps we were trying to present too broad a spectrum of alternatives – when we decided on 4 assessments for the last unit of the 6 weeks in Algebra 1. We were excited and wanted to give the kids some really great options for demonstrating mastery while still showing the same academic rigor. We accomplished that – and then realized that 4 choices were too many for our time frame.
If you’d like to see the four assessments (one is the test – three are alt assessments) you can go to our wiki HERE.
After some good discussion, here are some things we are talking about:
1. One alternative assessment per major unit (due to time constraints of the new schedule and lab availability).
2. A structured approach to the use of technology by students – this is the idea that we introduce the kids to one new technology in the fall and one in the spring (making all alternative assessments fall within that type of technology – i.e. photostory, video, etc.). This will ensure that the kids have the technological skills necessary to complete future products using that technology because they were immersed in it. The second year, the alt assessments would include new technology and allow for building on the technology and alt assessments used the year prior…so that by the time a student hits their 4th year, they have far more options as they have had far more training in the technologies involved.
I like this tiered idea, so that our kids will have solid foundations to build on. What this means is that our teachers must also have that same level of training and a good level of comfort using their alloted softwares. What that means for senior level teachers is that they have to know more….just like their students do. I think it will work with the right training and the right attitude.
Very interesting discussions and lots of learning on my part. It’s a good thing.