This will be a forum for the Brookland-Cayce High School SCRI Study Group members who are currently enrolled in Assessment and Literacy to thoughtfully consider our leaning. Study group members will be required to post at least 14 times over the duration of our class.
Friday, April 03, 2009
Assessing and Grading Differently-Please post any new thinking, ideas, ponderings here!
In chapter 13, Wormeli addressed the variety of approaches in grade books. I was introduced to the standards-based grade book and the varieties of grade books. This is something that I never considered, but it is a great way to truly show if a student has mastered the concepts and standards that are being taught. This would be a great tool and help everyone involved know where the student is succeeding and where they need extra help. As a parent, I would love to see this in both my children's classes. When I get progress reports, it would be wonderful to see at least the goal for the assignment. I know this would be more work on the teacher, but it could also be a tool for the teacher to use when evaluating what skills might need to be retaught to the class. If you used this kind of grade book, designing rubrics would be beneficial I believe.
Chapter 15 BCSCRI STUDY GROUP 36 Tips to Support Colleagues
In a class exercise, Paula asked us to examine an article and pick out an important sentence, phrase, and word. When beginning anything new, I think the most important sentence for teachers is found in this chapter, “seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Most of the 36 tips are great concepts or ideas to follow whether we are moving toward the differentiated class or just introducing new methodologies, or procedures to be followed. I thought about some of these tips when thinking about our next school year with a smaller staff and larger class sizes. We will really need to have more differentiated instruction because some students may be pushed to another level due to fewer classes being offered. If this is indeed the result, I do hope that we push students up to a higher level rather than overcrowd the easier levels. Teachers may have to differentiate the instruction so that all students can succeed.
Of the 36 tips, I mostly agree with the culture of expectancy, the faculty and department meetings and the modeling. I am not sure that the expert in the lounge is such a great idea because teachers are very protective of their planning time. The instructional roundtables often become gripe sessions, so I am not really fond of them unless a strong moderator is present to facilitate.
Administrators are well thought of by the faculty whenever a little humor is interjected in our staff meetings. Affirmation is always a welcomed intrinsic reward. I have learned that teachers will do almost anything to get out of duty! The common planning times seem to not work out in the master schedule for high schools, but I know it works well in the lower grades for collaboration. The time is appreciated by the teachers who teach the same group of students.
The CBAM sounds like it is worth looking into. Anything that is concerns based usually assures the people involved that they do have some input because the concerns are what makes up the agenda. The text listed for CBAM has a 1987 copyright date but I am sure there are new articles if the method is still practiced.
Having faculty members write their own grading policy would be interesting to see. I wonder if members of the same department would develop similar policies or if the similarities would come in groups similar in years of experience.
Seldom have I read a concluding chapter in a text that summarizes the entire text in such a concise manner. As I read the chapter my thoughts roamed to the specifics in each chapter and how I have grown in my understanding of this course material. I am a very different thinker about what it means to teach in the differentiated classroom than I was back in September when we began. I think that it is interesting that I am at the end of my teaching career, and I am finally drifting toward the right ideas.
I am just more determined to “do right” during this final seven weeks of school. Thanks, Paula, for leading me in the right direction.
The last chapter summarized the year's content. I realize the importance of differentiation. The author notes "good teachers teach students not just one technique for completing a task, but five different techniques." This class has given me many ideas to use this type of instruction, as well as better assess students' reading and writing skills. I look forward to using more of these techniques next school year.
After reading this text I don't know where I stand in the grading war. Part of that, I feel, comes from not being a veteran teacher. I feel many of my teachings are differentiated. I try to see the student in front of me, I try to take into account all that the student has put in and is facing while in my classroom. Sometimes days are frustating to the point of tears. How can I evaluate someone's mastery when I can't get them to do an ioda of work. How do I give a student the confidence to know they are capable of work their afraid of when I'm only able to show them poor results in my gradebook.
While reading chapter fourteen and fifteen I had to ask myself how often do we actually talk to other colleagues about grades. We will always vent/exchange opinions about a problem child but share grades. No!! This whole section of the textbook was alien to me. There are concerns that were brought to my mind but I would prefer not to give any details. It would be nice to work and learn from each other but it isn’t like that. I know that the book talks about a faculty where we share ideas and grading assessments but lots of schools aren’t like that. We get caught up in what we have to do and ignore everyone else.
In Richland School district 2 differentiation is the latest and greatest. When I was an administrator there teachers were expected to be able to show us how they differentiate their lessons for various learning styles. I thought the multi genre project was a good exercise in differentiation. I agree with wormeli that it is incumbent upon us as teachers to differentiate with mini lessons to reach as many students as possible.
I agree with the modeling tip and thought Paula did a great job with her autobiography which helped me a great deal. To me the most powerful thing we did was reading for a purpose. It was so easy to determine what is important with pre reading questions.
I agree with Wormeli that there are a variety of apporaches in grade books. I would love to see us go to a narrative form of grade book but this would require a lot of work on the teacher's part.
In responding to Sadie's block, it is much easier to collaborate in the middle school team concept than on the high school level. There appears to be no such thing as teams but we are broken into departments. Unfortunately, most departments don't collaborate between disciplines except in the academy.
7 comments:
In chapter 13, Wormeli addressed the variety of approaches in grade books. I was introduced to the standards-based grade book and the varieties of grade books. This is something that I never considered, but it is a great way to truly show if a student has mastered the concepts and standards that are being taught. This would be a great tool and help everyone involved know where the student is succeeding and where they need extra help. As a parent, I would love to see this in both my children's classes. When I get progress reports, it would be wonderful to see at least the goal for the assignment. I know this would be more work on the teacher, but it could also be a tool for the teacher to use when evaluating what skills might need to be retaught to the class. If you used this kind of grade book, designing rubrics would be beneficial I believe.
Chapter 15 BCSCRI STUDY GROUP
36 Tips to Support Colleagues
In a class exercise, Paula asked us to examine an article and pick out an important sentence, phrase, and word. When beginning anything new, I think the most important sentence for teachers is found in this chapter, “seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Most of the 36 tips are great concepts or ideas to follow whether we are moving toward the differentiated class or just introducing new methodologies, or procedures to be followed. I thought about some of these tips when thinking about our next school year with a smaller staff and larger class sizes. We will really need to have more differentiated instruction because some students may be pushed to another level due to fewer classes being offered. If this is indeed the result, I do hope that we push students up to a higher level rather than overcrowd the easier levels. Teachers may have to differentiate the instruction so that all students can succeed.
Of the 36 tips, I mostly agree with the culture of expectancy, the faculty and department meetings and the modeling. I am not sure that the expert in the lounge is such a great idea because teachers are very protective of their planning time. The instructional roundtables often become gripe sessions, so I am not really fond of them unless a strong moderator is present to facilitate.
Administrators are well thought of by the faculty whenever a little humor is interjected in our staff meetings. Affirmation is always a welcomed intrinsic reward. I have learned that teachers will do almost anything to get out of duty! The common planning times seem to not work out in the master schedule for high schools, but I know it works well in the lower grades for collaboration. The time is appreciated by the teachers who teach the same group of students.
The CBAM sounds like it is worth looking into. Anything that is concerns based usually assures the people involved that they do have some input because the concerns are what makes up the agenda. The text listed for CBAM has a 1987 copyright date but I am sure there are new articles if the method is still practiced.
Having faculty members write their own grading policy would be interesting to see. I wonder if members of the same department would develop similar policies or if the similarities would come in groups similar in years of experience.
Chapter 16 Blog 14 Jane Gregory
Seldom have I read a concluding chapter in a text that summarizes the entire text in such a concise manner. As I read the chapter my thoughts roamed to the specifics in each chapter and how I have grown in my understanding of this course material. I am a very different thinker about what it means to teach in the differentiated classroom than I was back in September when we began. I think that it is interesting that I am at the end of my teaching career, and I am finally drifting toward the right ideas.
I am just more determined to “do right” during this final seven weeks of school. Thanks, Paula, for leading me in the right direction.
The last chapter summarized the year's content. I realize the importance of differentiation. The author notes "good teachers teach students not just one technique for completing a task, but five different techniques." This class has given me many ideas to use this type of instruction, as well as better assess students' reading and writing skills. I look forward to using more of these techniques next school year.
After reading this text I don't know where I stand in the grading war. Part of that, I feel, comes from not being a veteran teacher. I feel many of my teachings are differentiated. I try to see the student in front of me, I try to take into account all that the student has put in and is facing while in my classroom. Sometimes days are frustating to the point of tears. How can I evaluate someone's mastery when I can't get them to do an ioda of work. How do I give a student the confidence to know they are capable of work their afraid of when I'm only able to show them poor results in my gradebook.
I'm still learning.
While reading chapter fourteen and fifteen I had to ask myself how often do we actually talk to other colleagues about grades. We will always vent/exchange opinions about a problem child but share grades. No!! This whole section of the textbook was alien to me. There are concerns that were brought to my mind but I would prefer not to give any details. It would be nice to work and learn from each other but it isn’t like that. I know that the book talks about a faculty where we share ideas and grading assessments but lots of schools aren’t like that. We get caught up in what we have to do and ignore everyone else.
In Richland School district 2 differentiation is the latest and greatest. When I was an administrator there teachers were expected to be able to show us how they differentiate their lessons for various learning styles. I thought the multi genre project was a good exercise in differentiation. I agree with wormeli that it is incumbent upon us as teachers to differentiate with mini lessons to reach as many students as possible.
I agree with the modeling tip and thought Paula did a great job with her autobiography which helped me a great deal.
To me the most powerful thing we did was reading for a purpose. It was so easy to determine what is important with pre reading questions.
I agree with Wormeli that there are a variety of apporaches in grade books. I would love to see us go to a narrative form of grade book but this would require a lot of work on the teacher's part.
In responding to Sadie's block, it is much easier to collaborate in the middle school team concept than on the high school level. There appears to be no such thing as teams but we are broken into departments. Unfortunately, most departments don't collaborate between disciplines except in the academy.
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