Questions for Consistency

As I mentioned, several other teachers are going to be piloting the same system as me, well a similar system.  One of the greatest complains with points grading is the inconsistencies.  Thus, we want to make sure we, as a group, are consistent in our implementation of SBG and AFL.  Here are a few of the issues we need to address:

·         Number of levels

o   I use a 5-1 scale.

o   4-1 is used for EOC’s

o   4-0 has been suggested, as has 5-0

·         Zeros

o   I’ve been putting in 1’s for no data but I dunno about the logic of that. . .

o   Will we use them at all? 

o   How will we use them?

·         Missing/late work

o   This pertains particularly to missing/late summative grades like papers, presentations and lab reports.

o   Again, I am using 1’s for assessments

o   For homework and practice, I grade anything any time they turn it in. 

o   Zeros?

o   Rules for accepting it?

·         Retakes

o   I allow retakes on everything, given the completed retake ticket.

o   Allowed on all tests? Some tests?

o   Protocol for retakes?

o   Full credit, partial credit, no credit?

o   Admission price?

·         Homework policy

o   For me, it’s just practice

o   Just practice?

o   Part of summative grade?

o   Recorded? Not recorded?

o   Collected and graded or not?

·         Percent conversions

o   Basically, 5=A+, 4=A-, 3=B-, 2=C- <2=F.  I have some smaller gradations in there because the + and – factor into GPA. 

o   How will the mastery levels be converted back into percents for the regular grade card?

I will add more as we come up with these questions and the responses we generate. . . . stay tuned!

October 26, 2011 Changes for next time

October 26, 2011

Changes for next time

As I proceed through this venture, there have turned up quite a few issues that cannot be corrected until next year.   This entire SBG system is a jump for most students so to alter things drastically again would be unwise.  My students, overall, are incredibly flexible and patient with me as I try new things, discard them, and try again.  Several changes will come as a result of consistency and streamlining with other teachers who are going to be starting their own pilots next year.  Below are a few of the changes I know for certain I want to make next year.

·         Artifacts

o   In addition to homework, artifacts will be available in a basket in the front of the room for students to prove what they know without the help of other students or notes.  This should help students who feel they know the material and suddenly realize on the test that they are unable to perform the requested task alone.  Essentially, they are “quizzes” but will not affect student grades. 

o   A second option is to call the pop quizzes I often give “artifacts” to be separately recorded as such.

·         Checklists

o   Next year, the checklists on which students monitor their own grades will have three sections: practice, artifacts, and summatives.  This way they will be able to see how much practice they have completed, how well they did on the practice, how those scores compare to the artifact scores that require students to perform as they would on a test and see how all of this compares to the summative scores that are received. 

·         Retake tickets

o   This will be instituted from the get-go next year.  So far I LOVE them.

·         Rewriting/ Adjusting Standards

o   I am not happy with the order of my standards.  Study of the periodic table should come before naming and bonding.

o    St2 for honors is too large.

o    Ideally, I still want to create one set of standards that just has HC next to the standards that are for honors only. 

o   Another ideal would be to create, as Eureka has, core curricular objective.  Ideally, these standards would collectively describe what is covered over one term/quarter of instruction.  It might be hard to keep it that organized, though, since several chapters come back and build on previous ideas

o   Power standards are another idea I need to toss around.  Some standards are considerably more important than other, being one of the major ideas any student having taken my class should know.  This would require percentages, with some standards being worth a greater percent of the class.  That would be a challenge in SIS though. . . . I just hate percentages, personally

·         Behavior grades

o   This one is a toughie.  Even Ken O’Connor agrees that behaviors are important and should be reported.  However, since we are still using a points based report card, that grade would have to be averaged in with the learning grade essentially creating the same problem already seen in grades.

October 21, 2011 and Reassessments

October 21, 2011

Artifacts

I am still struggling with this idea of artifacts.  After talking with students, it is apparent that many of my students do not need the large amounts of practice that I hand out.  By requiring homework to be turned in for a grade, it is punishing the students that get the concepts on the first try.  That is one of the greatest arguments for standards based grading and assessment for learning.  Man I love the chemistry systems of grading/reporting.  Anyway, I had originally told my students that they needed to choose an assignment each week to turn in as a homework grade.  After discussion with other teachers, I decided to require the artifacts once a week to make sure students weren’t procrastinating too badly.  However, with the ABC block schedule that my school uses, I do not see my students every day to remind them and here we are on Friday and I have received nothing.  So I’m attempting to rethink this. . . . here’s my new idea:  artifacts will be comprised of 3-5 exemplary problems from the chapter being studied.  A student must complete three of these artifacts before the chapter test.  These will be the homework grades for the chapter.  The chemistry students (both honors and general), most of whom are younger than the physics crew, have surprised me with the amount of homework they do and practice they complete without the worksheets being taken for a “grade”.  I’m hoping physics will be the same way.  I will still assign homework and suggest that they turn it in for me to grade for correctness but only the artifacts will be taken as grades.  They are to be completed alone and without the help of notes, etc, effectively making them like little quizzes but they can be completed at the student’s leisure. 

Assessments

Thus far I am pleased with my retake tickets.  We will see if this alters the number of retake requests I get because this does require the student to do more work before I will allow them the retake opportunity.  I do believe this will force students to study and review the material before they attempt the retake which is definitely a good thing. 

Overall

I still feel like this whole venture has been supremely successful at taking the emphasis off points and refocusing everything on the learning.  The students and parents have also adapted far better than I ever could have hoped.  I think the main difficulty for anyone attempting this venture would be to remain flexible.  As I move through the school year, I am constantly finding things that I do not like, ideas that are not having the desired effect or suggestions that fall flat entirely.  One has to be able to take that failure in stride and come up with a new idea fairly quickly.  All it takes is persistence. 

Sept 12, 2011 Reassessment and record-keeping

September 12, 2011

Tests

Well, general chemistry completed the first part of the written assessment today.  Tomorrow they will finish the application second part of it.  It’s interesting how many people do well on the homework but bomb the test.  These students don’t strike me as the sort that would copy homework, particularly now when it doesn’t directly affect their grade.  I think so many students psych themselves out.  Test anxiety is no excuse for a poor test score though, sadly enough.  Driver’s license, CPA training, insurance certification, teacher certification, doctorates, etc all require a pencil and paper tests so even the poor test takers must find some way to overcome that hurdle.  I’m hoping that this system will allow them to see their weak points and notice that rarely does a student fail the entire test.  It is usually one section or another that brings the overall grade down.  If they can focus on that weak point, they can bring up the score.  I hope it will be encouraging.  All the aforementioned tests allow retakes, though it may cost time and money, but you are allowed to retake the test after you’ve had a time to study.  Hopefully, eventually, we can move beyond that and help students start identifying these weak spots before the test rolls around.  The scores on my test ranged widely and there are a few students who have grounds to argue a reassessment. 

Another intriguing occurrence worthy of note is student resistance to application type assessments.  Since the second part of the standard 1 assessment requires students to apply their knowledge or to think about the concepts in a more abstract manner, they are not able to simply memorize a chart or vocabulary word to achieve the score they desire.  They actually have to master the material.  I mentioned something about wanting to see how their brains worked and not how well they could play the “school game” and several of them smiled sheepishly.  We have conditioned students to memorize and regurgitate, not to apply and analyze. 

Reassessment

For honors chemistry, there were so few that I was creating reassessments on a request basis.  The two students requesting reassessment each will have very different tests.  I need to come up with reassessments for each section that I can give students so I don’t have to keep making up individual tests.  I am expecting a fair amount of reassessments out of the two general chemistry classes.  Well, I should rephrase that: quite a few students would have a solid argument to request reassessments.  I do not know if they will or not.  Time will tell.

Grading

I reorganized my grade book by sub-standard and the difference is so profound , almost tangible.  It took forever to rewrite all the scores from the semester so far but the effort was more than worth it.  Now I can clearly see the pattern of learning, regression or stagnation for a particular student.  As we being standard 2, I will definitely be chunking off sections of my grade book for each sub-standard to assist with tracking of information mastered.  The binder paper grade book is an enormous asset as I can add page whenever I need!  However, I am still greatly concerned about the online grade book.  Scores of low Cs  can be seen for even the students who scored 3 or higher on the test.  The online system goes by the percent, seeing 3/5 and averaging the score that way.  I have no idea how to fix this other than to override the system at term.  Parents can still determine a child’s grade by averaging standards and comparing it to the chart already given.  In general, a 5 is an A+, a 4 is an A/A-, a 3 is B, 2 is a C and 1 is an F.  The score of a 1 is indicative of a situation where the student didn’t turn something in or has very little or no understanding of the topic at hand.  But that doesn't make the current percentages any easier to deal with, other than to ignore them.  While I’m on the subject of not turning in assignment, lab assessments have become a small issue.  Since the lab reports are often lengthy, it is unreasonable to require this to be done solely during class time.  Thus, it goes home.  However, as is always the chance with assignments being sent home, many of the lab notebooks never returned.  Before today, that was the only summative assessment students had so several had a 0% in the course.  I have since converted all those zeros to 1’s, as a 1 means both “no clue” and insufficient evidence, neither of which is an acceptable reason to have that score.

Overall

I am still greatly concerned about the online grade book.  I am expecting a flurry of parent emails over the next several days.  But, that is a good thing.  Communication with parents is never a bad thing and when so much is changing, it’s even more important.   I am exceedingly pleased with the extraordinary amount of data I have on student understanding and how well the test data correlates with the practice data.  I am hoping this will clarify AFL and SBG in the minds of my students and help them to take control of their learning and success.