Standards-based grading after 4 weeks
First off, I have found Math Illustrations to be very useful for me in creating problems for my skills assessments. It has made it much easier to create trig problems for the students.
After four weeks, my standards-based grading has gone ok. The main success for me is that I am not spending any time correcting homework, which is something I hated to do. The only things I correct right now the assessments. I give assessments every Wednesday and Friday. The assessments can be re-taken with one day of warning for me.
The main problems that have cropped up are that some of my students are having trouble studying for the specific skills that will be on the assessment. I have given them a notebook to keep worksheets, notes, and old assessments. Many of the students don't seem to be studying for the assessments and they try and ask questions of me after I hand out the assessments. I need to come up with a way that my students can be more successful the first time a skill is assessed. This is even more true because after the first time a skill is assessed, the question becomes more difficult.
I have also created a bulletin board that lists the percent of each class who has achieved perfection on a skill. Not many students are achieving perfection and it makes the classes look less successful.
Some students are re-assessing, but many are not. I am hoping that this rate picks up before conferences. I have also sent out an explanation of my new grading system and a progress report out to all families, which I hop helps the communication.
I also have not yet required students who re-assess to complete problems to show me they have been truly studying the concept they are re-assessing. This may change if too many students are not improving when they re-assess.
Conferences are in about two weeks and I will update my progress after that.
Sean
After four weeks, my standards-based grading has gone ok. The main success for me is that I am not spending any time correcting homework, which is something I hated to do. The only things I correct right now the assessments. I give assessments every Wednesday and Friday. The assessments can be re-taken with one day of warning for me.
The main problems that have cropped up are that some of my students are having trouble studying for the specific skills that will be on the assessment. I have given them a notebook to keep worksheets, notes, and old assessments. Many of the students don't seem to be studying for the assessments and they try and ask questions of me after I hand out the assessments. I need to come up with a way that my students can be more successful the first time a skill is assessed. This is even more true because after the first time a skill is assessed, the question becomes more difficult.
I have also created a bulletin board that lists the percent of each class who has achieved perfection on a skill. Not many students are achieving perfection and it makes the classes look less successful.
Some students are re-assessing, but many are not. I am hoping that this rate picks up before conferences. I have also sent out an explanation of my new grading system and a progress report out to all families, which I hop helps the communication.
I also have not yet required students who re-assess to complete problems to show me they have been truly studying the concept they are re-assessing. This may change if too many students are not improving when they re-assess.
Conferences are in about two weeks and I will update my progress after that.
Sean
Comment
-
Comment by Missy Butki on December 2, 2010 at 12:21pm -
thank you so much. I think I friended you correctly. I do not have facebook so this is new to me.
-
Comment by Sean Karsten on December 2, 2010 at 11:41am -
I sent you a friend request so we can message each other. I will also find the letter I sent home explaining the process to parents.
-
Comment by Missy Butki on December 2, 2010 at 11:14am
-
Sean, my name is Missy Butki and I am a 7th grade math teacher at Sashabaw Middle School in Clarkston. Gerri Devine gave me your info because I am going to launch standards based grading for one of my classes as a pilot. I have so many questions and wondered if you had any time to talk. I noticed you referenced Dan Meyer. Did you use any Marzano research? Did you send a letter home explaining to parents? Any thoughts or ideas would be helpful.
-
Comment by Sean Karsten on October 6, 2010 at 7:27pm
-
I am the math department, but I am the only teacher utilizing standards-based grading. I've taken Dan Meyer's process and tweaked it with the bi-weekly assessments. I think once the students realize how easily their grades can improve with some concentrated effort, they will further embrace the system.
Once the year is done, I'll post all of my assessments. I only have the algebra 1 assessments written ahead of time, and I've posted those in the forum.
-
Comment by Beverly George on October 6, 2010 at 7:16am -
I LOVE the idea of standards-based grading. Is this something the entire district is attempting or just you? I'd love to hear more... I've also reverted to scoring assessments as the majority of my grading system. I also give students a minor "participation" grade - I check their notebooks on a weekly basis (basically, I only look at 5-6 notebooks per day in a class) just to make sure they are held accountable for their class work and homework assignments. I also allow students to retake their assessments. HUGE success in that area. Students are learning that they need to do the class work and homework in order to be prepared for the assessments.
I wish you the best of luck before conferences get here, and I look forward to hearing more!
© 2013 Created by MVU Administrator.
Powered by
You need to be a member of Algebra for All to add comments!
Join Algebra for All