This Year's Great Grading Experience

So I am sitting in the back of a freezing cold gymnasium waiting for parents to come visit with me about their* children's progress in my classes. My time this year has actually been punctuated by actual conferences, so this is a pretty new experience for me.

To be honest, I was expecting a lot more parents, as was my principal. A child in my class has some major adjusting to do learning-wise and some of them do not take it well. So far, I have weathered the storms that came with Modeling and Standards Based Grading and have come out the other side all the better.

But this year, I took away percentages.

Turns out this was the biggest adjustment yet. And the most difficult to deal with. Now, I didn't really think my whole set up was all that difficult to understand and the truth is, it really isn't, but it is something different and some kids are having trouble getting past that. The good news is that of all the parents I have discussed this with, not one of them has had any complaints. I have even had one parent thank me for making it more difficult for students to get an A. While this wasn't exactly my end goal, I really think this system more accurately reflects a student's level of knowledge.


The Good
I love it. My scores are recorded as 0, 1, 2 or ND (no data). In the past, I went with a 4 point system. That basically turned into estimating a percent correct and there was such a big decision between 2 and 3 that it was really starting to stress me out. I found myself making out a rubric for every single target and finally decided that was ridiculously too difficult. I still find myself leaning towards a 1 when it should probably be a 0**, but I think that will get better with time. Either that or I will get rid of the 2 and simply go to a 0/1 system.

I also ended up with a huge shift in philosophy when it comes to how to actually assign the scores. All of my targets are assessed multiple times with three seeming to be my minimum right now. The score that is recorded in the grade book is the most recent assessment. Mostly. This year, it occurred to me that sometimes, kids just have a bad day. So I am looking at how to make the call on someone who has scored all 2s up until today when she scored a 0. Did she just not understand the question? Had she been copying off her neighbor? Did her allergy medicine kick in last hour? This has been a tough one for me to reconcile, so I will see where it gets me. Today, I opened it up for discussion with my kids. They have all of their scores available to them. If they want to come in and argue for a certain score, I will let them. This announcement was met with deafening silence and more than a little bit of suspicion. One student finally asked me if it was a trap, so that might just be a little too much for them to deal with at this point.

Another part of this is making up assessments that were missed because of absence. Do they need to? If I have four other data points to work with, does that ND in the grade book matter? This came about from a student that was going to make up a test if I had to drag him in by his ears. He has been a pain all year and I wasn't going to let him get away with skipping my class again.*** His argument (when I calmed down) was a good one. He had already shown me that he could do that skill. What difference did it make if he didn't show me one more time? I finally admitted he had a point. A few days later, he came in when he wanted to retake a target that had been on his missing test. He just wanted to test over the one target. Smiling my evil smile, I told him he couldn't just do a retake on a target if it was available on a missing assignment. So my new and improved (?) policy is just that. I don't require them to make up quizzes if they don't want to, but if they want to retake a target that is on that quiz, that is how it must be done.


The Bad
Using PowerSchool has been a challenge for me with this system. First and foremost, I haven't figured out a way to turn off the grades for the individual assignments (targets). This looks really, really bad if you have anything but 2s, because PowerSchool still records the percentage and letter grade.

When a student or parent looks at this, they automatically zoom in on the column of As and Fs. This student isn't doing too badly, but when the focus is on that letter, people don't tend to look at the overall picture.

PowerSchool also doesn't show what each specific target means. So when you see Lab Skills 9 (which for some reason is NOT in alphabetical order), you don't automatically know what skill is assessed there. You have to click on the link to go see what is actually means.

I started putting in each individual score every time that target was assessed. I like that a lot, but I also want to start adding in comments. I'm not sure if this will just get too messy. All of our students have a Google account through our school, so I have thought about doing something with a spreadsheet. I really haven't decided on this yet. At the beginning of the year, I was going to have a Blue Harvest or Active Grade account for each student, but that just seemed like one more thing to have to access. I am still up in the air about that. I want that feedback available, I'm just not sure of the best way to make it so.

Retakes became a nightmare. I expected the race for points to be so ingrained as to be inescapable and should have been more prepared for it. I require students to come in and "study" before getting a new quiz, usually in the form of correcting a test or quiz. I had a week or so in there where there was just such a rush that I didn't do a good job of checking that work and ended up with scores that I know do not in any way reflect that student's level of understanding. This next trimester, I am going to make it a little more difficult to earn a retake. Joss and Mylene have developed an amazing quiz reflection tool that I am totally going to steal and modify into an application for reassessment.


The Capstones
The capstones are what really caused the panic. My policy right now is that in order to get an A in the class, you must do three capstones. Students can do a lab investigation or a research paper over any of the targets. I am also considering letting them create a tutorial that would go up on the class website. These are not meant to be major research projects, but an extension of a chosen target.

I am completely aware that this is a new frontier, but it really hasn't worked out in the way that I wanted. (I wanted it to work, you know, perfectly.) The physics community pioneered the idea and I love it. Chemistry, I am finding, however, is a little more difficult to work with. One big issue I have is the safety factor and how to make sure kids aren't doing something that could get them hurt.**** Also, physics you can literally see everywhere. We are dealing with a bit more abstraction in chemistry and my kids and I are struggling with how to go about it. Even things that should be more straightforward have issues like how much and what concentration of acid they should use.

I am not happy with these as they stand. A lot of this (oh, alright, all of it) is my fault. I gave them a pretty vague idea of what I wanted, so I am getting pretty vague attempts.

So right now, pretty much any attempt has been counted as a successful as long a the student writes it up in a way that convinces me he or she truly understands that target. Again, soooo not happy with this, but it is getting better. That is not to say that I haven't had some amazing attempts. One girl wrote research paper about exploding ketchup packets in Pennsylvania. Another tied in gas laws to the Red Bull space jump last fall. One student created the most beautiful density column I have ever seen. So there is hope and I am sure it will get better with time.


All in all, even though it has significantly upped my stress level, I am happy with this shift. And once kids get past the "this is stupid and if I complain enough, she will change her mind" stage, the feedback I am getting is mostly positive. Now, there are some students who are used to getting A's that are not too happy about the "extra credit" they have to do, but overall, anyone who gets an A here, I truly feel has earned it. They like knowing exactly what they need to work on. They like being able to show that knowledge multiple times. Some of them even like the challenge.



*Sooooo just typed "my children" there. Maybe I need a vacation.

**What bothers me most about these decisions is that I find a little voice in my head saying "but he tried so hard on this question."

*** I realize I was on a power trip and I really don't like that version of me, but it is what it is.

 ****In chemistry, everyone wants to blow something up. I tell that that's fine as long as they can tie it into one of our targets.

Why My Kids Don't Want Me to Be District Attorney: An SBG Tale

So today in some really weird tangent in my ocean science class, we started discussing our district attorney. Now, several students in that class have direct experience dealing with this particular lady and not all of those experiences have come out in what you would call an equal ending. They don't like her and think we should get a new one.

Last election, she ran unopposed, so there really was no other option, and my kids suggested that I should run next time.* They would vote for me!

Then someone piped up and said, "but, wait a minute, you only grade out of 2!"

This really caused some concern, especially with some of the kids that had gotten off lightly. Apparently, should I get to decide, you would either be a yes or no case. They weren't so sure this was a good idea.

Someone else jumped in and said, "well, even if you were perfect, Mrs. Schroeder would still make you do three hours of community service to get out of jail!"

At least they seem to be lightening up about the new grading and capstones. While they still aren't happy about the changes, the have decided to accept it and move on. I have had a couple ocean kids and one chemistry who have come up with some type of extension activity. So far, they are not as in depth as I was hoping for, but I am thrilled that they are trying.


*Not gonna happen.

**I realize they were not exactly clear on the difference between a district attorney and a judge. I'll leave that to the government teacher.

Revising My Grading One (?) More Time

I am in my classroom for the first time since May.

I switched over to standards based grading a few years ago, and while I love the way it sets up my classroom, I have yet to find that perfect balance. I have been grading on a 4 point scale and I don't like it. This seems to be the most popular set up, but for me, it has just turned into a nightmare.

Assigning a 1 means you don't get it. Did you totally get it? Good, you get a 4. What if you just made a minor error? Okay, 3.5. But what if you started out like you knew what was going on and then wandered off somewhere? Is it a 2? Did you explain it well the other day during whiteboarding? Maybe it should be a 3.

This is where I really start to have issues. I found myself so often making a judgement call as to whether or not I thought the student really got it.

I am totally intrigued with the binary set up that some are moving towards. This makes it more black and white. You either get it (1) or you don't (0), right? The problem is that I do like a little bit of gray, kind of a light at the end of the tunnel. Some kids just aren't quite there yet and I am a bit nervous about a 0 being taken the wrong way.

So here's what I got:

2 = You got it. No errors, you have mastered this idea.

1 = You are on the right track. There may have been some errors, be it in the arithmetic, set-up, units*, but you at least seem to have an idea about what is going on.

0 = Yeah, you don't get it.

Is this still binary or do we call it tertiary? I'm not sure, but I am pretty excited about getting rid of that middle ground.

Part two of my overhaul involves how I mold this into a letter grade. In my 4 point system, I counted two grades for each standard. The highest mark received was added to the most recent mark. This worked out to being a percentage out of 8 total points for each standard. This worked okay. Some kids never seemed to really understand how their grade was figured, even when I had the keep track on their own.**

With this system, I am going to drop the highest and go with only the most recent. There are few things more frustrating than kids thinking they can forget everything after the test. And so much of what we do in chemistry builds on itself that I can't really allow that to happen.

Now comes the translation. I am still playing with this for a couple of reasons.

First, this is where the only resistance I have ever had from my principal comes in. I am having an incredibly difficult time getting him to let me move away from percentages. I'm not sure why. Well, okay, I'm sure he believes he will have to field more calls from parents. I'm going to hit him up again tomorrow after I finalize my system.

Which brings me to the hard part. Here's my thinking.
*Three or more 0 can't get you through the class.
*0 on any objective and the majority of the other scores are 1 = D.

Now here's where I get stuck. There are some ideas in chemistry that simply must be understood. Conservation of matter, lab skills, nomenclature. (There are more, I am working on my list.) These are the "gold" standards. You must have a 2 on all of these to get an A or B.

*2 on all gold standards, 0 on any objective and the majority of the other scores are 2 = C.
*2 on all gold standards and no more than two 1 on the others = B.
*2 on all standards and and at least two capstone projects = A.

This could change. I am rewriting my objectives today so that they fit more into this grading scheme and also so they are easier to understand. I am thinking I will have 10 gold standards and probably another 12-20 others. (Going to have to call them "blue" I suppose, school colors and all.)

What do you think? Does this even make sense? Is it too hard to follow?



*Not labeling numbers are killing my kids. From here on out, you can't convince me that you have mastered the idea until you label everything. I am pretty sure someone wrote about this at some point this summer, but I can't seem to locate that post. Whoever you are, thank you for putting that out there!

**Of course, an alarmingly large portion of that group didn't know where any of their percentages came from.

This is Why My Job is So Much Harder

During my seminar, students are not allowed to go anywhere if they are failing a class.

Yesterday I sent a student to a teacher whose geography class she was failing. Today, she was so excited that she was now passing that class. She said that by going in to talk to him about her grade, he was willing to give her an extra 50 points just for having a good attitude.

I really can't compete with this.

What Are Grades?

Think Thank Thunk has a great question for you today.

Our most recent dis­cus­sion had a lot to do with what grades mean. More specif­i­cally, the ques­tion of whether soft skills like punc­tu­al­ity or being nice should be included as a part of a student’s grade. In our group there are basi­cally two camps:

1. Grades should reflect a student’s progress with course mate­r­ial. Where an A+ indi­cates mastery.
2. Grades should be an amal­gam of a student’s knowl­edge, behav­ior, and any­thing else the teacher wants to control.

My new obsession with Standards Based Grading has forced me to take a long, hard look at what I teach and assess in my classroom. When a student walks away from this trimester with an A in my Astronomy class, what does that mean?

Does it mean she has hurriedly copied yesterday's homework in the bathroom before school?

Does it mean he has finally stopped saying f*ck in my class?

Or does it mean she can identify the elements fusing in the core of a star by interpreting its absorption spectra?

There are a lot of things I have to do to get ready for class every day. Once I determine what to teach, I have to plan out my lesson. I have to determine the best way to deliver that lesson. How can I supplement that lesson? Should I do a lab? Do I have a lab? If not, then I need to find one. Or write my own. Then I need to have enough copies for each kid. Have I looked far enough ahead to see any problems we might run into? Better have all the supplies ready.

Do I get credit for each one of these steps?

Nope.

What matters is whether or not I have it ready to go at 10:44 Tuesday morning. It's the end product that counts. Sometimes you have to do quite a bit that doesn't count individually, but is a part of a greater whole. Sometimes, you do the homework so you understand the material. If you already get it, is it a waste of time, energy and good pencil lead to do #1-31 odd?

We have such a big hang up with preparing kids for jobs. Does your job require you to turn in homework everyday? I have to have lesson plans for each day, but ultimately, those are to make my end product better* and not for use by anyone else.

And does grading on these skills truly prepare kids for the real world? Kids are smart. They know how to play the game. They know which class they can wear a hat. They know which teacher will allow them to bring a snack into class. They know when they can get away with texting. They also know what their boss is willing to put up with.

And they act accordingly. They know how to play the game.

I expect my kids to come in (without a hat) and be respectful to me and everyone else in the room. They do not get a grade for manners, but my expectations are clear.

For me, I fall resolutely into the first group.


*I realize some teachers are required to submit lesson plans to their administrator. In my last school, we did, but I had a sneaking suspicion they were stuffed into a drawer somewhere and never seen again.

My Fourth Experiment This Year

I am not afraid to try new things. Not a year passes in which I do not shake up my classroom in some way. One year it was Layered Curriculum. Last fall, I experimented with blogs.

This trimester, I have an hour with such a range of abilities as I have never seen. So in the interest of trying not to let anyone become seriously lost, I am experimenting with a couple strategies.

First off, I have done away with turning in papers to be graded. We start a unit with a notesheet (we do not have textbooks in my classes), usually coincided with a lab type activity and some sort of worksheet. They may work in groups if they want. Each paper is graded in front of the student. If #3 is wrong, it gets corrected. Right there. The assignment is not recorded until it is completely correct. I cannot tell you the number of time I have had a student ask me if he could "just miss that question" and move on.

That is not an option. There is a reason I asked that question. It is vital that you know the answer to that question. I want you to know the answer to that question, and if I just grade it and hand back the paper, you will never look at it and figure out on your own why you missed it.

That is what learning is all about, isn't it? Finding out stuff you didn't know before. If you just skip a question because you didn't already know the answer, aren't you wasting your time (and mine)?

Not surprisingly, the kids hated this. It took a good half of the grading period before they finally started taking me seriously. But persistence paid off. I love this method. It takes more time in class, but I have eliminated grading papers after school. The only thing I ever have to grade are tests. Although I have no scientific data to prove it, I believe test scores have improved, especially on the short answer/essay type questions. The answers are more complete and more coherent and more correct.

Our last trimester is coming up and I am going to start doing this in my Astronomy class as well. This class tends to bring in older kids, so we will see if we can't teach the old dogs some new tricks. Who knows, they might even learn something.