When was the last time you ever taught all the standards the state asked you to? When was the last time ALL your students could demonstrate proficiency on every standard? I've never even gotten close to that. Prioritizing standards is a key step in knowing how successful your students will be in the future.
I break up standards/concepts/skills into three groups: Must Do, Should Do and Aspire to Do (taken from Kareem Farah's Modern Classrooms Project). Must Do's are concepts/skills that the student will need later in the unit/year/years to be successful. These are the absolute foundations of your content. Should Do's are REALLY important, but not essential for success. It is really hard to decide what is a Must and what is a Should. If you are struggling, ask a teacher that is 1-3 years above you. They can usually tell you what key concepts are more important. Aspire to do's are the concepts and skills that would be awesome, but are not going to make a big impact later in life.
Why should I change?
Rubrics push teachers to clarify proficiency levels in the work they are asking their students to do. What are the key student learning goals of any lesson/unit and how will they know when they have gotten there? And what does it look like to extend beyond that foundational level?
How do I do it?
Rubrics often get too complex and multi-leveled, leading to confusion, both for students and teachers. One suggestion: when designing your "Meets" (aka required criteria) level, consider what skills and knowledge will well position students for learning in future units. Learning and skills that are "nice to have" but not foundational might appear in the "Exceeds" level of a rubric.
Here are some great ideas for adding clarity and scaffolding into your rubrics.
Single point rubrics (Cult of Pedagogy): Simplify and focus your learning criteria
Teach Simple article on single-point rubrics(There are several example rubrics in this article)
Hyperrubrics (Cult of Pedagogy): Build scaffolding and models into your rubrics
Single-point hyperrubrics: Integrate both ideas into a single rubric! Provide your students with clear and supported learning criteria
Article on the work being done at Ashland Middle School around rubrics
We know it is important to give students feedback on non-academic skills. The problem is that this kind of feedback gets wrapped into academic grading, creating confusion and inaccuracy. Separating "soft skills" feedback from academic feedback can make grades more meaningful and helpful to students.
Consider this example from Beaverton School District, which gives K-12 students clear Behavioral Learning Targets (middle school example). Teachers provide quarterly feedback on Academic and Behavior Learning Targets, as shown in this sample report card (middle school example). Letter grades are generated using this conversion chart.
What if your district is not willing to change the report card? Just use the comments to report on students' non-academic skills.
Why should I change?
When you grade by a standard or learning target instead of by an assignment or test, it is very clear what the student understands and what they still have to learn. When a student asks you "What can I do to raise my grade?" your answer is always the same "Look at what standards you still need to meet, pick one and work on learning it!" Students, parents, special education teachers, instructional assistants, administrators all know what this individual student needs to learn.
How do I do it?
First, you need to gather your standards (learning targets). You have a couple of options, you can use your state/district standards or you can create your own learning targets. The advantage of using the state/district standards is that they are already written and you are supposed to teach those standards. The problem with them is that they can be difficult for students to understand and they often have multiple learning targets within one standard.
Assessments that only test one learning target at a time. When you mix learning targets into one assessment, you don't know which of the learning target the student knows or does not know. Alternatively, you can break your assessments up by learning target, but then you will need to give separate scores for each target.
Learning targets in the gradebook. There are a couple of ways you can work with learning targets in your grade book. Some online gradebooks have the ability to attach standards to assignments. Some make this process easy, while others make it very difficult. Another option is to use learning targets names instead of assignment names. This can be confusing for students if they don't know what work they need to do in order to learn that target. Here is an example grade book.
You could also try and create a grade category for each learning target. This would create A LOT of categories but might work pretty well. I have not tried it, so let me know if you do and how it goes!
Allow a more current demonstration of knowledge to replace an old grade. If a student didn't know how to create a scientific model in September, but then demonstrated that they could in November, then they should get the higher grade. There is no need to average the scores or to re-take the old assessment, they now have the skill, so that is what is represented in the grade. Be careful using weighted averages and power-law. While it is better than just an average, if a student takes your final on the morning after their parent was arrested, power-law can trash a students' grade. Any assessment that has a large impact on a grade and has no opportunity for reassessment is inequitable.
Looking for more? Check out this article on dealing with pushback from equitable grading.
Why should I change?
The educational system has taught students that there are right answers and wrong answers. If most of your answers are right, then you are smart, and if you get most of your answers wrong, you are dumb. I know that is how I felt in school, dumb (I got a lot of answers wrong in school). A culture of feedback aims to change that mindset. Changing from "smart" and "dumb", to learning and growing. We all have areas in our life where we are "smart", and those that we are "dumb", but we can all learn and grow in any area we choose! Even those areas we are "smart" in, still have room for learning and growing. I believe this is the key to having our students become lifelong learners.
How do I do it?
This topic has filled many books, but here are some of my thoughts:
Language: Avoiding words such as good/bad, right/wrong, smart/dumb and instead focusing on words like learning, growth, progress, strengths, have yet to master, still learning. It is essential that the students speak these words as well. The culture is created by students, not the teacher. However, most students will model their own behavior on the words and actions of the teacher.
Self-reflection: We don't learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience (John Dewey). It is critical that students can see the progress that they have made. Have students think about where they started, where they are now, and where they are going next.
Celebration: What do you celebrate in your classroom? GPA or progress? A student with an A may have learned less than a student with a D. What learning is valued in your classroom? Academic only or personal interests, art, behavior, attitude, and skills.
Collaboration vs. Competition: Do you encourage students to learn from each other or do you have a ranking board that shows off who has read the most books?
Teacher modeling: When you make a mistake, be sure to behave in the way you want your students to behave. "Well, that didn't go the way I thought it would! Hmmm, what could I do differently next time? Is there someone else I could ask for help?" Or "I was unkind to a student/teacher/staff today. I need to apologize and I need to figure out what I can do, so I am more thoughtful next time. I am going to reach out to Ms. Young to get her advice because I know she is really good at managing her anger. Do any of you have strategies for managing anger?"
Teacher vulnerability: Do you talk about what areas of learning you struggle with? You could read part of your own self-reflection. Tell the students what you are still struggling with and what you are going to try next. Sometimes students get the idea that teachers (or other "smart" people) are good at everything. I became a science and math teacher because I struggle with spelling and I read slowly.
Resources:
Self-assessment tools article from the Center for Responsive Schools. This article gives lots of practical advice and also includes examples of activities you can do to foster self-analysis.
Okay, so this isn't really about grading, but it does have a major impact on grades!
Why should I change?
"Blended Learning is learning that combines face-to-face teaching and online instruction - Ideally with leveraging the strengths of each. " - from Teachthought.com
I like to think of Blended Learning as teaching without lectures. You might think "But I am so good at lecturing, my students have told me they really love my class because I am so funny/entertaining/interesting." That is great! You can bring all that energy and fun into your videos as well! Here is a list of reasons you might want to record your lectures:
Students can access the content almost anywhere. If a student is sick/working/caring for others, they probably have a phone or live with someone who does. Students are no longer penalized for not being able to stay after school to get help.
Students can watch the same video multiple times. "I forgot how to do X. Can you explain it again?" Sure, watch the video!
You can teach 30 different students 8 different concepts at the same time. You can even teach while you are sleeping, walking the dog, or making dinner!
Students get more one-on-one help. Instead of spending class time talking to the class, you are instead working with individuals or small groups to give more focused support.
It is easier to build positive relationships with your students. You will have fewer discipline issues because students are SUPPOSED to be talking. You will have more time to help students with home/peer issues, find out about their interests, and weekend!
You are not as tired at the end of the day! How much of your energy is taken up by keeping people in their seats and paying attention? Instead of projecting your voice all day, you are having small group and one-on-one conversations.
How do I do it?
It is really pretty simple, but it does take some upfront time. Any time you would have normally stood in front of the class and delivered content, you instead record it and have students watch it on their devices. Here are some best practices for making instructional videos:
Keep videos short! 5-7 minutes or less. Seriously!
Only teach one concept per video. This means you may have 2-3 videos per lesson.
Be dynamic and entertaining in your videos! Use animations or draw/highlight on the slides.
Minimize text - Do you have a picture or diagram that will say the same thing?
Interested in learning more? There is a whole course on this and much more from The Modern Classrooms Project. Check it out here. The Modern Classrooms Project is basically equitable grading wrapped up in one package.