Assess More, Grade Less.
7/23/2018
It’s funny how when you read, there are always those standout phrases. I read so many books this summer, all of them great. The Book Whisperer really made a huge change in my pedagogical thinking, and that’s key. Eduprotocols filled me with ideas, which is more than helpful! All of the books I read gave me huge insights into my teaching, and ideas for the year. Each book made me think, not a little, about how I was going to have a textbook integration this year, and how I was going to manage it. And when I went to the textbook training, towards the end of the summer, and had the non-negotiables, it helped me plan how to best use the textbooks for exemplary teaching - or at least try for it! Don’t get me wrong, I’m not actually complaining about the non-negotiables, I understand the logic, however it is something I have to work with this year realistically. And so that brings me to goal number three. Assess more, grade less.
Assess More, Grade Less
I believe this line came from 180 Days. I hope that I’m giving credit to the right authors! So this is why this speaks to me, on so many levels. First of all, before I even knew about the textbook integration, or had done any of my summer reading, one of my biggest goals for the year was done to, quote unquote, fix my grading. Teaching, reading and Twitter had already led me to this place. Frustration with kids only asking about their grades had sent me looking, and the teaching world had answers! The first book I read this summer was Hacking Assessments, which gave me so many insights and inroads towards managing grading & data. We had already created a PLN, and were already well on the way towards determining how to use our required grading system, with more standards-based reporting. Shift This, one of my favorite books of last year, (let’s face it, the favorite), really help me to find my thinking in this too. “Assess more, grade less,” also spoke to me, because I had already planned to do more conferencing.....
Conferencing Struggles
I’ve been trying to be more conferencing to two years now. I’ve not done a good job at it, but many of the techniques and hints given to me in the reading over the summer are going to help me to improve. From the idea of printing out shipping labels with each student’s name for notes (you know who you’ve done and it can be stuck right in a file), to ideas on timing and questions to ask, I have a much better plan. One thing I started last year, to the chagrin of some to the n my team, was to do initial feedback on writing, and then give students the opportunity to go back and adjust things. It’s easy to see why some of the teachers don’t like this, because it appears to create a lot more work. But really it doesn’t. First of all, what joy to see the students actually read and listen to my comments and make changes. Secondly, the second read through was quick - did they take it advantage of my commentary or not?! And the bottom line is, no one employed me to get kids ready to write an essay for the test. NO. As far as I know, I was employed to help my students learn how to write better. Just giving them an assignment and grading doesn’t really do much to improve their skills. Plus, even claiming that the grade is an incentive is skewed. I don’t want them to get an A. I want them to have the desire to become better writers. So, yes. Assess more. Grade less.
So, how am I going to use this mantra in my teaching this year? Well first of all, I will continue to encourage edits for writing. Let’s keep on going until we are all happy! Secondly, our PLN has been granted permission to move towards summative only grading next semester (Bridget Bryson performs a happy dance). The first semester we will have graded formatives, but as we build relationships, we have the opportunity to build towards our goal. In January, we will start to to assess and conference, but only grade the final piece of work that shows mastery. I’m so excited!
A grade is not an assessment of the child. A grade is an assessment of mastery of a standard. We need to assess more to give the information needed to allow students to know just what is needed to meet standards. Yup, you guessed it, we need to assess more and grade less!
This is where the textbook is actually helpful. When I first heard about textbooks, I was horrified. That is not how this district rolls. This district is about good, creative, out-of-the-box thinking. That would not be a textbook. I do understand that some teachers need more support than others, I also understand that with ELA (of all subjects), vertical planning is a problem. No one in eighth grade should find out that something was taught the same way in six grade. Or if it was, that it was taught such a way that contrasts with the 8th grade curriculum. We spiral all the time though, so I am going to teach plot in sixth, just as structure is taught in eighth. What’s important is that we know what the other is doing. It matters what texts we use. Do we want them to repeat a text for growth/comparison purposes? Or would we rather they not see that text until he or she reaches a certain level? These are questions that the textbook simplifies for us. So I understand. Another benefit of the textbook is, for them in order to sell it, they have to be continuously talking about the standards. The textbook breaks things down by standards, depth of knowledge, and generally helps the teacher clarify which standard is embedded where. Is the textbook 100% correct?! No. That’s why we had a curriculum Committee working throughout the summer to create a pacing guide and add in what was missing. Thank you for that. So now, I can use that textbook to help me with my standardization goal. I don’t like to use the word standardization there is no standardization in the personalized learning environment. What’s a better word? I guess records of mastery? Anyhow. What’s important is, it’s a way to see the textbook as a positive. Another positive, is that the thematic units are filled with reflection opportunities. The textbook writers really jump onto the common language of today, it’s as if they were reading all the Twitter chat threads. Which I’m sure they are. So although there is not nearly the room for creativity that I would like to see, the opportunity is there for me to spend some time building to build some hyperdocs, create Socratic seminars, do some playlists, create tableau environments, add in some role-play, and do all the things that I do well.
It’s just gonna take some time. It might be a year or so before I can truly build the creativity I’d like to see in there, but in the meantime, I believe I’m up to the task. Hey, I’m looking forward to it. I just wish there was a little bit more time in every lesson to do all the things that I would like to do to improve my practices!
So back to the assessing. Lots of assessing and self-assessment, pair assessment, Mrs Bryson. I hope to use ReadWrite for Google and Voxer, offering the opportunity for spoken feedback and commentary. I can’t always be with my students, but I can always connect. I plan to use the independent reading time to conference about the reading. I plan to use independent writing time to conference about the writing. Conference conference conference. The Book Whisperer showed me it was possible, 180 Days gave me some plans. All the other books I read were powerful. And now I’m reading is Sparks in the Dark, so even more strategies are on the way.