Your learners are masters of...?

About six years ago, I embarked on a journey. A path towards empowering my students in their own learning journey. This ongoing trek has been filled with pitfalls and obstacles along the way. Through this arduous, yet rewarding adventure, I fell upon the idea of standards-based grading. I built my foundation upon the work of Rick Wormeli and Ken O'Connor. However, what I discovered was that although I changed my philosophy on grading, there was not a set road map that guided me step-by-step in applying it within my classroom with my specific students. I thought I would take a few minutes to share some of what I have learned along the way and how my students and I are making this work for us in our ever evolving quest to improve their ability to grow.

One eureka moment for me was when I realized that grades should reflect what a student not only understands but is also able to do with their knowledge. It should reflect a mastery of the standards and not simply be a game of collecting points for tasks that are unrelated to learning (extra credit for attending the school basketball game or points for having parents attend open house). Yes, those items are worthwhile, but they skew the accuracy of the grades that our students are earning. Grades are to communicate the level of mastery that each learner has reached on each standard; they are not compensation for effort put forth or where a child put his name on a project.

I had to ask myself, "Where does one begin to make this shift in practice?" I determined that I needed to begin where the learning starts, with a target. Those targets are the standards, whether you are in a system that has adopted the Common Core or a State Course of Study. That means that all assessments must measure those standards and only those standards. If students are writing a paper, that means that their grade communicates their level of mastery of those standards and not whether or not they used a particular formatting tool, font, or degree of neatness. Each standard has equal weight when it comes to grading.

When discussing standards, I discovered it was important to solely focus on that list generated by the state. When I hear teachers frustrated with standards, more often than not, it's not actually coming from that list of what students need to be able to do. Instead the frustration is coming either from being required to follow a program or curriculum that a district has purchased, or it is coming from a an unrealistic pacing guide or common assessments. Standards are not curriculum. They are simply a destination for where every child needs to be. The means of getting there comes from the teacher.

It took me several years to begin to see how this would work logistically within our classroom. When it came to assessments, how could I record them to reflect mastery of multiple standards for one assessment? I shifted listing grades as assignments (such as Test on A Wrinkle in Time) to listing the grades for each standard (such as determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details...). Previously, I may have included multiple standards on an assessment, but it was all recorded in one score, failing to communicate to the learner the specific areas where she/he may need to continue to work on mastery. In standards based grading, on an assessment, I may include the standards on (1) theme, as well as (2) citing textual evidence, (3) explaining how an author develops a point of view, and (4) demonstrating command of the conventions of Standard English grammar and usage when writing all on one assessment. (These all come from the Alabama College and Career Ready Standards for 6th Grade ELA). However, instead of one grade, that one assessment generates four separate grades based on a student's level of mastery in each of the standards assessed.

Those of you familiar with our classroom know that my students engage in project-based learning throughout the school year. For us, moving to standards-based grading drastically changed the content of our student-created rubrics. Previously, the large categories included items like digital publishing, editing for errors, and content; students received one grade for an entire project. Now, the areas of the rubric where learners are evaluated become the different standards that one project assesses. Then my students work together to create the measurable identifier for what determines a 4 on a standard and what determines a 3, 2, or 1. As mentioned previously, they receive multiple grades on one project because they are being assessed on multiple standards on that one project.

Yes, it may seem like a matter of semantics, but this shift to focusing on standards has given my students the ability to focus on the specific areas where they need to grow and the areas where they have surpassed grade level standards. By focusing on mastering standards, students are challenged wherever they are in their learning journey. Not only do I know, but every student knows where they are on the learning continuum and where they need to be. It's a win-win situation that makes learners more than just collectors of points, but masters of their own learning.

The Reading Log Conundrum

There's been much written about the use of reading logs in classrooms today.  Personally, I can say that I'm not a fan of requiring students to read and fill out the required form. Where I teach, using a reading log is a nonnegotiable, meaning every student regardless of age has to complete one daily. For the upper elementary students, a summary must be incorporated with their log. Our district has a semi-standards based report card. One of the 5 broad standards that students must meet in reading for each grading period is "independent reading." The reading log is linked as the way to measure whether or not a student has mastered that standard. If a child has completed his/her reading log at least 75% of the time during a grading period he/she has been considered as mastered that standard.

I know there are all kinds of problems with that method. I've been wrestling with this for this entire school year. I've been trying to discover a new way to have my students reach that standard that the administrators will approve and that will provide the documentation that students are reading independently.  It has been a challenge.  I'm also trying to reinforce the love of reading as that has also been a challenge...no thanks, I'm sure, to this whole reading log issue (Many other teachers are reporting the same behaviors in their classrooms). I have students who (now) love to read, especially graphica. I'm having to remind them to put it up when we are engaged in another activity. However, these students will not turn in a reading log. To them there is no correlation to what they're reading, which is fun, and the reading log, which is not. They'd rather receive a zero and keep reading their self-selected reading.

So, here is the plan that I intend to pilot at the end of the school year to show my administrators. I'm hoping for their approval for next year in lieu of the dreaded reading log. My students spend a lot of time writing and  reflecting on their learning across content areas. We are going to move our reflections over to blogs. As with all our writing endeavors, I'm going to have my students form a  rubric and guidelines for blogging.

One aspect that I hope to guide them into including is whatever they are currently reading. With the comment options, I'm hoping to encourage students to share what they are reading and encourage commenting upon one another's reading choices...making connections and having real discussions. It takes the static, one-sided reading log, and gives it relevance. There's an audience. There's a purpose for their writing and reflecting. The blog turns their literature reflections into a book discussion where they can share the exciting things they are reading, whether it's a trade book, a novel , or a comic book. It will give me the documentation I need to meet the standard while the actual requirements will be set by the students, not by the school, giving them back the power in how they publish and express themselves with the literature.

If anyone has any other ideas, I'd love to hear them. I've felt like we were between a rock and a hard place with this reading log all year. Keeping our fingers crossed! Wish us luck!

What is Homework?

A couple of weeks ago, I read a tweet that has really stuck with me. It said that homework wasn't about learning but about behavior. I wish I could remember who tweeted that so that we could continue that conversation and so that I could give them credit for saying it.

I have to say in my evolving journey as an educator, I have been questioning a lot of practices and wondering about their validity in truly and rigorously educating our learners. I teach in a system that requires a certain number of grades per grading period. In some cases, they go so far as to tell us which assignments must be assigned and graded and how many of those assignments we have to give each grading period. Then our school administration has each grade level break down those assignments/categories even further to turn into them. These categories are given a percent value for the final averages for each grading period. All of this is done for the sake of continuity across the district. I agree that there needs to be some continuity across the district, but are we more focused on continuity and losing sight of what's important? Doing what's best for our students.

Even within those tight restrictions, I have to say that I've moved away from creating these rigid homework assignments because, as the mystery tweeter mentioned above said, it is really measuring a behavior than actual learning. Many of my students go home with younger siblings to an empty house. They are the one in charge of caring for their siblings, helping to feed them, making sure they get baths, and they get to bed. If one of those students, slaps something down in a workbook to turn in without giving it thought, or by reinforcing the wrong thing by doing it incorrectly, what good does that homework assignment do? Is actual learning being evaluated? I have to say, "No."

To complete many of the required assignments, I've broken my class down into small group, learning centers, where I can meet with small groups of students to find out who really understands principles and concepts and who needs more help. These small groups change day to day and sometimes minute to minute based on what the learner understands and can apply to the project/assignment at hand. Once a student grasps something, he/she moves on to higher level activities that involve problem solving and critical thinking. Doing this I can accurately measure what each of my students understands and has learned even within these tight grading constraints.

Often in these small groups, we have really deep conversations and they make outstanding connections between life outside the classroom walls, their background knowledge, and their personal reading. These students often go home and do extra work to bring back and share with their peers. Sometimes, they gather up supplies and conduct an experiment with the class that they found while doing extra reading because their interest was so peaked by something we discussed in small group, they wanted to extend their learning and share more. I've also had kids create costumes and come to school as a historical figure, create presentations or games for the class, and find all kinds of interesting online resources to share. We've created a class wiki where we can house many of these activities/resources so that the students can further extend their learning beyond our classroom time constraints.

Now which one measures learning? The workbook pages that kids do, often incorrectly, or these amazing activities that they do that enhances and sparks enthusiasm in their peers often setting off a chain reaction of amazing learning events that they pursue on their own? Well, of course, anyone, including my 10 year old students, can see it's the latter. They know when they are working on something in the classroom, they are responsible for providing me with evidence of their learning and their thinking. I keep a file of all of this work, but because of our strict grading parameters, much (not all) of this extended learning is not reflected in their grades.

So how do we fix this? This is an excellent question, one that I'm still pondering and reflecting upon daily. Isn't traditional homework doing a disservice to our students? I think so, but I'd love to hear your thoughts about homework.