This summer I am taking part in a book club about Standards-Based Grading, hosted by Kathryn Byars. (
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The book club focuses on three books:
- Rethinking Grading: Meaningful Assessment for Standards-Based Grading by Cathy Vatterott
- What We Know About Grading: What Works, What Doesn't, and What's Next by Thomas R. Guskey and Susan M. Brookhart
- Grading from the Inside Out: Bringing Accuracy to Student Assessment Through a Standards-Based Mindset by Tom Schimmer
I am going to keep track of my reflections from the book study here. I am not going to post the questions that Byars posed to us, as those are her words. My reflections will explain my thoughts as I was reading through each book and determining my philosophy as well as what I have been doing and what I will be changing in the future.
This is the first part, focusing on the first book:
Rethinking Grading: Meaningful Assessment for Standards-Based Grading
Student Ability and Student Grades
I have seen a disconnect between student ability and student grades in my own classroom, even this school year. There are always those students who refuse to do daily work or projects but ace every test. In my classes, normally this student could still have a good grade due to the fact that summative scores are 80% of the final grade and 20% are formative scores, but students that don’t do summative projects lose out on major summative points there. I’ve always struggled with that. Projects are summative, as they showcase a student’s learning, but should I put projects and tests in the same weighted category? If I do that, students who do not complete projects still fail, even when they can easily pass tests and show mastery that way.
On the other hand, there are those students who ace every daily work assignment, but fail test after test. I know that cheating has been an issue this school year, and I aim to focus on changing that. Many students cheat due to the pressure to get a good grade on the assignment, or they aren’t engaged, or they don’t see a purpose in the assignment. I want to focus on making the work more purposeful and engaging.
Empowering Students to Own Their Learning
I try to allow choices for students, but often students go with what they consider to be the safest choice. For example, I do a year-end project that is a short research project. Students are given choices as to how to present their project (Adobe Spark video, Google Site, children’s storybook, slideshow, etc.). 90% of students choose to do a slideshow. I’ve thought about getting rid of that option, but I want to allow students choice. We have also completed projects in various mediums throughout the school year, so students have exposure to all of the choices.
We also do the National History Day project, where students get to choose their own topic. This empowers students to create a project on a topic that they are interested in.
I certainly need to empower my students more, but I think I need a structure in place first. Telling students that they are in charge of their own learning can be daunting for students who are unaccustomed to that. They often don’t know where to start, so I need to have some sort of structure to get students going. The structure will also make sure that students are focusing on the skills and content that they need to master.
Teaching Behaviors vs. Teaching Social Studies
Students that play the game of school well (speak nicely, behave, sit still, turn in your work) get good grades, though they might not have mastered the skills. Also, often students are more focused on the number of points than on the learning itself. For example, I had a student tell me that he wasn’t going to do any daily work assignments because they only affected 10% of his grade. I plan to stop grading daily work in the future, which won’t necessarily make more students complete the work, but it will help us all focus on the purpose behind the daily work (practice!) rather than the points attributed to the assignment.
Does Rigor = Few High Achievers?
Rigor does not mean that only a few students receive high grades. Some teachers might believe that assigning difficult work is rigorous, but it isn’t helping students learn if it is too difficult for them to complete by using their current skill set and possibly some help from the teacher. A class can challenge students, help them learn, and help them succeed (therefore the students earn high grades) all at the same time. The point is to help students learn, not punish the students that aren’t quite at the same level as the highest achievers who can complete the work all on their own. All students should be able to earn high grades if they show mastery.
"Deserving" an A
A student who works to achieve mastery and, even if they need help, they master the skills, they deserve an A. If a student does not show mastery, they will not receive an A, but it doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve it. Given fair opportunities and ample time to learn, every student should be able to master the necessary skills.
Quantity v. Quality
The new Social Studies standards in Wisconsin help provide an outline for how to do include more higher-level thinking skills instead of focusing on covering a great deal of specific content. The standards focus on inquiry and analyzing sources rather than on the content, which used to be the focus. We are required to cover all essential time periods for US History and World History as outlined in the introduction to the standards, but each individual standard focuses on skills instead of content. This really helps, as I can pick out important topics from a specific time period (say, the Progressive Era), and students can choose which topic they would like to focus on. As a class we would work on thinking skills such as identifying the author’s point of view and determining how their point of view affects the information that they include in their source. I would model one to the class, work through one with the class, and students could practice on their own after choosing the topic that interests them (work safety, women’s rights, social welfare, conservation, etc.). Students can have plenty of practice with the skills, but they won’t have to remember each and every Progressive Era reformer that is mentioned; just the significance of the era and how to analyze sources.
Benefits of SBL
The benefits of a standards-based learning classroom include students learning at their own pace, a focus on mastery instead of speed, opportunities for students to take risks and challenge themselves without being punished, and students better understanding the importance of the work that they are completing. Challenges include being able to help and reach every student in a system like this. As a high school teacher with 150-200 students per day and some classes with 30 students, it can be very difficult to tailor instruction in a way that helps every student learn, not to mention keep track of that learning. My issue would be setting up a system, but once in place, I know that management is attainable.
Changing the Way We Grade
I agree with Vatterott for the most part that we should only grade learning and there is no one-shot grading. There are some instances in which deadlines cannot be avoided, such as our National History Day projects. The projects must be completed in time for judging at our local contest, but this does not mean that learning stops. I allow revisions to be made on the projects even after the contests are over, and even if students do not make it to the next level. The initial project must be done to be judged, but revisions can be made later. Another project that I do is a Shark Tank project in which members of the community come in to be the sharks. The projects must be done to present them when the sharks are present. Understandably, revisions to both projects can be made after the initial deadline, but there must be a project to present. This is where I struggle; do students lose points for not having their project done on time to be judged? It is not fair to ask the judges to return simply to judge one project, and it is not authentic to have a random teacher or administrator be the judge.
Last year I graded almost everything and, naturally, was drowning in grading all of the time. Most of it was meaningless, and I knew it, but I didn’t know how else to get students to do the work. I’m working on changing that next year as I substitute worksheets with more meaningful and authentic work and make sure that students know why we are doing something and what the value of the work is. I never stuck to “one-shot grading” and always offered chances for retakes or revisions, but I feel like I have to incorporate a deadline, otherwise, I get piles and piles of retest requests or revised projects at the end of the semester and there is no time for me to grade it before grades are due for report cards.
Shifting the Grade Book to Learning Targets
I want to do shift my grade book from tasks to learning targets so badly, but I’m not sure where to start! I’ve done tons of research but have been unable to whittle down to something that is manageable for me to put together. My thoughts are that I would like to make each standard into a category, and then have tasks within each standard. As a beginner, it would be too difficult for me to only have the standard in there once, as I won’t know how many times we will be addressing a particular skill throughout the year.
Key Takeaways
My key takeaways this week are as follows… I plan to...
- Unpack the new Social Studies standards that Wisconsin has recently approved
- Write student-friendly learning targets using the standards
- Organize my grade book categories into learning targets
- Focus on skills (easy with the new standards) and find ways to provide student choice in the content they study
Read my July 2020 update here.
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