A Little About Assessing Students

I believe that what I am teaching and why I am teaching it should be as transparent as possible to both students and parents. I hold students accountable for the work they produce and the effort that goes into it. I tell them clearly what is expected of them and then mark accordingly. For my fairytale unit this year, I included a basic rubric for general expectations and a marking sheet in each student's folder. I am able to mark as we go, giving a comment when needed and the students can easily see where they are at and how their work holds up against the expectations.  

In our district we grade on a 4 point scale that looks like this:

N - Not meeting expectations
A - Approaching expectations
M - Meeting expectations
E - Exceeds expectations

Students aim to be at the M level on the scale. This scale works well for report cards as it clearly lets parents know where their child is in terms of learning outcomes and expectations. That said, the Meeting expectations can be a bit tricky as a student can be just meeting or fully meeting and still have the same mark on their report card.

Students rarely get Exceeds expectations overall for a subject as it means that a student is working well above the Meeting expectations level. A full year or more above. Probably the most common place to find an E in early primary is in reading. There are often a few students who have taken to reading like ducks to water and are reading well above grade level in grade 1 or 2. These students are given an E in reading for grade 1 or 2 but have that same mark drop down to an M by grade 2 or 3 when the other students have caught up. This can be confusing to some parents who expect an E to stay an E and end up in the next year's teacher's class asking why their child is no longer Exceeding. An E on a report card does not mean that a child will always be an E. It means that the child is exceeding expectations at that time.

If you stop and think about all the people you know in your life, probably most of them would not be exceeding expectations in all areas of their lives or for all of the time. Most of us go along in life meeting expectations for our jobs, families, co-workers etc. Meeting expectations is good. It is where you want to be. It means you are doing your job. Doing what is expected of you in an efficient and timely manner. Getting the job done. You can be counted on to do what you say you will do. This is good. This is a productive member of society. There will be times when one is moved to go above and beyond expectations and that is great. And society needs people to have passions, to have areas in their lives that they try to do more, be more. But chances are that those people who exceed expectations are not doing it in every single area of their lives all of the time.

When I stop to think about my daughter and her school years thus far, I realize how little many of the grades mean. Will it really matter if she got an A or a C in Math 8? No. What I have always looked at and counted as more important than the grade are her marks for work habits and effort. Does she try her best? Does she keep going when it is hard? Can she work independently asking for help when needed? These are the attributes that are going to make her a successful and productive member of our society. Not her marks in Math (which are consistently on the lower end of the scale and which is a subject she hates) or her marks in Social Studies (which are consistently on the high end of the scale because, wonder of wonders, she actually likes social studies!)

And, yes, I know what some of you are thinking.They need to have good grades to get into university. This is true. However, there are plenty of highly successful people who went to community college first and then transferred into a university or, for that matter, who went to different types of learning institutions altogether like technical colleges or trade school. Society needs a lot of different kinds of people with a lot of different kinds of skills to be successful. Many of the jobs that will be available when my daughter finishes her post-secondary education haven't even been invented yet! I believe that in the years to come, it won't matter so much what schooling anyone has so much as whether they are problem solvers, independent thinkers and capable of getting along with others.
 
In my blog hopping this morning I came across a teacher who has the students self assess after a lesson so that she can get a quick idea of where they are at and who will need immediate support to complete the lesson. And I thought, "What a great idea!" Her name is Alison Eber and her blog is called Eberopolis . In her district they grade students on a scale of 1-4. This corresponds nicely to our 4 point grading system in primary.

The scale in her district looks like this (picture taken from her website) :


with Novice being a 1 all the way to Expert being a 4. Expectations are that students are striving to be a Practitioner or a 3.



I am going to tumble this idea around in my head for a little and let it percolate. I know that it would be a great visual and really easy ways for students to quickly self assess and for me to get a quick count of students requiring immediate support after a lesson. It also really shows how learning is a continuum. Saying that someone is not meeting expectations does not necessarily send the message to that person that they will eventually meet the expectations with continued effort. If you think about any of the trades like woodworking, plumbing etc., where one starts as a novice and through effort, practice and hard work becomes an apprentice and then eventually a practitioner and (perhaps if one has a particular talent for that trade) an expert one day, you can see how through time and effort one can work through the levels to be at the meeting expectations level and how the language supports this transition from stage to stage.

Maybe I will try using this vocab with the plant unit we are just beginning and see how it works out. I mean, it makes total sense to me but will it make sense to a 7 year old? I think it is worth a test run. Will keep you posted on how it goes!

Where am I supposed to put all of this?

We are heading into the time of year when bags and bags full of children's work gets sent home and, as a parent, I know that it is impossible to keep it all. As much as we all want to. As proud of our kids as we are for their progress, it is just not feasible to end up with 13 years of saved school work (and that is not even accounting for preschool).

When my daughter was young, it was simple enough to choose 4 or 5 pieces of writing, math etc to put into her scrapbook ,which I must admit kind of stalled out at about grade 3 (she is now in grade 10) as scrapbooking is not my forte. As an artist myself, I was always most interested in her art work. So many wonderful images, such creativity, such growth. I have always felt that it is through a child's art that we really see who they are now and who they are becoming.

Over the years I have framed a few pieces like this one that she did in grade 2. It is a print made from a styrofoam plate carved with the design. She did it while attending the (then new) arts school for elementary students. I like the balance of it, the colour choices and her simple, yet effective, drawings. It makes me happy.

But, lets face it, there is not enough wall space in our house to accomodate all the fabulous things she has done over the years and still leave room for anything else (like the artwork we collect or my own pieces). And, while having it filed away neatly in a storage box, is one way to hold on to momentos it will not allow you to enjoy the creativity your child showed at each age. Plus, we run into the space issue again. We live in 750 square feet. Where to put her school stuff?

This morning I found this neat idea (on Pinterest of course!) and wanted to share it. There is an artist named Jan Eleni (images to the right from her website) who will take your child's artwork, scan it, shrink it, and then frame it (archival quality) in a fabulous grid. Very crisp. Very clean. And one frame can show a year or a number of years worth of work. Now why didn't I think of that? Sometimes it just takes one person to think outside the box (or, in this case, outside the size of the original artwork).

Seems to me that this idea could be achieved at home as a diy. I know that some of the pieces I have saved are too big for my scanner but I bet I could have them scanned and put on a flash drive for not too much money at somewhere like Kinko's. So, I am adding this idea to the 1,113 other decorating ideas I have on my decorating board on Pinterest. I kid you not. I have 1, 113 other ideas on that one board. On one board. I know that I will probably never see most of those ideas to fruition but, like dreaming about winning the lottery, it is fun to find cool ideas, pin them and think to myself "one day..."

  

STOP for a TED talk

If you have 21 or so minutes to spend (or, for that matter, even if you don't) stop and watch a TED talk. Any TED talk will do. You will learn something. I promise. 

Here are a few of my favourites. This one by Sir Ken Robinson. I was fortunate enough to get to hear him in person last year. He is charming, personable and speaks with conviction about his beliefs on creativity and education. His words resonate with me.

This one by Simon Sinek about leadership.

And this talk featuring Sugata Mitra about his Hole in the Wall project on self teaching.

And the amazing Sarah Kay, spoken word poet extraordinaire. Who says "I use poetry to help me work through what I don’t understand, but I show up to each new poem with a backpack full of everywhere else that I’ve been.”

And one of my all time favourites (and only 3 minutes long so you have no real excuse not to watch it!) by Talor Mali called What Teachers Make.

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope that all of you had a wonderful, relaxing, love filled day! I spent the day driving to Bellingham to look for a prom dress for my daughter. It was a fun time AND we found a dress. 5 malls, 30 stores and about 50 dresses before finding THE one. I bet you could hear my sigh of relief all the way from Bellis Fair!!!!

Plus, there were some fab sales on so I got a few things. I can hardly wait to wear them tomorrow. Especially my new shoes (which I actually got on Saturday during round 4 of the shopping drama that was looking for a prom dress!) from Toms. Love, love, love my new Toms!!!!



picture from their website. Click the link above to go there!

I have to send out a huge, gigantic thank you to the scrapbooking mama from our class (you know who you are!!!) who came to help the kids make cards for their moms. And who personally made 23 boxes and the beautiful flowers to attach to them. Gift wrapping has never been so easy! I have been spoiled having this mom in my class this year. Thank you!

I hope that all of you Moms out there enjoyed your present the kids made in class. It took a very long time for some of them to accomplish the weaving. We are talking hours in some cases. We started 3 weeks early since I knew it was going to be a major fine motor skills work out for some of the students. Hopefully, you found a moment to sit back, brew the tea and rest it on your new coaster.

Grade 1's on the Map

The grade 1's recently completed a Social Studies unit with Ms. O. They learned about their place in the world. They did this really cool project that came from pinterest (where else?) I told Ms. O. about pinterest about a month or so ago and am happy to say that another obsessed pinterest junkie has been born!

So, here is the inspiration:

from Finally in First

And here are a few of the amazing projects done by the grade 1's in my class...

And some close ups...

Aren't they awesome? They did such a good job! I especially love the skyscrapers with all the windows lit up on a moonlit night. And the one that put the mountains behind the city.

So, Social Studies is done for this school year. This was their last unit of study (for both grade 1's and 2's). For the rest of the year, we will be doing Science focusing on plants and insects. I, of course, have been scouring my files and pinterest for new ideas and inspirations. I found this cool idea for using file folders on Sunny Days in Second Grade to hold all the students' work. This one is for a project about rocks but you get the idea.



They are called lapbooks and are a fun way to keep all of the students scientific studies in one place AND reuse some of my file folders (that way I won't have to pack them to move to the new school! Aren't I devious?) I have been planning out one for plants and will do a second one (maybe) for insects. Haven't gotten that far yet...The file folders I have been using for Fairy Tales have worked really well, too, so I may do something more like that for insects. I like that they have a pocket to keep the incomplete work. Maybe I could glue an envelope on the back of the file folder to hold unfinished work. This will require more brainpower than I have at 10:34 on a Sunday evening. So, hi ho, hi ho, it's off to bed I go!!!! 

Hitting the Jackpot!!!!

Today there were 150 bloggers giving away free units from their Teachers Pay Teachers stores. April over at A Modern Teacher hosted the Pre-K to Grade 2 sites that were doing giveaways. There were 86 of them! WOWZER!!!!

I found so many cool ideas and, even better, I found some new to me, amazing blogs that I will go back to later for a closer look. I must have pinned about 50 new blogs to my all things school blogs pinboard on Pinterest. So much fun!

I do like me a good linky party and this one was wonderful! It is too late to get any of the freebies but I would highly recommend heading over to A Modern Teacher and checking out this post so that you can link up to all the other wonderful blogs participating and get your creative juices going!

Hey all! I am linking up with Oh' Boy Fourth Grade to do a currently page. I've been loving these ever since I started seeing them pop up here there and everywhere. Finally figured out how to do it. Yippee! Here is mine. Hop on over and join the Linky Party!