...........one of the hardest things about being a teacher - and a student! As I lesson plan I am constantly wondering how I need to assess my students. There is little more important than how you check students' knowledge and use their proof of learning (or lack of) to inform teaching. That's the simple part. The tough part is making parents happy with assigning letters to learning, fighting the reality of kids working hard and earning Bs, as compared to students on IEPs getting As - even though you know that they don't understand the work. The difficult bit is being required, by society, to define work by an unmeaningful letter of the alphabet, dividing students by those letters & adding to life's emphasis on defining students by their grades and determining their future through those letters rather than actually looking at the standard being taught and whether the student has achieved the level of learning desired.
Here's an example. I just took my big licensing exam. Now, I can write a sentence - 9 times out of 10 it will be well-written, or at least comprehensible. Part of my studying though was on the definition of a homophone and how that differs from a homograph - and indeed a homographic homophone. How does that help show my ability to write - or teach? Multiple choice questions about grammar terms are considered suitable for judging my knowledge as a future teacher - just as our student are judged in the same manner. It bothers me.
I deeply want my students to enjoy writing. I know that by writing, lots of writing, both their writing and reading will improve. By constant writing, editing and guiding through grammatical rules and practices, their writing will get better and better. That is what matters, not whether it is A work or B work. After all, what is the difference between a 79 or an 80, anyway? Slowly I do see my students begin to read their feedback as well as read their grade, but do they pay more attention to my advice for future work, or to the letter on the top of the page? I am grateful to a co-teacher who took a middle measure with me, allowing me to grade drafts with check, check - or check + (in lieu of A, B, etc) on the papers - it has made a clear difference to how the students consider and react to my feedback. Sadly life being the way it is, those marks are still translated into numbers and put into the grade book, but at least the students are concentrating on the feedback as they move towards their revising for their published piece.
Grading unfinished work seems as wrong to me as the endless worksheets too. I wrestle with it. I understand the need for a record. I know that it is important for me to constantly watch how my students are learning, and to ensure that knowledge is growing. Data is key. What bothers me is the distribution of letters that don't mean a whole lot. Why should we be marking so-and-so as a "B student", shouldn't we be listing them as who achieved the desired knowledge, made standard? Sadly I am not sure that we know that.
Working one-on-one with students to truly determine standards takes time. Encouraging student-guided assessments and allowing our students the opportunity to truly show us their standard of learning also takes time, and that is something that we don't have. In 43 minutes it is hard enough to find the time to teach the curriculum, never mind search for moments for conferencing and coaching. I longingly read books about writing workshops, and link that with Rick Wormeli's words on best practices and both his and Marzano's advice on standards'-based teaching.
So much to think about and consider.
- Step 1, do my best for my students. Accept how things are, yet not letting my own standards drop. If I can't have time for one-on-one discussion in class, then I need to take the hours at home to write remarks and commentary on each student's work.
- Step 2, think about how I will manage my own grade book when I have my own classroom. Do I run a double-grade book if I am not fortunate enough to be at a standards-based school? It is a lot of work, but will the hours of graft be worth the better information and opportunity to best-serve my students? On paper, of course! In reality, time is precious and balance needed.
Here's what I CAN do:
Keep thinking & learning!
Keep doing my best for my students.
Keep knowing that the best thing that I can do for my students is to keep caring.
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