Secondary Standards-Based Grading and Reporting Handbook

I think the idea of standards based grading is really interesting. When I was a student, there were many times where I saw people’s grades badly affected because they did not turn in a few assignments, resulting in zeros. Whether not turning homework in was out of laziness or other circumstances, A students became C students and their mastery or knowledge of the material was not reflected in their grade. I like that with standards based grading, the zeros would not negatively impact a grade and only the most recent, relevant coursework would. The handout we read gave an example about a student who, with normal grading, would have failed a course. With standards based grading, he got a C+. I think the difference in that student’s mindset on school would be incredible. He wouldn’t have to retake the course because later on down the line when he understood the material better or started taking the class seriously, he would have shown that he understands the content.

Our students’ grades should have meaning. Their work should have a purpose and demonstrate what they know or don’t know. I think standards based grading reflects this idea. I think if you asked most students k-12 what the differences are between an A, B, C, D, or F, they would give you a vague answer or wouldn’t know. I only say this because as I was thinking about the differences, I don’t have great answers to give. Not really knowing what a grade means or reflects is an issue if you’re a teacher, student or parent. I appreciate how clear the assessment scale is for standards based grading and I appreciate that it is student centered. I recently observed a few classes at Ferris and one of the English teachers told me that for the entire semester, he only has about ten assignments in his gradebook. He said that he gives the students plenty of work that he could grade, but what’s the point? Why would he grade their practice and their mistakes while they’re learning? He looks at their homework and assess how his students can improve, but he only grades the end work that shows what the student has learned. Even if standards based grading isn’t implemented in a school I work at in the future, I think this system of only grading specific assignments can work in a similar way.

Assessing and Evaluating Students' Learning

When I was a student in high school, I thought the main purpose of assessing and grading was to see if I met the expected teaching objectives and to earn points toward my grade for the course. After reading Assessing and Evaluating Students’ Learning, I’ve realized that points and fact-based questions shouldn’t be the only things teachers are looking for. I’ve taken tests after reading a novel where knowledge and factual information were what the teacher valued. While I might have learned what my teacher wanted me to learn about the novel, I’m not sure I got much else from reading.

I like that the article suggests to first define what you, as a teacher, values in literature. Then you can think about how you will ask students to show you what they’ve learned. I think this goes back to having a reason for everything you do in the classroom. It seems obvious to first know what you’re hoping students learn and then plan around that, but this article showed me just how important learning objectives are. I think it’s important that students know the learning objectives and how they’re expected to show their knowledge. When I knew a huge test at the end of a novel awaited me, I would read for facts. My focus wasn’t on my own interpretation of the novel and because of that, I’m not sure that I had my own interpretation.

I also liked the section of the article that talked about grading according to a group norm. I agree that the less-able students will remain at the bottom while the top students continue to perform above average. While that’s great for the top students, the bottom ones are just continually compared to kids who are doing better. Their own improvement, if there can be any in this type of assessment, is ignored. I think criterion-based evaluation is a great tool to help students grow, regardless of if they are in the top or bottom of a group norm. I think students should be evaluated based off of improvements they make because their education is their own and being evaluated based on how they perform will encourage students to try hard and perform better.

Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It

Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About it, by Kelly Gallagher, is a good read. As a student, I loved reading. But I did experience many of the things schools do to kill reading. Chapter three resonated with me because I’ve seen teachers over teach books. It kills the joy of reading. Gallagher makes great points saying you wouldn’t stay for a movie if it were paused 22 times to discuss it and by over teaching, many educators hit the state standards, but miss the real importance of reading a book. Having experienced many of the things he writes about, I understand how a student’s desire to read is extinguished or never even developed.

One of my other classes recently went to a local high school. We observed a freshman honors English class where they were reading To Kill a Mockingbird. The teacher had made a packet for students to fill out as they read. I grabbed one to look it over and saw most of the questions were asking students to relate the reading to their own worlds and experiences. He asked them to relate to the first snow Scout and Jem experienced. He asked them if they ever had a neighbor who was mysterious or creepy like Boo Radley. And he asked them to think of other texts, movies, TV shows and music that could help them relate to the novel. I really liked the packet and thought it was a good use of the students’ time.

Readicide made me think a lot about my three week unit plan for this class that’s due in a few weeks. I really want to go through it and make sure that my plans encourage students to read. I want to ask them thoughtful, relevant questions instead of over teaching and hitting state standards. I agree with Gallagher that schools are killing the love of reading. But as a future teacher, I can change that and allow students the time to read for pleasure and experience the “flow.”

TPA Guidelines

I haven’t had any experience with lesson planning, let alone the TPA lesson plan format. The guidelines for TPA are very extensive and it seems like a lot of work, time and effort goes into lesson planning. A lot of it makes sense to me, though. In class, we often talk about having clear reasons and purposes for doing what we choose to do in our classrooms. The TPA guidelines give clear reasoning for what the lesson is, why you’re teaching it, what you hope the students gain from the lesson and which state standards you’re meeting. The guidelines also talk about assessing the objectives, which are student-centered and measurable. I think it’s important to know how you’re going to be assessing a discussion or watching a movie, things that students aren’t going to turn in. I recently observed two classrooms at Ferris High School with one of my other classes. One of the classes was a Senior AP literature course. The teacher had students create a graphic organizer to recap what they read the day before. I asked how he would be assessing the students’ work. The teacher said he only has about 10 grades in the gradebook each quarter. While some teachers might not grade this way, I think it’s important to know how you, as a teacher, are going to grade your students. It seems this style of lesson planning really prepares the teacher for what they’re going to teach and how they’re going to do it. I’m a very organized person and I like planning things down to the last detail so I appreciate how extensive this lesson plan style is. I wonder, though, if schools have a preference on the style of lesson plan a teacher uses or are teachers allowed to use whatever type they are comfortable with. Do principals or administration ever check lesson plans? I know that we’ve talked about borrowing other people’s activities for our own lesson plans. For our purposes at Eastern, when we do borrow another person’s idea, should we somehow credit or cite them in our lesson plans?

Social Justice

I chose the article by the National Council of Teachers of English, the NCTE, called, “Beliefs About Social Justice in English Education.” It outlines seven beliefs about social justice in education. The first belief is about defining social justice. The authors say it’s “definitionally complex,” meaning social justice varies by person and the authors don’t feel they are able to write a blanket statement that encompasses all people and all of their life experiences. They do believe that social justice allows teachers to teach all students more fairly and want it to exist in schools by giving the same opportunities for academic achievement to all students “regardless of background or acquired privilege.” They go on to say in order to achieve this, educators must teach about injustices and discriminations. I like this idea because I think not talking about issues or problems doesn’t make them go away. In our last reading about critical pedagogy and popular culture in urban schools, the teachers paired a book about low-income schools with a movie about a teacher making change in a school that compares to the schools in the book. The students who were also in a similar school with a lack of resources seemed to take a lot away from studying and talking about social injustice. While I agree talking about injustices is necessary and important, it can also be a touchy subject and students will probably have differing levels of experiences with social injustices.

The article says that we, as educators, need to bring students up to their capabilities and prepare them to take on challenges in the future. “If any student is left behind, the system has failed, no matter how well some may have succeeded.” This line resonated with me because it’s really what social justice is about, equality regardless of background. If one student isn’t treated or challenged or prepared as the other students are, then that’s not equality.

The NCTE gives a lot of statistics in the article. They say less than 10 percent of teachers are non-white, while more than 40 percent of public schools are African-American, Latino, Asian and Native American. They say that more than 4.4 million second language learners enrolled in U.S. schools are expected to take standardized tests that are evaluated in the same way as students whose first language is English. These numbers really surprised me. It just seems like the system is failing these students. I don’t know what the solution is, but it’s proven that students from lower socioeconomic background perform worse in school. The article says that educators should be committed to interrupting practices that reproduce these outcomes.

While talking about social justice pedagogy, the authors say that social justice to one person might not be social justice to another. Different students have different needs. The article says that we must seek to offer the same, “educational, sociocultural and psycho-emotional opportunities.” But we will have students at different stages in their lives, having different experiences and won’t all be on an even playing field. It’s interesting because while reading, I kept thinking social justice was treating everyone equally. But it seems it’s more treating everyone based on experience so that we are all equal. This is a journey, one that can’t be attained in a day or maybe even in a school year, but it should be the intention to honor all students, all the time.

http://www.ncte.org/cee/positions/socialjustice

Critical Pedagogy in an Urgan High School English Classroom

I was inspired while reading, “Critical Pedagogy in an Urban High School English Classroom,” by Jeff Duncan-Andrade and Ernest Morrell. I appreciated how they agree with the practices of critical pedagogy, but also understand that their students would be required to take standardized tests and those would hold weight in their future. So while they hoped to build on knowledge their students would already bring to the classroom, there were certain benchmarks students would have to reach. They wanted students to become critical thinkers in all aspects of life and not just become “slaves” to a different ideology.

One of the themes that resonated with me was the Savage Inequalities in Urban Schools section. Duncan-Andrade and Morrell say the book focuses on the drastic differences in schools across the country. They say the book shows there is not only an inequality between well-funded and urban poor schools, but “they are in many cases inadequate and physically and psychologically unhealthy places for anyone’s children to be,” (12). I thought it was a really great teaching method to pair a book like Savage Inequalities with a one of overcoming obstacles, like Stand and Deliver. I thought it was interesting that they wanted students to not only understand that the school system isn’t equal, but to also think critically about that and apply it to their lives.

The authors went on to explain that the school they were teaching in was similar to the schools described in Savage Inequalities, with no heat in the winter, carpet falling apart, and a single computer that was almost unusable. While reading, I tried to picture what this school would look like, how it would inspire students to work hard and want to be there, and how they could succeed. It just seems like everything is working against them and in a situation like that, failing is an outcome even if a student works hard.

I think it was necessary to include Stand and Deliver in the unit so students could understand the harsh realities of the world they lived in, but also understand that they had academic potential. It’s inspiring that the authors wanted their students to, “compete on an equal academic footing with their counterparts who were attending the nation’s elite schools,” (13).

I think the most inspiring part of this section, though, was that students reacted. They didn’t just participate in class, but in life. They called local news agencies when lunch was going to be served in a sewage-filled lunchroom. Lunch and school were canceled as a result. They became involved in politics and served on an advisory board for the city council. They held their teachers and administration accountable. These lessons are part of the “hidden curriculum.” I think the authors sum it up perfectly by saying, “there is ample evidence and testimony to support the charge that the students felt empowered to challenge conditions that were seemingly innate and immutable,” (15-16).