Shark-diving grammie

School's finally, FINALLY out, ending the most difficult year in my 20-year teaching career.  After I have a nap and clean my classroom, I will catch up with everyone. I've missed you. 

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Its not working out as well as i had hoped.

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...... that I am tired of the current trend in education that if we just rearrange how we figure grades that children will appear to be learning more and therefore, they did - all without any further effort on the part of the kids, or the teachers?

Formative assessment, the walking around the room and working with students until you know that everyone "got it" before you give a quiz or test is and always has been a part of my style.  Letting a kid do 3 extra problems to make up for the ones he bombed on the last test but now knows well how to do is something that most of us have done at one time or another.  Assigning a "group grade" just because we are too lazy to let each kid show what he knows has never been part of my practice.  I take late work when there's a reason - even if the reason is, "I didn't quite understand this so could you help me after school and I can turn it in tomorrow."

I cannot in good conscience let a kid have the same high grade when he turns something in 4 weeks after his classmates turned theirs in on the deadline (see above for late work).  I cannot give a kid 50% when he did not make any attempt to submit an assignment.  Every assignment, yes EVERY assignment that is scored in my classroom demonstrates a student's mastery of science standards or building goals as stated in our School Improvement Plan.  For me to mark off an assignment as half-done when in fact the student showed no mastery of a standard being measured is just not valid. The student did not "half-way" master something when there is no evidence.

This takes us full cycle to the late work issue.  If a kid does not complete something, should I mark it with an I and give him extended time to show that he can meet the standard?  How much time?  My principal doesn't have a problem with a student carrying an I in a sophomore class until the week before graduation, when he suddenly realizes that he needed to submit that photosynthesis lab to get credit for 1st semester biology.  The kid should be able to come to me and do the lab at that time, for full credit.  What?  I would have to spend a few hours re-teaching the concepts and helping him do a prelab write-up including safety,  procuring materials, making the sodium bicarbonate and bromthymol blue solutions, help him set up, hang around each day for a week while he records a daily measurement, and then help him through the data analysis and conclusion.  Oh, he could just do some lame simulation or alternative lab, maybe online?  I should have a video copy of the lab available for cases just like this (made with my own videocamera because my building does not have one)? 

Which brings us to the issue that we already face by taking late work when students choose to do it - our time.  When I assign something to be due on say, Tuesday, I usually have blocked 1-4 hours off that evening to grade/assess/give feedback.whatever the assignment.  When I get only 70% (on a good day) of those assignments, that means the rest will come in the week grades are due because someone's parent decides they need to pass (get a C, a B, whatever.)  Forget that I might have had a committment on my own time that week. I get to score the work and make sure the grade is recorded before the onnline gradebook closes up at the stroke of midnight.

My solutions:
1.  All assignments not submitted on time automatically revert to the alternate assignment.  This is either something more difficult for the student but simpler for me to assess, or a simple textbook worksheet packet that the student comes in after school and corrects himself.  Little or no time on my part. 
2.  We will take photos of all labs in progress and keep a sample set of reasonable data.  The procrastinator can then do the normal write-up, look at teh pictures, and use the data to do an analysis.  As I see it, the standard for lab technique would not have been met, so there will be some kind of grade penalty for not meeting that standard.  The assessment-for-learning purists would argue that this is a performance or behavior thing and should not be assessed at all, but I will disagree.  Perhaps they would be pleased with a dental hygenist who's never actually worked on a live person, but who's watched lots of movies about cleaning teeth. 
3.  No summative assessment (test or quiz) will be given until a student has completed the "formative," practice, or whatever.  On test day, the student will work on making things up while the others take the test.  He can then take the test on his own time, later.  Whenever is fine.  It will be an alternative test, possibly essay.

whew.  Do I have a plan here, or what?  I'm all for fair assessment and have been during all of my 20 years in the classroom.  I also insist on a reasonable dose of accountability and the effort to learn from my students.  Is that wrong?  

Napping

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I wish I could embed this, but I can't , so you'll just have to click it.

Christmas Wishes

:-)