Monday, December 7, 2009

Question for Graders

I would like to make student learning more public. One way to do this is the elementary strategy of a chart with stars. Each student would get a star when they "master" an objective. What do you think about this strategy with middle and high schoolers? Is it motivating? Would we have to use student IDs rather than names? It seems like this would be a good way to share overall class data with the class. We could look at how the class is doing as a whole and we could see where the group needs extra help, etc.

5 comments:

  1. I wonder if it would be enough to share percentages, such as "Wow, 80% of students have mastered_______! Only %45 of students have shown mastery of _____. That tells me we need more time to work on ________." This seems to support the goal of making grading more transparent to students--making it clear how we as teachers use the data and make decisions based on assessments.

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  2. Groovy. I think that a chart or graph of some sort would also help them connect a math idea with their achievement levels - i.e. percents, ratios, fractions.

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  3. I am currently using an objective mastery chart in my classroom and it has been very motivating to students, they are very into learning a concept to get their frog. (we use frogs, because I found a lot of frog stickers)

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  4. That probably needed some more explanation, it is a 7th grade classroom and they earn a "frog" by reaching 80% mastery on any objective.

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  5. I saw your gradebook today BC. Thanks for sharing that. What if you posted and perhaps color coded the level they obtained on each objective ex. 1 red, 2 yellow, 3 green, 4 blue? So they could see where they were at mastering the objective...they make many different color small dots. Also, do the students know where they are at mastering each objective? I was thinking the students could have a chart they would keep in their math binder to chart their own progress. But I do like the idea of making it public to the class.

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