Journal 5

Still plugging away at my Action Research Paper, though I can see the end in sight!  Since my paper has been consuming most of my time lately, I wanted to switch it up and write about something else for this blog posting. 

            At my school, we have been looking at ways to change our grading practices.  So far, it has consisted of reading a couple of articles, and having a couple of discussions about what grades actually mean.  One article the principal asked us to read was “Grades That Show What Students Know,” by Robert J. Marzano and Tammy Heflebower.  This article discusses the benefit of standards-based grading, and how to effectively implement it.  There were four recommendations provided for best practices.

            The first recommendation is to get rid of omnibus grades, and should just score specific content knowledge.  While I am open to this idea in a general education classroom setting, I teach Special Education (Mild needs), and almost all of my grades are based on participation.  On an IEP, the student’s goals are measured regarding what they know, but in my classroom, if you try hard, you get an A.  Many of my students would fail not just my class, but other classes as well, if their grade was solely based on content. 

            The second recommendation is to provide scores on measurement topics in addition to the grade.  Many teachers, students, and parents are not ready to get rid of the traditional A through F grading scale.  By using this system, we can still translate content knowledge into grades, as well as show what specific learning objective students have achieved. 

            Recommendation three is to have more assessment options available to students.  One example of this would be to interview the student about their knowledge.  I feel as though this would work well in my classroom since I teach small group.  But I don’t know if this is realistic in a general education setting where the teacher sees 100+ students per day.  Another option is to have students create their own assessment.  I love this idea.  We should not ask every student to demonstrate his or her knowledge in the exact same way.  The student’s in my classroom might have a difficult time coming up with their own project, but I could provide different options for them to choose from.  This would allow them to demonstrate their learning in their own unique way.

            The fourth recommendation is to let students update their scores.  Just because they did not achieve a learning target the first time, they should be able to continue to work on that specific target until mastery is achieved.  It would then be up to the teacher to go back and change the score.

            At my school, we are discussing ways in which we can fit this approach into our setting.  I believe this system has a lot of value, though I think it will be difficult for the kids I specifically work with to be successful.  I am curious to see what grading practices we will start next year off with and how my students will fair.