June 2015 – Teaching Teachers

Using grades to rank and compare, to reward and punish, to motivate or otherwise control student behavior is so engrained in our practice that it’s difficult to imagine teaching any other way. Returning student work with no grade on the top is unthinkable, but that’s exactly what Mark Barnes suggests in his book, Assessment 3.0: Throw Out Your Grade Book and Inspire Learning.

Papers thrown down stairs to determine grade — flickr photo by ragesoss shared under a Creative Commons (BY-SA) license

Barnes begins by explaining why grades are actually harmful and impede learning, and he cites the research to back this up. Grades are arbitrary and generally meaningless; they unfairly label kids, and they usually stop the learning rather than furthering it. Instead, he suggests using descriptive feedback to assess assignments or projects and giving students multiple opportunities to improve their work. He has developed a model he calls SE2R for Summarize, Explain, Redirect, and Resubmit. When assessing an assignment, he first writes a one or two sentence summary of what the student has done. He then explains what the student has mastered based on guidelines for the assignment. Next, he redirects the student to lessons and resources to be reviewed to improve the work and further understanding of concepts and skills. Finally he encourages the student to resolve issues with the assignment and resubmit it. Work is collected in a portfolio and when it’s time to put a grade on a report card, Barnes has a conversation with each student about their learning and the student determines the final grade. This sounds simple but there’s a lot to think about if you’re considering this, and the book is full of examples and tips for making this change in assessment practices work.

So, what would it take to make this work? Can we stop giving grades and instead focus on giving feedback? What reaction would the teachers in your school have to this kind of change? Would students respond well to it? Would parents accept a report card with no grades? I’d love to hear your thoughts about Assessment 3.0, whether you’ve read the book or not. If you want to learn more about how teachers are changing their assessment practices, check out the Facebook group, Teachers Throwing Out Grades.

This week I’ll be reading 50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America’s Public Schools by David C. Berliner because Shawn Carlson suggested it. (I’m hoping he’ll write a review to get the conversation started). I’ll also start Ditch That Textbook: Free Your Teaching and Revolutionize Your Classroom by Matt Miller and I’ll post something about that when I’ve finished it.

Reading on the beach — flickr photo by christing-O- shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) license

School is out and it’s time to get serious about reading. Most teachers do some professional reading during the school year, but we seldom have an opportunity to read a book with a colleague and then discuss it. We’re all just too busy to coordinate a book club and keep it going. Summer (for teachers) is different. We have more time to read and reflect, but we don’t see each other every day, and face-to-face discussion just doesn’t happen. So, I’m ready to try something new. Consider this your invitation to join me in a summer virtual book club. Here’s how it works:

I’ll read a book that interests me and write a post on this blog with my impressions and thoughts about it. I’ll let you know the title several days in advance so you can get the book and read it too, if you want.
You read the post and respond to it in the comments. If you’ve read the book, we can argue about what it all means. (This is always fun!)
If you haven’t read the book, you can ask questions of those who have read the book so you can decide if you want to read it.
Or, you can just lurk on this blog, reading as much or as little as you want. Maybe you’ll want to join the conversation later.
If you’re very brave, you can write a post about a book you’ve read and I’ll publish it here. (Contact me if you want to be a contributor.)
At the end of the summer we’ll stop and I’ll put this blog on hold because, honestly, I don’t have time for this during the school year. We can start it up again in June 2016.

Interested? To get started, just type in your email address and click on the Follow button at the bottom of this page. Then you will receive a message every time there’s a new post. Clicking on a link in the message will bring you here where you can read about the books and comment if you want. Simple, right? The first book I’ll read is Assessment 3.0 by Mark Barnes. Okay, I’ll admit that I’ve already read it, but I’ll read it again and post about it this weekend. You can buy it from the publisher, Corwin Press or get it from Amazon. (There’s a Kindle version too.) The ideas in this book are revolutionary and should lead to a great discussion because everyone has an opinion about grades and grading practices. So, let me know what you think and watch for a new post in a few days. By the way, I read fiction too, but more about that later… Happy summer reading!

Month: June 2015

Assessment 3.0 by Mark Barnes

Summertime and the Reading is Easy