How to read a Standards-Based Report

Since I've moved away from traditional grades in favor of assessing students purely on our classroom standards, I've had quite a few parents and students express their frustration in understanding how well students are doing. This is completely understandable - the scores and feedback on classroom work looks completely different than what most of us have experienced in school.

 To get a clear picture of how students are meeting the standards, you'll need to look some reports that are a little different than what you'd normally check in PowerSchool. To make this easier, I've attached a document that will help you access reports that are designed to show how well your student is meeting our standards in Social Studies and Literature. Click here to access the document to help you see a standards-based report.

When you check to see how well your student is doing, try to pay attention to a few things besides their overall score ... this will give you a MUCH BETTER idea of how your son / daughter is doing in class. Here are things to look for when looking at a standards-based report:

• How well is my son daughter doing in each individual standard? Look to see which standards your son / daughter understands really well, and which they need to focus on.
• How well are they behaving and working? The Life Skills standards will give you feedback on your son / daughter's behavior, work ethic, group work, and participation.
• Are they turning their work in on time? I've marked each assignment that is missing and/or late. Missing and/or late assignments don't affect their scores on each assignment, but it's still important to know if they get their work in on time.

Let me know if you have any other questions! I'd be happy to answer them.

Behavior Rubric

For those who could make it to Parent Teacher Conferences, it was great to visit with you. For those who didn't make it - we missed you. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

I wanted to take a minute to explain how I figure grades in my classroom, and how the behavior rubric that I use compliments your child(ren)'s grades to give a complete picture of their performance in my classroom.

To begin with, I feel that grades should show how well a student is meeting the standards in our classroom - and nothing more. I think grades should show if a student understands the material and skill in a class, or if they're struggling and need some extra assistance. Unfortunately, grades don't always do this. If a student has a few missing assignments and/or late assignments, it can greatly affect their grade - sometimes, as much as a letter grade or two. For example, a student who's done "B" work but who has missed a few assignments will often receive a "C" or a "D" on the report card.

To avoid this confusion, I don't take points off an assignment if a student turns in an assignment late. I don't give students zero points if they miss an assignment as well - instead, I make them do the assignment. If they don't do it, they receive an "Incomplete" grade on their report card until they complete all of the assignments.

It would be easy to think of this grading policy as being soft or too lenient ... to think of me as a pushover, or as a teacher who doesn't value classroom behaviors such as completing work and/or finishing work by a certain deadline. That's certainly not the case - I value these skills, sometimes more than the subject matter in my classes. Students do need to learn how to behave, how to work in groups, how to complete their work on time, etc. - I just choose to separate these behaviors from their grade.

As a result, I created the behavior rubric to show how I feel your child(ren) are performing in the areas of participation, behavior, work completion, and group work. Looking at your child(ren)'s grades, along with the behavior rubric, should give you a better picture of how well your child is learning AND behaving/working in school.

If you have any comments, please leave them in the "comments" section below - I value your input, and I think that it's good for others to hear opinions on my classroom as well.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Just a reminder - Parent / Teacher conferences are this week! We'll be open for conferences on:

• Thursday night from 5:00 - 8:00 pm, and
• Friday from 8:00 am - 12:00 pm. 

Remember, there's no school for students on Friday. You're free to come during anytime during these hours - you can meet with all of your child's teachers, or just some of them - it's your choice.

I'm Back!

I meant to post this before I left on my recent trip, but things were awful busy and I didn't get this posted - my apologies. I missed school last Friday (10.16) until yesterday (Thursday, 10.22) - my wife and I are adopting a child from Africa, and we were able to make a quick trip to Ethiopia to meet our newest son for the first time.

This wasn't the best time for a teacher to miss school - this week was the last week of the quarter, and many students and parents are stressed out as the first quarter grading period comes to an end. If you (or your son / daughter) is worried about their first quarter grades, please contact me - we'll figure out what we need to do. I won't let my absences affect a student's grade - it's not their fault that I was gone.

So, sorry for the late notice. If it matters, I'm back!

Google Docs

Last week, our district gave our students Google Docs. In my opinion, Google Docs is the most useful piece of technology that has been offered to students and teachers.

Google Docs isn't a flashy piece of technology - it's really just a web-based version of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. This doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but it is - students are now able to open and access their documents from any computer. This means that students won't have to worry about printing assignments at home, bringing documents on a "jump-drive" or disk to school, emailing their assignments to teachers, etc. Using their Google Docs account, students can access their computer files anywhere that they can get on the internet. (Click here to see a short video on how Google Docs works.)

Google Docs is also a collaborative tool - this means that students can work together on the same documents at the same time. Teachers can also "share" files with students - teachers can give students copies of school assignments, lecture notes, presentations, etc.

Students can access Google Docs to the link on the right. To login, they use their Powerschool ID and password.

Free Voluntary Reading

I strongly believe that our students need to read more in schools. They need a chance to read books of their choice for long periods of time without being interrupted for assignments, quizzes, etc.

In my reading classes, students spend 50% of their time doing "Free, Voluntary Reading" (FVR). FVR is a hit with my students - it's easily their favorite time spent in my classroom, including reading, Social Studies, and advisory. As long as students are reading a book, they can read what they want - they can read challenging books, easy books, books they've read in the past, etc. The idea is for students to learn to love reading, rather than thinking reading is a chore that is only done for school assignments.

To make sure that students are reading during our FVR time, they have to turn in one assignment per month. This assignment is called a Letter Essay, written in their reading notebooks. The Letter Essay is hard to define - it's part letter, part book study, and part reflection.