What's in a Grade?
Since
I'm in the midst of doing final grades for the semester this is the burning
issue that I want to share with you. Our school decided that in 7th
grade we will not use numeric grades in the report cards this year. Instead, we
have to do an alternative written assessment. The report card should consist of
comments written by the teacher and the student.
The
learning goals of this period should be defined and the assessment should
reflect the students' performance according to those specified goals. I should
also add a few sentences with explanations of what exactly was covered and how
the student performed in each area. The parent and student should be able to
identify the strengths and weaknesses so as to allow the student to focus on
what was difficult for him or what he/she didn't manage to achieve.
I
'm also going to include a remark on effort and motivation, especially to
encourage the students and show them that their efforts are noticed and
appreciated.
As
for the students' part, they are supposed to reflect on the last semester, what
they have learned and how have they performed in class and set goals for
themselves for the next semester.
I
started working with the students this week on their part for the report card
and they are facing difficulties. The students are too young and they have never
reflected on themselves before. This is a learning skill that they have to acquire
and practice in advance and we haven't done it up until now. Also they are
having issues with expressing themselves. What they write should be printed in
their report card but their expression in writing is inadequate.
This
process of making report cards has become a big challenge and the work load is pretty
exhausting. Have you ever had to do
something similar?
Hi love.
ReplyDeleteI am all for this method and trying to collaborate it to my teachings. As a class, before lengthy assignments, I go over the rubrics of assessment with the students. Sometimes we choose these rubrics together. When it’s time to grade their assignments, I first give them the rubrics’ page to grade themselves and then I give them their final garde, usually the grade they gave themselves. I find it very liberating.
Although, I do agree with you, it is a tiring task to deal with if they haven’t practiced it before.