Andrew Graff

5 thoughts on “Andrew Graff”

1. Andrew Graff

   June 26, 2011 at 10:17 am

   I was just thinking about your editors note above. One thing I need to do is always do those 10-point PQA-based quizzes, and in no way convey any “off-the-cuff”-ness about it. I’m thinking that one avenue towards creating the right mindset in the students would be to ritualize these quizzes, make a real spectacle of it. Perhaps setting an alarm reminder to go off ten minutes before the end of class, stopping the PQA/activity without much–if any–ado, and beginning the quiz. Getting the grade in the day of, even before the kids got home, would make the kids think I’m a nutter, but an anal-retentive all-too-serious about doing-your-50%-percent nutter, and I’d be a real stud with those parents who check the online gradebook every hour.
   These teacher-behaviors would definitely help, it seems to me, reinforce the desired student-behaviors in the interpretive and interpersonal modes of communication.
   But: how to mesh the quizzes with the rubrics, since the quizzes do reinforce the proper student mindset defined in Robert’s rubric?
   Perhaps having pre-designed quiz papers which always have the rubric-equivalent on them? But perhaps where 10/10 = proficient [4], with above expectations [5] not being a possibility on this type of assessment? In other words, the quizzes are in addition to a rubric-based assessment of a student, where they could show themselves to be working “above expectations”?
   ***
   I just noticed that Nathan [whose marking period German wordlists I have unscrupulously swiped, kein Mucks! not a peep!] was thinking about modes of communication yesterday too:
   http://mjtprs.wordpress.com/2011/06/25/chewing-on-the-actfl-modes/
   [My belly laugh for the day: “I’m much less of a med school doctor than I am a Dr. Frankenstein who prefers to replace and reanimate the component parts of a given story to give it some additional kick.”]

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2. Ben Slavic

   June 26, 2011 at 11:11 am

   …ritualize these quizzes….
   This is the best. Every day no exceptions. The only problem happens when you get rolling with a story – it’s like trying to stop a boulder going down a hill. But yes, this is crucial for us as school employees.

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3. Ben Slavic

   June 26, 2011 at 12:33 pm

   …perhaps setting an alarm reminder….
   Not necessary for me. I have 35 human alarm clocks in my class. I just ask any one of them to remind me when there are five minutes left in class. I also ask the quiz writer to tell me when they have the quiz ready. This is all as per today’s new blog post on Quick Quizzes.

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4. Ben Slavic

   June 26, 2011 at 12:48 pm

   …but…how to mesh the quizzes with the rubrics, since the quizzes do reinforce the proper student mindset defined in Robert’s rubric…?
   The quick quizzes assess class content. The particpation rubric I designed based on one designed by Donna Tatum-Johns assesses more closely with the three modes and is all we have now that I know of. My impression is that Robert and Frank are right now working on a much more developed participation rubric than the one we currently have. Correct me if I am wrong on any of this.
   So we have those purely academic quick quizzes, and right next to them in our gradebooks we have the three modes based rubric grades, covering both bases, so to speak. We sure as hell are not going to get away with implementing what Robert and Frank have in mind in the next academic year, anyway. My thinking is that what Robert started is going to take a bit of time.
   For my participation rubric, please click on the resources/posters link on the home page of benslavic.com and scroll down to Participation Rubric French [credit: Ben Lev]

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5. Nathan Black

   June 27, 2011 at 9:12 am

   By the way Andrew, I’ve swiped well over half of all of my word lists directly from Michele myself, so take all you want.

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