jGR – Chris Roberts

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27 thoughts on “jGR – Chris Roberts”

  1. Jeffery Brickler

    Chris,

    Love this. I’m in Ohio and this is awesome. I was intending to do something like this because I wanted weekly feedback from my students on one sheet. I like the sheet because it gives me something to look at and keep track of. Nice. Thanks!

  2. I’m not an assign-#s-as-I-go person but if I were to use this– and it’s the best version of jGR yet, IMHO– I’d tell the kids that their goal is to move up the scale. Obviously you can only start at bottom (cos you don’t know any ____ yet) then if you stay tuned in you can move up. So you could start with an F and end up with an A, which is great, good incentive for kids.

    Question for jGR users: what happens if a kid manages good output in writing etc etc but doesn’t want to “tune in” in class? Does that even happen? My second-best intro student last year, Hamid, HATED talking, answering questions etc, and it was impossible to get him not to sketch during class. He blew the finals away. jGR would’ve assigned him a C at best– he didn’t talk, never asked for clarification, etc– yet he stomped the final.

      1. Thank you Chris, I appreciate the feedback. I’m not an assign #s as I go person either. And I’m incredibly unorganized, so it’s kind of tough to keep up on, but the changes it has made in my class are incredible.

        Now as far as output goes, I cheat on this rubric. I give the good kids who don’t cause problems for me slightly better grades than they rate themselves. The point of this, for me, is to come down hard on the kids who want to disrupt and hold side conversations in English.

        1. Now as far as output goes, I cheat on this rubric. I give the good kids who don’t cause problems for me slightly better grades than they rate themselves. The point of this, for me, is to come down hard on the kids who want to disrupt and hold side conversations in English.

  3. Jeffery Brickler

    I think that we bring up one kid who is like Hamid and we use that as the model for saying that something doesn’t work. You are his teacher. You know him best. He is most likely a unique individual in this process. I bet that the number of students who are not “tuning in” and doing well is very very few, perhaps none. What Hamid did demonstrate was that he in fact did some of the skills very well. He didn’t engage very well in terms of speaking or letting you know that he understood, but he did pay attention, otherwise, he could not have made gains

    Another thing to ask yourself. Hamid did very well in the content. He killed the final. Yes. Great. However, life and communication is more than simply knowing the material. You have to engage. We are dispelling the thought that one who is gifted intellectually can simply do whatever he wants. You wouldn’t say he was a good at language/communicator if he never opened his mouth or communicated to you. Therefore, he is not doing everything perfect. He is doing many things very well.

    Therefore, you, as he teacher, can determine what you value the most: That he CAN communicate well and chooses not to or that he DOES communicate well.

    1. I think that this is a brilliant response to the comment by Chris Stoltz, Jeffery. You have wrapped up the essence of how to deal with the insanity of grading in this comment here:

      …we are dispelling the thought that one who is gifted intellectually can simply do whatever he wants. …..

      That is a valiant defense of jGR and, indeed, it defends the future of the work we are doing here together, as we try to make it clear that in the future language acquisition assessment schools is not going to be characterized by intellectual competition but heartfelt cooperation. That is what jGR is about, and why it is necessary.

      And then you wrote this:

      …therefore you, as he teacher, can determine what you value the most: That he CAN communicate well and chooses not to or that he DOES communicate well….

      This makes me realize that we indeed are the teachers of our students, as you say above, and that we do what we must to reflect what we see in our students in as honest a way as possible, and we assess what is important to us, and we are all different. Hamid succeeds at what he does, but:

      ..he is not doing everything perfect. He is doing many things very well….

      This particular comment is at the heart, it describes, the coming changes in assessment. We will still assess in terms of academic gains, yes, but now we are adding in to our assessment other things, because it is a language. We are starting to see that assessing kids purely in intellectual terms is not something we can do.

      The intense interest in this rubric from other disciplines is no accident, in that regard. Indeed, teachers in other disciplines have, for months now, been expressing a big interest in it in buildings where jGR is in place, or so I have heard anecdotally on many occasions.

      And jGR is so powerful for us who use it precisely because we teach a language and not chemistry. That is what the admins don’t get. And why I made that other comment about how we are not crazy in taking this thing into observable non-verbal behaviors and tying kids’ grades to that. Learning a language is NOT an intellectual process, but a human one.

  4. Chris, is your Best of Ohio session notes still up here on the site? I want to read that, but never did when it was originally posted.

    Re the rubric, I personally wouldn’t use this as it infers that speaking is an essential aspect of the language classroom. Especially in first year, and even in second year, I don’t really require speaking much (any body language will do to keep communicating). I’ve found that when I start talking about them speaking, or even implying it’s necessity as the rubric seems to me to do, they get all nervous and it makes it weird, for my classroom anyways. And I’d have a hard time with the percentages.

    I just really dislike even thinking about the grading, period. It makes me less interested in communicating with them, so I’m sure it’s reciprocal. But as they say, When in school…

    Hope it works well for whoever uses it, thanks for giving us another option to choose from Chris!

    1. Yes I am. and that is because it is nearly impossible to get an 11, and if they do hit all of that criteria in the Advanced category then I think they deserve a 110%. A few of my Spanish 4 kids have been getting the 11. It’s incredible, they speak mostly in Spanish in class, albeit a little butchered, and they make attempts outside of class, whether it’s at football games, in the hall or on Twitter. It’s spirit week so the cheerleaders decked the school out in posters and streamers, etc. They put signs up in Spanish in my hallway that say “Azul, Plata, Blanco”, “VĂ¡monos”, “luchemos”. It’s great.

        1. Thanks! I’m not sure if they would have done that at my last school. They never did, but it was a middle school and they didn’t do the whole spirit week, decorate the school thing. I probably would have had to entice them with extra credit to get them to do that.

  5. Chris, what percentage is your D at? Does this go in your book our of 11? I’m looking to change my rubric and hit them more consistently, because this is where I struggle. Thanks for the nice rubric.

    1. Hi Eric. I had to manipulate the numbers a little bit to fit the grading scale at this school. To be honest, I don’t know offhand what it is, but I know that a 70% is a D in our school.

  6. Do most jGR teachers expect every student to use the “do not understand” signal every day? I am having trouble dinging students in this category because I figure only they know if they understand or not.

    Also, on the jGR rubric, how do you score them if they meet some but not all qualities in level three, say? You must meet every quality in level three to get that score?

    Thanks!

  7. Good questions, Laura.

    I asked myself those questions during the last few weeks. Regarding the firsts, it occurred to me that everybody should be doing something. I told some classes that they should be responding in some way. If they understand then they should be reciprocating: either answering questions or reacting to statements. If they do not understand they should be signaling or verbally requesting clarification. If they are just sitting there they are either attentive but not responding (2, C/D) or not attentive (1, D/F).

    So, I would say that they have to interact in some way. Having said that, for me this is one of the most difficult things. And I do look forward to seeing what other have to say about this and your second question.

  8. Thanks for responding, Nathaniel. I will often put a comment on their weekly rubrics that says “louder!” because I see their lips moving but can’t be sure what’s coming out. I try to focus on the quiet ones, but I haven’t mastered watching them and teaching yet! I guess I could put the burden more on them to make it obvious to me or they won’t get the full points…

    1. Arlington, I think you posted this as I was writing my comment below. We’re in the same boat, not yet having mastered watching and teaching! I like your idea of putting the burden on them to make their responses obvious to me if they want full points. Thanks!

  9. I have my own version of the rubric and I give communication grades, but I’m not particularly comfortable with that grade yet. I still don’t understand how you all keep track of all the kids during class, enough to give them a communication grade. Some of you have huge classes. My largest class is 18, and I have trouble focusing on all of them and their level of engagement at the same time as I’m trying to keep on top of what I’m doing. I do the best I can with the rubric, but it feels pretty subjective. I feel like I am not necessarily fair to the ones in the middle. The obvious As and Fs are easy. It’s those other ones that I really can’t be sure about when I sit down to put a grade in. This is my first year, so maybe I’ll get better as my delivery of CI becomes easier and more unconscious, or something.

    1. PS for clarification
      “I feel like I am not necessarily fair to the ones in the middle. ”

      What I mean by “in the middle” is that they do not stand out (like the superstars and disrupters do) as they do what they are doing, wherever that may fall on the rubric.

    2. Hi Ruth,

      Some one in here has suggested that you give a midline grade as the default for Interpersonal Communication, and then raise or lower it according to the students’ behaviors in class.

      For me, I often have kids fill out the form for themselves first, and then I give a grade (and feedback as appropriate – I circle the problem areas or highlight the strengths accordingly). I also give them this grade periodically without announcing it and without asking for their opinion. But I have found it helpful to see what they think they’ve earned. At my school, that works pretty well. Some frequent interrupters get to see that their view of blurting in English throughout class & mine are quite different.

      1. Hi Diane,

        Thanks for your help.
        I like the midline starting point. Maybe that will be simpler for me to think about and make me stay on top of it. I have already started having them give themselves a grade.
        I like Laura’s idea above, too. They go together. Start with a midline grade, and then it’s up to them to show me different and make it obvious.

  10. Did anyone have any thoughts about the rubric re: that you must meet all the qualities in the categories to get that number?

    The rubric I used first trimester had six categories in which the students put Yes or No, they met the requirement or not (taken from Ben’s classroom rules, I believe): 1. Do you show you are ready to learn with your body language (Does Sra. Cenci have to ask you to sit up, make eye contact, square shoulders), 2. Do you listen without speaking out of turn (Or does Sra. Cenci have to shush you) [and I would like to brag and say that my classes are easily 95% Spanish – I keep a tally on the board of maestra v. estudiants for English blurts and they really pay attention to that], 3. Do you listen to try to understand (or do you talk with your neighbor or ask a question that has already been answered because you weren’t paying attention), 4. Do you speak only in Spanish (unless you have asked “puedo hablar en espanol” which at this point in the year I have limited them to one per class since they can work around it (Sp. I), 5. Do you respond every time and with enthusiasm (or are you someone who mumbles a response and requires Sra. Cenci to repeat the question or statement) and 6. Are you using the do not understand signal.

    So students could get six points, but I was never comfortable with the sixth category, and I felt once I got everyone speaking in Spanish, everyone was getting 4s which didn’t seem to ding them enough for not getting the enthusiastic responses and not giving the do not understand signal. This is why I was rereading the jGR category and wanting to switch over to the 1-5 rubric (Ben’s shows 1-10) and count it for 25% this trimester (5% last trimester due to my lack of confidence on the subject). So I’m ready to implement Ben’s rubric tomorrow but want some clarification…

    Thanks!
    Laura

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