A lot of us are getting ready to grab and use the silver hammer that is jGR or, as we sometimes call it, ICSR – the Interpersonal Communication Skills Rubric. I have also noticed that Eric calls it simply the Interpersonal Skills Rubric, which is simple and to the point. It will always be jGR for me but I can certainly see others wanting to call it by a more descriptive name. We have had so many ideas that reflect the people and the processes that we have gone through to come up with them that I sometimes forget that some of the acronyms we have may confuse new people. It will all work out over time. The term doesn’t count as much as the activity it represents.
Besides this blockbuster jGR/ICSR/ISR rubric, one that is fully grounded in the national standards, we can and should also tie the concept of rigor to our grading, as a kind of second silver hammer.
Rigor has been a featured idea that we have discussed here over the years. When we address it first in our classrooms, observors/administrators don’t even have to look for it – we take it to them in our post observation meetings.
Robert wrote something about rigor that encapsulizes the concept quite well:
https://benslavic.com/rigor.html
Jessie Delany then told me that she will actually hand to her students a modification of Robert’s statement so that they immediately, right at the start of the year, begin to know that self-reflection is something they will be doing a lot of in her class. I would imagine she will use this when explaining jGR to her students. So this is from Jessie via Robert. What she did was change the “they” from Robert to a “you” for her students:
• Not a regular participation grade
• Academic grade based on demonstrated performance in the areas of culturally appropriate listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing, and signing
• Are you actively negotiating meaning in the target language or are you passive and working against the negotiation of meaning?
• Are you observing and monitoring the teacher for understanding in the target language?
• Are you indicating the need for clarification and adjustments?
• Do you attempt to participate in genuine conversation and interaction in the target language or do you speak in your native language?
So weather we use this document in tandem with jGR or separately, it is a nice little list to share with kids at the beginning of the year and thank you Robert and Jessie.
How we use the various things on this site, as usual, is completely our own decision. That is the strength of this group – there is active discussion, we weigh what we read and hear, we make our decisions about what to incorporate in our own classrooms, and we don’t need or look for anyone’s approval. There is no right way to do this work.