Diane suggested publishing the following comment by Eric as an article to make it accessible in the jGR category. It’s an idea we’ve seen before, where the students self reflect on the level of engagement they brought to the class that day by answering questions about how they observed the most important of the Three Modes of Communication – the Interpersonal Skill – in that class on that day. Here Eric suggests answering those self reflection questions on the back of the real quick quiz we give each class period:
I only have to use jGR/ICSR with the 5th grade. This is what I started doing last week. I said to them:
“Until everyone is participating appropriately, we will have 2 quizzes every class. 1 Spanish quiz and 1 quiz based on your communication.”
Then, I projected a 5 question, yes or no, which they each filled out at the end of class on the back of their Spanish quiz. (I only do 5 T/F for Spanish quizzes). I grade from 50-100.
Well, I had the best classes I’d ever had with the most difficult grade in the school.
Here are the questions – this info is good evidence to collect and potentially share with parents:
Communication Grade Student ____________________Date _______
How well did you do your job as a student in Spanish class? Answer Yes or No.
1. Did you listen and try to understand? _____
2. Did you make eye contact with Profe at least 90% of the time? _____
3. Did you answer all questions, except when you did not understand? _____
4. Did you speak all Spanish and not blurt or talk to neighbor in English? _____
5. Did you signal every time when you did not understand? _____
Note that we have other versions of this self-assessment tool to use at the very end of class and with problem kids in conjunction with remediation plans set up with their parents. I like the one above because I use a rubric based on five in my own classes. And, of course, the score could be doubled. If anyone has a similar set of questions that they would like to share here, please send it to me or mention it in a comment field below so that we can have options to Eric’s. But, as I said, I prefer this one because it is so simple, fits nicely on the back of the quiz sheet (plenty of room) and can be done quickly. Then, when we grade them, we learn who the liars are and really only need to look at those. The rest can just be popped into the grade book quickly during our planning and everything clicks along quite well.