Darcy Soto has thrown down the glove on assessment by going full on 100% jGR. That is radical. To read the entire thread on this vital and emerging topic after a hiatus of about four years here, click on:
https://benslavic.com/blog/jgr-how-much-weight-should-it-get-a-suggestion/comment-page-1/#comment-80544
In response to what Darcy is doing, Laura Avila expressed as true a sentiment, as in it rings true on this topic and is a statement full of power and dignity on behalf of teachers and students while calling bullshit on the entire grading thing, that I have ever heard or read. Read Laura’s powerful response to Darcy’s idea here:
I totally agree with Darcy about making jGR 100% of the grade (or as high as you can get away with).
I also believe that ALL assessment is an exercise in wasting everyone’s time. Both mean assessment or compassionate assessment, SBG assessment or Carnegie assessment: they are all a waste of my energy.
If I truly believe that language is acquired subconsciously then, who am I to judge?
Who am I to judge whose subconscious chose to remember what, when?
Ben wrote: “It (jGR) is the only thing that I know that we have ever discussed here over the years that accurately describes the observable non-verbal behaviors that alone align our instruction with the communication standard.”
I write: to me jGR is the best rubric created since the invention of chocolate ice cream (only hagen daz pls).
Personally I don’t need any other rubric to inform my instruction. I don’t need to do re tells to know how far, far, they are from proficiency, (I do them bc the superstars like to show off and practice, so they are always voluntary), I don’t need to have students do free writes to know that they still need to hear and read, and read and hear for an eternity (I do them bc it quiets them down giving me a break).
So, I say again, that ALL assessment is bogus because I am constantly evaluating where they’re at to inform where I go next and improve my skills.
But we live in the reality of the grade book and the SBG turd.
Yes, I think grades should be a simple pass/fail and I think those standards are total cow manure including the “I can statements”.
After a long time of internal doubt and debate I finally conclude that those in our community of CI practitioners that expect kids to show “what they can do” with the language are WRONG! Those professionals are repeating under the CI-TPRS umbrella what the grammar text book people have been doing all along. In my opinion, they are doing exactly-the-same-thing.
A big-wig TPRS teacher told me recently that they don’t use jGR bc it is not standards based and it is subjective.
I say:
1. jGR is a rubric that guides the student on how to negotiate meaning when their language skills are limited.
2. jGR is not a participation grade. Robert Harrell made that very clear some years ago showing how it is a rigorous academic assessment based on the three modes of communication.
3. How is jGR subjective? If I look at a student and see that he is looking at the floor, not once but all class long, how is this subjective? If I hear “Tommy” giving great ideas that show engagement and comprehension after waiting for his turn, how is this subjective???
4. jGR is an equal opportunity employer. This is BIG to me. “Tommy” whose father just returned from jail to live in the small trailer with his mother (who works at a convenience store), her boyfriend and little brother, has never had any exposure to a different language or culture. He comes from a family that totally hates school and will probably never do anything with Spanish. However, in class he shows up, looks at the board, at me, gives ideas, etc. etc. Still at the end of the year he cannot remember “he wants”even though he was present in body and mind all along. It would take him probably another entire year to remember “he wants”. Should I assess him with “what he can do” with the language and fail him? Or should I assess him with his effort all year to be an active contributing member of our community? Spanish was the only class he didn’t fail last year and I didn’t just give him his credit, he earned it.
Our school is getting ready for the NEASC inspection. I will do everything needed to comply so that Spanish is not the area holding the school back. It will all be fake. I will create whatever my dept. coordinator wants me to do to show proof of SBG, I’m no less intelligent than they are. I just see reality from a different lens. We also have two new administrators and I don’t know how they feel about jGR yet, but this one I will defend.