David Talone, a Spanish and Latin teacher at Providence Day School, asks an excellent question. It reveals a discrepency about how we grade relative to the research. It needs to be addressed immediately here. I’m hoping for some excellent answers from the group.
I have recently joined your online community, and am still ploughing my way through the numerous threads. You certainly give a teacher a lot to chew on.
However, one topic that I was looking for in particular as the school year rapidly approaches is how to set up a grading system using a TPRS system. I read the posts on the 3 modes of communication and how you were attempting to set up a gradebook using that system ( I will be teaching second year “B” at the middle school level).
My school, while traditional, is pushing all of the teachers to use those 3 modes of communication as a basis for our grading. Of course much of the grading is focused on output (presentational and interpersonal). Your take on the interpersonal mode seemed very similar to grading participation which is frowned upon here. Also, all of that conversation seems more than a year old and I was wondering if you have adapted it at all in the intervening time period.
I took a 3 day workshop with Scott Benedict this summer and he encouraged us to grade 15% listening, 15% reading, 30% writing, 30% Speaking and 10% culture. So it seems that there can be quite a variation in grading systems even within the TPRS classroom.
Best,
Dave