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Authentic Assessment – jen – 13
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18 thoughts on “Authentic Assessment – jen – 13”
Those of us who have been with jen for years through thick and thin can appreciate the power in what she says above:
…I am the first Spanish teacher the kids have liked, and the first one in 5 years who will be renewing my contract….
I remember back about five years when jen was getting tossed around like a rag doll by the grammar teachers in her buildings over the years. We all know what East Coast John and West Coast John and Our Bright Star Angie have endured, as well. So when I read a sentence like the one above from jen my right arm goes up with fist in the air in celebration of her strength and tenacity. Jen I know I speak for everyone on this point. Congratulations! It’s been “quite the year” for you in that school – a banner year!
The first one in 5 years who will be renewing my contract…that sentence says soooooo much more than anyone who is not a teacher could understand.
I second Jen’s request: please share with grading system works for you.
But, there might not be a perfect solution because A, B, C, D, F –that’s an over-simplification of what our kids can do. No matter what you teach, math, science, language, whatever, grades as a number system is like trying to squeeze into skinny jeans: it’s restrictive and is not going to flatter anyone but the top 4%ers. Reducing kids to a GPA makes them smaller and doesn’t value all their curves and edges.
But since grades are a necessary evil, I just score them as best I can. I would probably get dinged for “grade inflation” at some point too, except my administrators turn a blind eye because they are scared of my portfolios. It’s smoke and mirrors to some extent, but it’s also true that our authentic assessment shows a better knowledge of students.
But again, if you don’t have to go all-in with portfolios, don’t. It’s a lot of work.
Authentic assessments you are already doing are the bridge. I didn’t build the bridge. You did. I’m with Ben, congratulations are in order. Jen and Steven might not need portfolio assessment because you have administrators who simply walk in your classroom and see how awesome you are and get it.
I think portfolio assessment could be a defense against Data Turds trolling your bridges, but don’t use portfolios unless you have to.
Back to grades. (*Sigh)
Here is more on how to grade with rubrics:
http://www.phschool.com/eteach/professional_development/four-point_rubric_score/essay.html
I have not been able to endure like Angie and The Johns (new band?), but my current grading practices have never been a problem. Although I like the description of keeping notes during authentic assessments, I prefer a passive grading system to an active one. I have found that having students self-assess at the end of the grading term is the least restrictive environment
Formatives are Quick Quiz scores (not averaged into grade, but in a 0% category) which are really just CI reading activities to slow the pace (I.e. pacify out of control classes). Summative is the proficiency grade students have themselves at the end of the grading term.
Kids get As and Bs not because of grade inflation, but because I’m not an idiot who sets unrealistic goals.
My Proficiency rubrics are halfway down on:
magisterp.com/CI-materials
Endurance has its place, and so does leaving. If there comes a point when you decide not to go down with the ship, it can be just as brave to jump.
I completely agree with this Angie. Especially since I wrote a letter of resignation around Thanksgiving. I don’t know what made me wait to submit it and then eventually change my mind. It was a brutal time back then. It feels very different now. I can’t put my finger on what shifted, but I was one foot out the door and that choice would have made a ton of sense as well.
I maybe more traditional grading wise because im new and still not tenured.
Grade is participation 35%, classwork 10%, tests 45%, 10 % homework
I dont assign homework
And im going to modify my warmup too much paper
Any Ds and Fs student, I talk with them to make up work and let them know that im available every Thursday. I call parents to let them. CYA moves.
I dont have any ds or fs right now.
I have mostly As and Bs like I said in the previous thread. I am not worried because should we not be getting our kids to succeed? Are there really admins out there who want to see a bell curve? What about the achievement gap? Are they saying that it will ALWAYS BE THERE??? What?
It’s BS to see admin wanting an achievement gap. It’s even more ridiculous seeing teachers failing students like nothing.
Grades as skinny jeans.
SLA as a muffin top.
Not pretty.
Hi, Jen,
I’m glad to see you, my friend and fellow survivor…. 🙂
My grade break down at the public high school where I teach 185 students for an hour, daily, in California….
Participation 40% (jGR-based)
Tests 20% (I only give a 60-minute reading/story translation test at the end of both semesters)
Notebook 40% (cultural items from internet copied into the front/stories, dictees and free-writes in the back)
Confession: I have a big target on my back. The past 4 weeks have been very difficult.
Word around my campus is that the old French I, II, III, IV-AP teacher (me) is incompetent. Fortunately, I can prove that I’m not.
Most of my students are really ok — the canary in the mine is the notebook……it’s just grunt work, so they need to ‘just do it.’ Students who can’t do the notebook usually display other problems, including not even looking at the board to see what we are talking about.
My students who can’t even get a notebook put together usually don’t much pity from me. It’s mainly copying, for pete’s sake….. I try to love them and reach them for 18 months, but if they nearly completely resist me for two years straight, I try to give them the boot before French III. I think that’s pretty generous…
🙂
Leigh Anne why do you do the notebook? I think it’s way too much work for you. And isn’t authentic. My idea is that we all learn to assess, ideally, during class with jGR/ISR, free writes and maybe some translation and whatever else we can find that honors what the kids can do in class. Forced work that they have to do outside of class ain’t gonna work. Maybe if they are willing to up your salary to six figures you could do the above. Otherwise I wouldn’t bother. Let me know your thoughts.
Leigh Anne the problem is not in how you are assessing. It is solely in the 185 students in an hour. Is that a misprint? Can you imagine a grammar teacher trying to pull that off?
Ooops — not 185 all at once! I see 185 student per day….over the course of 6 periods/hourly blocks
Oh, Ben, not to worry — the notebook stays in my class. There’s no homework or outside work in my class.
The notebook is my only CYA…. I really do need it. The kids really need an anchor, and the notebook keeps them happy. They clutch at it like an attachment object. During class, we just write about things that we find on the internet, and they put all of their free writes and basic story info into the notebook as well. It is easy for me, and I like it.
I teach in a fairly high-functioning part of SoCal, with about 30% of my students taking AP tests their Junior year. For me, our little notebook functions more like a portfolio, in my head, at least! 🙂 The notebook is not the reason I have a target on my back, my friend.
The reason I have a target on my back is because I don’t give homework and tests….and I tell stories with my students….and my class is easy….
“The reason I have a target on my back is because I don’t give homework and tests….and I tell stories with my students….and my class is easy…”
This is horrible. What about equity in education? What about access?
That explains everything. Thanks Leigh Anne. Julie Soldner Denver is great with notebooks as well. And it IS amazing how they clutch them. Such an odd time we live in. Such an enormous feat to just be able to change the culture of a language class from one of forced homework (how does that help?) and tests (so few are useful as noted so well here lately) to something uplifting. Shouldn’t we be finding ways to uplift these kids? Are they not hurting enough?
Perhaps the preconception of having to constantly be in the unknown hurts kids more than a notebook, leaving them clutching at the latter of two evils.
There is something to that. When my bright eighth graders arrive to me with only grammar they won’t give it up for CI fun – it’s too human. They can’t play the smart card on the rest of the class because CI levels the field for all. There is no real bringing most bright kids back from grammar. The only ones who coming running into our CI arms are the ones who hated grammar, and they come running fast, happy to be out of the shadows.