I got this question from a group member:
Ben do we have a stand alone rubric for the Interpretive Mode like jGR ?
I responded:
No, and I don’t see one happening. Interpreting input is an individual process within each kid and I don’t see how it can really be measured in a real way, in spite of our propensity to want to measure things in schools.
One kid may interpret input at a very high level during class, whereas another, bothered by bullying or a family situation or something else causing input interference, may interpret during that grading period at a much lower level. We can’t measure it for real.
We can measure what they interpret in a false way. We’re good at false measurements in school. And we can organize it in a false way in a gradebook. We can make it look real even though it is artificial. Indeed, we MUST organize it to look real, as that is part of our job description.
What would artificial measurement of the Interpretive Mode look like?
It would differ for each of us. I used to be really creative with it. It looked so real. I knew it was false but I liked how real my gradebook looked. Now, I don’t do that anymore. I just give Quick Quizzes. That’s my interpretive.
Even the Quick Quizzes cannot be said to be all that accurate. I point again to the instrinsic motivation piece and the challenges facing teens right now as things implode around them a little bit more every day. So I just use the Quick Quizzes as the best measuring tool I have available.
In terms of the Presentational Mode, since I personally am so vehemently opposed to early output, I will never evaluate my students on how they can write and speak, at least in the first two years. That’s like evaluating a six month old child for their ability to speak and write. That’s a heavy level of bullshit right there.
So for me 40% of the grade is Interpersonal (jGR), which is the only real one, and 60% is Interpretive (the Quick Quizzes – kind of real), and 0% is Presentational. I will be interested to see what the group does with the Presentational Mode over the next few years as more and more of us start seeing lots of really strong students moving up to the upper levels.
The bottom line is that we are aligning our grading with the ACTFL Standards now that we have jGR, and we are no longer using an outmoded percentage system of how many they got right. Our assessment is getting better.