Jen, who invented the actual interpersonal skills rubric, comments below on how she uses it today, now five years since it’s creation over a two year period here on the blog by Robert Harrell, me, jen, Barbara Vallejos and Annick Chen:
The way I “use” jGR / aka “Interpersonal Skill Rubric has evolved over the years. At first I tried to use it literally. That lasted about a week. Like you say, Tina, I don’t want to have to think or shift my attention on scrutinizing kids. I just want to have fun delivering CI and opening up the space for the kids to fill it with their awesomeness and creativity.
Mainly I use the rubric as a way to show descriptors for helping the kids learn to listen. They don’t know how, and it is my job to provide experiential learning in the lost art of listening to another person. It’s messy and will never fit into a rubric. But schools like rubrics, so I use them if I have to.
Digression….I truly HATE rubrics. I always have. Back in the 90s when I first learned of them I was instantly turned off. My new school makes you do a rubric to wipe your @$$. No joke. I made up 2 diff. ones that I use for “benchmarks” plus I now use Grant’s version of the interpersonal skills. Minimalist.
Anyhoo….just last Friday I broke out the rubric with my “level 3.” This semester I decided not to talk through all the rubric-y crap on day one. Snore. So I’ve waited with each group, so that they get a feel for how it is. I handed out the rubric with my observations highlighted. Never done it this way, but decided to show them “what I am seeing at the moment.” Many of them were freaking out bc they are at a “2” level. I shared with them my “secreto grande” which is that I do not average any numbers numerically, and that the process is fluid so they can always “change their grade.”
One girl stormed out of the room but the rest breathed a sigh of relief, and we engaged in a pretty interesting back and forth discussion of how language is different, not a subject, acquisition can’t be measured etc. I told them I am looking for a trend. If there are a few 2s and mostly 3s they will get a 3, etc. I did say if I see a cell phone that will knock you down but mostly I am looking to bump you up bc stress hinders acquisition and I don’t want ppl to be stressed in class. They actually thanked me for having that conversation! And these were the super achiever honor roll girls. Stormy girl is in my advisory and she is a loose cannon. Everything is someone else’s fault. I’ll deal with her as we go along.
That was a long ramble to say that I have the rubric in case anyone questions me on my assessment system. I can’t (yet) tell them “I assess with the face.” It seems valuable as a self-assessment tool for kids. I have them choose one skill to focus on for next week. I am not keeping track, just asking them to hone in on something related to listening or responding or asking for clarification. I don’t do this weekly. It’s random, maybe a couple times per quarter.
Tina, I had “that class” last semester. For me the shift came when I decided to let go of trying to hammer so hard on the CI. I call it “letting go of my CI death grip.” I cannot pinpoint exactly how this happened, but it started to change when I wrote my letter of resignation. I wrote this letter bc I was so beaten up, losing sleep, waking up sobbing, etc. Like 3-4 x week for 3 months solid. I remember thinking “if I am not having fun it’s not worth being here.” And then I started to have fun. I have 80 min blocks, so I started having a sort of “recess” in the middle where we’d circle up and play hacky sack and I was not trying to corral them into speaking Spanish…although they naturally started to count in Spanish how many times we kept it in the air. Once we had a ritual like this we all relaxed and they were so much easier to get back on track.
Another thing I did that really shifted the energy was that I did a few “benchmarks” with them spontaneously. IT was a way to get them hyper focused on listening and specifically asking for clarification. It went like this: I told them “Hey let’s do a listening summative!” They started to freak. Then I said I will ask 10 questions, all of them are yes/no. All you have to do is respond yes /no. I also want you to stop me if you don’t understand the question! That’s right! YOu will get extra credit for signaling or saying “what does that mean?” Then I did some very easy y/no questions. I make them put their index finger next to their head (like a “thinking” gesture) when they are ready to say their answer, then I say 1-2-3…and everyone answers in a chorus. I also told them if they did not want to say the answer out loud they had to lip synch. I said I need to see you all answering, then you will get the points.
It was all deliberate, SLOW, EASY. I wrote the numbers 1-10 up on the white board and checked off as we went through each question (I made them up on the spot). 10 checks = 20 points! Plus extra credit for those kids who asked “what does that mean!!!” I recorded them in the computer system. This got the momentum rolling bc they realized all they had to do was answer / ask me what stuff means! When they started seeing 100% in the grade book they realized how easy it is!
I know you will find your sweet spot. You said you had it before, so you can remind the kids “remember when ….” Have faith Tina! You can work together to get back to your fun times.
Jen, who invented the actual interpersonal skills rubric, comments below on how she uses it today, now five years since it’s creation over a two year period here on the blog by Robert Harrell, me, jen, Barbara Vallejos and Annick Chen:
The way I “use” jGR / aka “Interpersonal Skill Rubric has evolved over the years. At first I tried to use it literally. That lasted about a week. Like you say, Tina, I don’t want to have to think or shift my attention on scrutinizing kids. I just want to have fun delivering CI and opening up the space for the kids to fill it with their awesomeness and creativity.
Mainly I use the rubric as a way to show descriptors for helping the kids learn to listen. They don’t know how, and it is my job to provide experiential learning in the lost art of listening to another person. It’s messy and will never fit into a rubric. But schools like rubrics, so I use them if I have to.
Digression….I truly HATE rubrics. I always have. Back in the 90s when I first learned of them I was instantly turned off. My new school makes you do a rubric to wipe your @$$. No joke. I made up 2 diff. ones that I use for “benchmarks” plus I now use Grant’s version of the interpersonal skills. Minimalist.
Anyhoo….just last Friday I broke out the rubric with my “level 3.” This semester I decided not to talk through all the rubric-y crap on day one. Snore. So I’ve waited with each group, so that they get a feel for how it is. I handed out the rubric with my observations highlighted. Never done it this way, but decided to show them “what I am seeing at the moment.” Many of them were freaking out bc they are at a “2” level. I shared with them my “secreto grande” which is that I do not average any numbers numerically, and that the process is fluid so they can always “change their grade.”
One girl stormed out of the room but the rest breathed a sigh of relief, and we engaged in a pretty interesting back and forth discussion of how language is different, not a subject, acquisition can’t be measured etc. I told them I am looking for a trend. If there are a few 2s and mostly 3s they will get a 3, etc. I did say if I see a cell phone that will knock you down but mostly I am looking to bump you up bc stress hinders acquisition and I don’t want ppl to be stressed in class. They actually thanked me for having that conversation! And these were the super achiever honor roll girls. Stormy girl is in my advisory and she is a loose cannon. Everything is someone else’s fault. I’ll deal with her as we go along.
That was a long ramble to say that I have the rubric in case anyone questions me on my assessment system. I can’t (yet) tell them “I assess with the face.” It seems valuable as a self-assessment tool for kids. I have them choose one skill to focus on for next week. I am not keeping track, just asking them to hone in on something related to listening or responding or asking for clarification. I don’t do this weekly. It’s random, maybe a couple times per quarter.
Tina, I had “that class” last semester. For me the shift came when I decided to let go of trying to hammer so hard on the CI. I call it “letting go of my CI death grip.” I cannot pinpoint exactly how this happened, but it started to change when I wrote my letter of resignation. I wrote this letter bc I was so beaten up, losing sleep, waking up sobbing, etc. Like 3-4 x week for 3 months solid. I remember thinking “if I am not having fun it’s not worth being here.” And then I started to have fun. I have 80 min blocks, so I started having a sort of “recess” in the middle where we’d circle up and play hacky sack and I was not trying to corral them into speaking Spanish…although they naturally started to count in Spanish how many times we kept it in the air. Once we had a ritual like this we all relaxed and they were so much easier to get back on track.
Another thing I did that really shifted the energy was that I did a few “benchmarks” with them spontaneously. IT was a way to get them hyper focused on listening and specifically asking for clarification. It went like this: I told them “Hey let’s do a listening summative!” They started to freak. Then I said I will ask 10 questions, all of them are yes/no. All you have to do is respond yes /no. I also want you to stop me if you don’t understand the question! That’s right! YOu will get extra credit for signaling or saying “what does that mean?” Then I did some very easy y/no questions. I make them put their index finger next to their head (like a “thinking” gesture) when they are ready to say their answer, then I say 1-2-3…and everyone answers in a chorus. I also told them if they did not want to say the answer out loud they had to lip synch. I said I need to see you all answering, then you will get the points.
It was all deliberate, SLOW, EASY. I wrote the numbers 1-10 up on the white board and checked off as we went through each question (I made them up on the spot). 10 checks = 20 points! Plus extra credit for those kids who asked “what does that mean!!!” I recorded them in the computer system. This got the momentum rolling bc they realized all they had to do was answer / ask me what stuff means! When they started seeing 100% in the grade book they realized how easy it is!
I know you will find your sweet spot. You said you had it before, so you can remind the kids “remember when ….” Have faith Tina! You can work together to get back to your fun times.