jGR is a big part of many of our classroom management plans. Here we get an update from Diane Neubauer on how DPS’ Annick Chen, one of the four who helped develop it, has done some tinkering with it in her Chinese and French classes:
Hi Ben,
I got to meet with Diana & Annick yesterday. We talked proficiency testing, CI, DPS language news, students. Fun. Glad you suggested that I contact them. They were very generous with their info and I think it’s very helpful. I’ve forwarded on info to Reed, who has collected language from me and is creating a test out of it. It’ll have to be a different test than Annick’s, but consulting Diana & Annick was very helpful. They will be in Hawaii in March & may meet with Reed then.
Anyway, another topic was Annick’s new, really smart, jGR-type rubric. She has an insight here that I have been missing: she lists the 0-8 points as items on the left side of the form, and only if all 8 items are met can you be at a 9 or 10 level. She called 0-8 the “cake” and 9 and 10 as the “icing.” So students need to demonstrate the basics in the left column before they reach 9 or 10 awesomeness.
This solves a problem for me: students think if they blurt, talk out of turn, don’t respond, whatever problems, that it averages out over the class period, even though my rubric does not leave that open to them. But I think Annick’s makes it clearer. You complete all 8 items on the left before you move into an A grade for interpersonal communication in class.
I asked Annick’s permission, and she said absolutely it was fine to share with you and the PLC. Attached are her Chinese & her French rubrics in case you’d want to share them.
Diane