A repost from 2011 that still applies:
Robert has distinguished between a participation grade and a grade, in his words, that is “based on a set of observable criteria (behaviors) that demonstrate communicative competency based on the ACTFL Performance Guidelines for Grades K-12?. This is a grade that aligns with the Interpersonal Skill of the Three Modes of Communication.
I know I am going to need what Robert says there in parent conferences this year. It is not threatening, and yet puts a ton of pressure on a child to become actually present for class.
Now, what are the “observable criteria”? They are the rules* we use, that’s all!
So, if I have this quote hanging in big letters casually on a wall behind where parents sit talking with me at a parent conference, and I need that line, I can just read it, explaining to the parents that this alignment with the new state and national standards is exactly what is missing from their son’s performance in my class and why he, high achiever that he is, doesn’t have the A that he is used to in his other classes, then I point to the Classroom Rules chart for specific behaviors that I need from this kid, and then wait for the parents to try to return the ball I just zinged over the net at them.
*David Ganahl pointed out to me in L.A. at this summer’s workshop how the Classroom Rules poster and his version of jGR (dGR) represents a nice dovetail of the two things (the rules and jGR). This post is actually from the year jGR first appeared. It just shows how the rebar in those rules and in the current dGR/mGR version of jGR is strong steel and still doing wonders for CI teachers in their classrooms and in parent conferences all over the place now five years later. When else can we sit down with parents, point to a set of rules and ask a child to comment on how they do on them in class to their parents? We basically have for that meeting a giant crowbar in pulling the lid off the kid’s rude and sly behavior. Here is my prayer that as many of us as possible in this year’s parent conferences are successful in using the Classroom Rules or one of the “great rubrics” to pull the lid off of a lot of kids’ lies about how they follow the rules in our classroom. If we fail to play this card at parent conferences, when it is given to us on a silver platter, then we are making a mistake. This is our chance to get major support, in the form of the parent, on any kid who acts out in class or doesn’t show up for it. Then, apply the right and honest mGR/dGR grade, stick to the ACTFL Three Modes guns, and win the psychic warfare with the child, which is now in our society apparently what we call education.