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When Attacked – 8
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10 thoughts on “When Attacked – 8”
Robert,
What exactly do you do with you standards based grading when it comes to converting to percentages? Our school district is finally moving over and I would like to know what yours or anyone’s looks like. Thanks for your letter.
Ryan,
I simply adjust the grading scale on the computer to reflect five equal grade spans. My district uses an online grade book that allows me to set the cut-offs.
Once you have several grades, you will generally have scores with decimals. Almost no one gets all 3 (for every assignment) or all 4 or all 5. You have to decide what will be your cut-off. I was not the pioneer in my district on this, so I adopted and adapted what the science department at one of the other high schools was doing. (This gave me a precedent and district-approved foundation for what I am doing.)
I score any individual assignment on a five-point scale in 0.5 point increments, so a student could get any of the following scores:
5, 4.5, 4, 3.5, 3, 2.5, 2, 1.5, 1, 0
The reason that there is no 0.5 is because no matter how poorly a student does, as soon as I receive a paper from a student, that student gets a 1. 0 is reserved only for getting nothing to “grade”. A student could get a quiz paper, write his or her name on it, leave everything else blank, turn it in, and still get a 1. As the head of the science department put it, “If we think of the scores as representing not points or percentages but “exceeding the standard”, “meeting the standard”, “approaching the standard”, “missing standard”, and “falling far below the standard”, then turning in a paper with only a name on it is far below the standard and receives a 1.”
For the final grade, I assign percentages (since that is what the grade book works with) as follows:
100% = 5 = A+
80.01 – 99.99% = 5 = A
60.01 – 80.00% = 4 = B
40.01 – 60.00% = 3 = C
20.01 – 40.00% = 2 = D
0.00 – 20.00% = 1 = F
Once again quoting the head of the science department: “Anything above a 4 is a 5. Anything above a 3 is a 4. And so on.”
If I wanted to reflect “depth of knowledge” or Costa’s “levels of inquiry”, I could have some assignments with a highest grade of 4 or even 3 because that is the level of knowledge required to answer all of the questions. That doesn’t throw off the system because in that case, 4 is still 100%. However, I have chosen not to do that and maintain the 5-point spread for every graded assignment. This is actually more accurate than a 100-point scale because with fewer than 100 questions, even minor errors that do not reflect actual knowledge (0r acquisition) can cause an error of as much as two letter grades. The 100-point scale only became popular with the widespread use of computers. It was designed for the convenience of programmers and has absolutely no pedagogical foundation. Prior to using computers, educators primarily used scales between 3 categories (probably the most widespread) and 9 categories.
I also weight my categories. Since my district requires me to have at least 60% of the grade be summative assessment and no more than 40% of the grade be formative, I have six categories that are factored into the grade:
Interpersonal Communication – 65% (divided 60/40)
Interpretive Communication – 30% (divided 60/40)
Presentational Communication – 5% (divided 60/40)
I also have a category called Classwork/Homework that is weighted at zero, so it does not go into the grade at all. However, I can use it to show parents when students are not doing anything in class, and I can justify a “work habits” grade, though I seldom have to. It is simply a back-up for those rare classes that have been so damaged by the system that they require outside “motivation”. That is not how I want to run a class, though.
People who have been in the PLC for a while know that I faced one of those classes several years ago. It was my infamous “fifth period class” and had an amazing collection of students who should never have been in the same class. I started with 35 students in the class. Before the start of the next year, 10 of them had been expelled or otherwise removed from the school for a variety of reasons. The next year, one of them was removed from the school because he suffered from severe behavior disorder. I remember sitting in an IEP meeting for him that lasted for over four hours and still didn’t finish the business. After that, the class was not salvageable. A couple of years ago, one of the members of that class posted a meme about spending x number of years in a foreign language class and not learning anything. While I chose not to respond to this, I wanted to remind him that I struggled with him every single day trying to get him to pay even minimal attention rather than forcing me to stop constantly because he and his football buddies (the class was nearly half football players who had failed Spanish and had to pass my class to meet their a-g requirements) wanted to talk, laugh and joke with one another. None of them truly wanted to acquire a foreign language; in fact, they were resistant to the idea (“Why can’t everyone else just speak English?”) and sat in the class only so they could meet the college entrance requirements. Had I had this class at the beginning of my career, I would have quit, but I had been teaching long enough to know that the class was an aberration and had no reflection on the quality of my instruction. It had a long-term impact on my program for a number of reasons, though.
My struggles with this class happened before I had a good handle on some of the things that we have come up with on the PLC and, in fact, provided an impetus for me to explore some of those things. I didn’t have jGR or any of its subsequent incarnations. I hadn’t yet discovered the value of student jobs. I was not yet using Standards-Based Assessment. With all of those things in place, I think my experience with that class would have been different for me; most of the students would still have been unsalvageable.
I hope that my reply helps – even the part about my struggle – and if you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to ask.
The football buddy types of kids Robert talks about are everywhere. We must be stronger than them when they all land in the same class. We don’t have to win them all over to stories, but we do have to win the battle over ourselves so that we can say what Robert says here after that 5th pd. class – and yes I do remember it Robert:
…had I had this class at the beginning of my career, I would have quit, but I had been teaching long enough to know that the class was an aberration and had no reflection on the quality of my instruction….
Robert you wrote, “Had I had this class at the beginning of my career, I would have quit, but I had been teaching long enough to know that the class was an aberration and had no reflection on the quality of my instruction. It had a long-term impact on my program for a number of reasons, though.”
This is EXACTLY the same thing that happened with me in my infamous eighth grade class last year. I was drafting an email to a parent (the same one who complained to the principal that I am not preparing kids for high school) this afternoon using some of your language that Ben posted here. I was thinking about how the failure of that eighth grade class to overcome their bad experience (grammar, tons of substitute teachers, no one to speak French with them) and their absolute refusal to listen to the language have led me to this place where there is so much resistance from the parents. They think somehow that that group – whom I inherited from the previous teacher – represents my ability to prepare kids for the high school. So there is also a long-term impact on my program, and my sanity, as I work to convince the doubtful community that in two years with a group of students who LISTEN and ENGAGE, I can prepare them for high school level two classes.
I still refuse to entertain the idea of changing my program to fit in with what they are doing at the high school – because it is NOT ALIGNED with ACTFL standards nor with reality of how human brains operate.
And, like you, if that class had been my only measurement of my success as a teacher, I would have run away from school screaming and never come back. Thank goodness I had already taught successfully for 12 years and had four other classes last year that went pretty darn well.
Tina your situation was mine my first year. I knew it was an aberration. 38 kids. Endless noise, phones, technology … the place was a detention center. Later I met with their hs teachers, the ones who are failing are failing those who wanted to learn have As now. Funny how the main french teacher was my old master teacher. I learned what not to do.
Yeah it was a “detention center” in that class. Well put. I was so frustrated. At least I know I could actually teach, or like I said, it would have ended my career. What a downer. And then the real downer is that their lack of engagement, their bad experiences before I even got there, even the fact that for seventeen years my predecessor sent kids to the high school who truly were NOT prepared, having done two years of crafts and games and worksheets and songs and such, that is the real downer, that the community has this low opinion of the SCHOOL’s ability to prepare kids, not just of ME but of all the language teachers. I found this out in that two hour meeting last Thursday from 4 to 6 PM (I pointed out as the sun went down, “Put this in my file under ‘Professionalism’ please…I am here for two hours past my contracted time!”)
I remember when the former principal interviewed me in May of 2015, seems like a lifetime ago now. He said, first thing, “We are looking to raise the level of French here.” I said, I remember it crystal clear, “If you are looking to raise the level, I am your gal.” It is true, and now I know that it is not just French needing the level raised. So, let’s get it ON people. I think that after that tumultuous week, I feel stronger and I see the path clearly, see the scope of work I need to accomplish. First, success in my classes. And document it, more than I need to, more than I am inclined to do, just to prove things to the community. (I will do that if it serves a larger purpose of helping future kids and kids in other classes, but I will NOT make it part of their grade and I will NOT make it high stress and I will NOT force speech!) Then, get the community excited (having Steve Krashen and Beniko Mason and the conference out here in June might help, sure hope so!) Then, the admin wants to get other teachers using CI and build a “brand” or “reputation.” OK, sounds like a game plan. The principal is a true middle school educator. She told me that bad practices at the high school WOULD NOT influence our practices at mid-level. THAT was when the weight lifted. She gets it. She will not let the shit roll downhill to our younger students. Whew.
Thanks for sharing out Tina. It is so valuable to our community on how situations like these are played out… we have to think strategically
Sorry to hijack, but I think this is related.
Who has a link or ??? to worksheet resources for level one?
*I have a group of resisters that I need to put on a diet of worksheets, and I do not want to do one lick of extra work.
Here are some essential criteria:
*It needs to have English explanations. I refuse to teach this stuff. They need to be able to do it on their own.
*Needs to have answer sheets already made. I refuse to “correct” any of it. I envision them doing x minutes of work and y minutes of correcting.
*Ideally has tests ready made. I refuse to make up tests.
*Probably obvious, but needs to be BORING!
??? any ideas ???
Throw them the book.
EX:
Read pags 20-28
Do Exercises 1a – 6a
You will be graded on this.
Hi, jen!
Are you asking for yourself?
I use Schaum’s Grammar book. 🙂