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It’s Saturday morning, a little over 2 weeks until the school year starts again for teachers at the New Frontiers School Board, where I work. My mind lately, as it usually does around this time of the summer, has been shifting from summer to practice, and this morning it opened up to assessment. Here’s the flow chart of how it hit this groove:
Mind Map made with Bubbl.us
And here is that comment I made over on Hugh O’Donnell’s post (which you better go over and read if you want any context):
That’s right, not radical at all. We do NOT need to give zeros and, I’m sorry, but the excuse that we’ve got so many initiatives thrown at us warrants the practice? (the practice = completely demoralizing children and doing nothing to help improve their learning) Come on. A zero as feedback gives me no hope.
I really began to learn the art of assessment about 5 years ago, when I met Ken O’Connor at a conference in Ottawa. And then I started to read everything I could about it, which I’m still in the middle of doing
So I guess I’m one of those teachers who read. And you know what I do when I am reading? I do it publicly - I carry the book around with me, I talk to others about what I am reading and about how, if at all, it is helping to change my practice.
So it DOESN’T need to be top down. If we sit around waiting for someone else to do something, well…wouldn’t it be lovely for there to be the perfect piece of grading policy to fall from above that all teachers would embrace and follow. (where’s the smiley guy for sarcasm?) Un-unh. I’m not waiting for policy to inform my practice. I prefer to focus on my practice and allow it to inform policy.
I googled Ken O’Connor and found this. An administrator’s notes from one of his sessions from last year. I particularly like the list at the end - repair kit for grading.
http://carnets.opossum.ca/roberto/2007/10/ken_oconnor_excellentevidemmen.htmlhe he - first comment of the weekend. Guess the coffee is kicking in
(and that’s the edited version…)
Assessment informs learning. I assess before, during, and after units of study so that my students and I know where they stand with the learning that is going on. If a student is NOT meeting the expectations for ANY reason - be it ability, interest, learning style, or socio/emotional issue - it us up to me to address it and assessment is data that shows me if how I am addressing it works. Evaluation is when I look critically at all of the data that I’ve culled from assessment, and reporting is how I share that with parents.
So…I don’t do zeros because of my professional ethics, which are closely tied to my core values:
- always hold on to hope for the future –> a zero in no way informs a learner of anything to do with potential for learning and change and can completely destroy any possible hope that was there.
- always teach with integrity –> giving a zero undermines my integrity as a teacher.
- always maintain the utmost respect for my students and their families –> a zero indicates to me that no communication has been made between me and my students/families about progress and how to fix things.
Very often a zero is tied to behaviour. It is a punishment for skipping class, not studying, acting jerky or disrespectful, whatever. When these things happen to me (and they do) I focus on why this is happening instead of trying to punish it. It makes more sense for me.
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Podcast Map, made with Labyrinth.
Podcast Links
- You Must Learn by KRS-One
- Jose Vilson’s blog
- Hugh O’Donnell’s blog post - Help Wanted: Teachers Who Read
- Roberto Gauvin’s blog post - Ken O’Connor excellent…évidemment !!! (conference notes in English)
Scroll back up to keep reading or stay here to look at the map and play with the links to anchor you while you listen.
—————————-
- Fun Forensic Science Assessments!
- Assessment Is the Key!! To Start Us Out Where We Need To Be!!
- Calculations in First Grade Coming Up a Little Short
My Tags accountability, assessment, Ken O'Connor, learning, Podcast, students, teaching
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9 Comments
Kia ora Tracy!
I affirm your opinion on this one, if for no other reason than I never got a zero at school.
I got 11% for Latin and 17% for French and took great delight in telling my kids about them (my daughter Hannah was a top scholar in Latin before she had to move on to expand her Art grouping - she thought it was a hoot).
One of the reasons why an exact mapping of learner achievement is not known, often not recognised or admitted, is that the particular assessment method applied fails the learner by simply not recording what was achieved along the learning pathways. Extreme examples of this are a test that returns a zero mark or an assessment criterion that reports a not achieved. This can be read as indicating that the learner has learnt nothing – a very unlikely scenario.
I frequently review any assessment that I return to my kids. Most that I assess have different tasks that are graded according to specific criteria. But they also all have mark out of 20 which most kids can better identify with as their achievement overall.
If I think that the learner has done exceptionally well but the knowledge criterion, or some other, pulls the overall mark down, I will apportion extra marks accordingly. When a learner returns the lowest grade in all or most parts (which may well equate with a zero mark overall) I choose one aspect of the assignment that they’ve done best in and then mark that out of 20. A learner rarely gets a mark below 12 using this system.
Kids thrive on positive feedback, however poorly they are doing in their assessments and their subsequent achievements usually indicate this too.
One thing I must explain. I’m a distance educator. There is no possibility that learners in my learning group will compare assessments to see who got what.
Ka kite
from Middle-earth
Ken Allans last blog post at http://newmiddle-earth.blogspot.com..Crystal Ball Gazing
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Enjoyed reading your blog. I’m a bit of a Mind Map fan. There are heaps on http://www.fuzz2buzz.com/en/mindexchange/browse-grid - have you seen them?
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Taking a stand against zeros seems like taking a stand against using whips against slaves. Why continue to use a scoring feedback system as your primary student motivation system at all? It discourages curiosity, promotes fear, and takes much of the joy out of achieving understanding. Want to see what motivates students to learn? Look to video game theory. Not the graphics or the stories, but the patterns of reward and achievement that they use to encourage continued play.
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@ Ken - yes, that is why I assess often. I want to keep my finger on the pulse of what is going on with my kids at all times. Positive feedback is important - and so is realistic and timely feedback. With your system, is each student working towards different objectives?
@ Janet - thanks so much for coming by! I’m a huge fan of mind maps as well. When I make them it helps me to understand whatever it is I am working on much more clearly. I do find that making my own maps has much more relevance for me that using maps others have made, though. Don’t you?
@ Rodney - thanks to you for coming by as well! I did not at all mean to imply that scoring was my primary motivation system, if I did than I must not have been as clear as I wanted to be. I expect my students to enjoy learning in my class. In order for me to hold that expectation I need to ensure that my students have opportunities to achieve success. In order for me to do that, I need to constantly assess their learning so that I know where they are in order to know how to get them where they need to be.
Regardless, marks are how we communicate progress with the rest of the school community. There are still many teachers (I know of a number) who hand out zeros. So, actually, I do agree with your statement that it is like taking a stand against using whips against slaves. It is one way of whipping a student. In fact, it is the best way to destroy a student’s self-esteem. And I won’t have any of it.
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Kia ora Tracy!
My students all have their own objectives. They vary a bit and there are some objectives that I also select for them - they rarely challenge my choices
Learning in a distance environment has one big advantage, and that is of pace. There is no reason to have distance learners in step other than to meet the needs of the teacher or provider. A sychronous learning environment rarely meets the needs of every learner.
I’m not shooting in flames the idea of sychronosity. It has its merits and its place. But every lesson, every day? Nah! I wouldn’t want to have it that way (that’s how I was taught by the way - most of us were).
If I could have my chance of an education again it would be asynchronous learning for me. How do I know it works for me? Simple. Been there, done that with synchronosity.
I learnt more as a post-graduate researcher (asynchronous learning) and as a teacher/researcher (asynchronous learning) than I’ve ever done in a synchronous environment. The recent 31 Day Challenge that I took part in was wonderfully asychronous. True we had a pacer in Michele Martin, but it was still synchronous. I chose to do the tasks the way I wanted to and in my own time. In that environment I believe I learnt at my best.
Nuff said?
Ka kite an?
from Middle-earth
Ken Allans last blog post at http://newmiddle-earth.blogspot.com..Crystal Ball Gazing
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Hi Ken,
My experience with distance education had its pros and cons. I loved being able to set my own learning routine - Sunday morning with coffee and croissants worked best for me - but after a year or so, I began to crave the personal contact with my professors and peers so I switched programs in order to attend a local school.
I think it is possible to create learning situations in classrooms that meet the needs of every learner (if done well, lessons could even be followed at a distance if needed). That is my ideal because it also satisfies my need to see and talk with others while I teach and learn. It is a lot of work on the teacher’s part - but so much more satisfying than one lesson for all!
My inspiration for this began about 6 years or so ago when Kathie Nunley came to our school to talk about brain-based learning and layered curriculum. More recently I had the wonderful opportunity to meet and spend the day with Carol Ann Tomlinson and a group of educators I was working with. Her work on differentiated instruction and aligning it with curricular goals (with Jay McTighe) is very much aligned with what we are talking about here.
I am very glad to have met you through this blog, Ken. I think we have Scott to thank for that.
Tracy
ps - and thanks for that link to The Bamboo Project Blog. It looks like a place I will like visiting.
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Kia ora Tracy!
I admire any teacher who can teach the way you describe in the classroom. As a secondary teacher with perhaps five or six classes per day I found it inordinately difficult to do this with more than one class in my group per day. I had a Mathematics fifth form class I tought across the subject - it worked, but it took all my spare time and I found I eventually neglected some aspects of mu other teaching - not good I’m afraid.
There are a number of factors that can determine the success of such programmes. The teacher, and the amount of energy the teacher is able to put into it is one. Another is the level and spread of abilities in the class groups. Yet another is the diversity of subjects that the teacher is expected to teach. Finally there is the amount of free time the teacher is given to prepare and also to recuperate.
I taught Maths, Science and a senior Science subject and this was diverse for me, giving me little time in a secondary school to do much else than cater for my students. This was fine when I was a teacher. As I got promoted, eventually to head of department, I found my teaching load did not change, making the rest of my job well near impossible.
Ka kite
from Middle-earth
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Tracy, your blog is a work of art. You’re doing the stuff I dream about, especially with this podcast! The quality is wonderful!
And you are so right with the idea that “zero” does not inform your assessment.
I’m sending this page to my superintendent and ass’t supe in charge of curriculum, instruction, and school operations.
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Hugh, thank you. I am honoured, really!
It is something I care very much about. In my latest post, I wrote about a boy in my Grade 10 math class who announced that he could not do math.
I’m discovering that he has a logical-mathematical mind, an innate common sense for solving math problems. Somehow he never learned the right formulas, the correct processes for solving for x and has failed math miserably for the past 4 years.
It breaks my heart that this boy has been convinced, through evaluation methods that did not work for him, that he can not do math.
There you go. A real-life example for why I don’t do zeros.
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