The resource I selected to share is an article called, “Is it becoming too hard to fail? Schools are shifting toward No-Zero grading policies,” from the Washington Post. It shares insight on schools eliminating the Zero form student’s failing scores. When I was searching for my resource to share, I did sort through many different perspectives on this policy.  It appears that there are concerns of grading being punitive, motivating and accurately representing student’s ability levels.  However; this article represents many of the views align with my personal values, the experience I have implementing this policy at my school and l O’Connor’s Eight Guidelines. This article expresses the importance of giving a student an opportunity to recover from a failing score.  “Proponents of the changes­ say the new grading systems are more fair and end up being more conducive to learning, encouraging students to catch up when they fall behind rather than just giving up,” (Moriah Balingit and Donna St. George, 2016)

 

 

This article meets the requirements of standards-based grading consistent with O’Connor’s (2007) Eight Guidelines for Grading because it emphasizes that penalizing a student with the score of a zero prevents them from ever catching up.  “Recording a zero on a 100-point scale for a student's lack of work on an assessment not only falsifies the report of what he or she knows, but also immediately generates despair: Only a mammoth pile of perfect 100s can overcome the deficit and result in a passing D grade. So why bother?,” (Conner, 2011). Our job as educators is to teach our scholars and help them reach mastery in different content areas.  We try to support struggling learners to grasp as much of the standard as possible and sometimes, a student will demonstrate limited mastery.  In this case, we should be mindful that a zero will follow them throughout the year, not just on this standard.  

Colleagues Will Benefit From It:

This article states many positive sides for implementing the No Zero policy.  It also shares a view from individuals that do not see the value of it.  “They say that artificially boosting student grades can mask failure and push students through who don’t know the material they need to know to actually succeed,” (Moriah Balingit and Donna St. George, 2016).  I think sharing both sides of the argument are important when change takes place.  Understanding this view allows educators to prepare a response to defend their choices around grading.  It also provides an opportunity for staff to communicate the positive results it brings for our students. 

Tools for Actively Engaging Students in Assessment Processes  by Harvey Silver

This is an article titled “Tools for Actively Engaging Students in Assessment Processes” by Harvey Silver. It is posted on the ASCD website. It talks about a shift in classroom assessment and gives a list of 5 different shifts. The article concentrates on the first shift which states it is a “Move from a teacher-directed assessment process to an assessment process in which students play an active role.” The article gives some steps in progressing from the teacher-directed to having the students involved in the process. I chose this article because when I read O”Connor’s 8^th Guideline about involving the students in the process, I was unsure how this would look in the classroom. The article talks about backward learning and how the teacher needs to have the students in mind. Silver (2013) states that “Students clarify the task, identify goals, and develop a plan of action in their own words by responding to these prompts (typically within an organizer):

·         Assessment Task: At the end of this lesson or unit, what will I be asked to do or create?

·         Knowing Goals: What will I need to know and understand?

·         Doing Goals: What will I need to be able to do?

·         Action Plan: What is my plan for completing this task successfully? What steps will I take?

This makes the students active participants in their learning and assessments.

This article explains O’Connor’s 8^th Guideline which states “Discuss and Involve Students in Assessment Throughout the Teaching and Learning Process” (O’Connor, 2007). Silver (2013) states that “By using the Backwards Learning tool, teachers are doing much more than previewing the final task—they're actively engaging students in the assessment process and encouraging students to take responsibility for their own learning.”  Through the use of Backward Learning the students will learn to understand how the learning goals are closely related to their mastery of the content. They will also develop the skill of looking at the assigned tasks and set their own goals to complete it.

 I think that all teacher could benefit from this article because it gives us steps to use Backward Learning so that the student have a stake in their own learning. This gives the students ownership in their own learning path and creates greater retention of the concepts. The article also uses a book called Tools for Thoughtful Assessment as a source. This book was designed with the help and insight of hundreds of teachers who shared their own challenges. 

 

http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2016/02/22/putting-standards-based-grading-into-action.html

 

The article I chose to share is called, “Putting Standards-Based Grading into Action,” by Stephanie Pinkin from www.edweek.org.  The author explains how standards-based grading (SBG as she abbreviates it) is ultimately a much more difficult and time-consuming method of grading for the teacher, but is far more accurate and fair for the student, and is therefore, a very necessary change in education.  She discusses how SBG allows her to more individually assess each student’s progress toward particular learning standards.  Because student progress is ever-changing, it is more accurately reflected through this grading method than by averaging a series of assignment and test scores.  Not only is the grading more flexible in representing what the student actually knows, it is also more current and prevents isolated scores to be set in stone making it difficult for students to make up the difference.  

 

This article meets O’Conner’s Eight Guidelines for Grading as it reiterates the idea of “grading in pencil” to allow grades to be changed and updated easily, to eliminate giving students a “zero,” to accept late work and allow resubmissions, and to measure student progress specifically toward intended learning outcomes.  In making these changes, the author has seen a shift in her conversations with both students and parents regarding grades.  They have instead focused more on the actual skills and concepts that still need to be mastered rather than trying to complete trivial tasks to increase their percentage in the class. 

 

Colleagues will benefit from this article as it gives a realistic perspective on standards-based grading.  The author is honest about the fact that this method is more complicated for the teacher, but worth every bit for the student, which is what matters.  She admits that before this change, “The numbers were simple, and a cumulative average was easy to calculate,” but “we have gone long enough assigning subjective and arbitrary numbers to student performance, and it is time that our communication of student progress reflects student learning, and student learning only” (Pinkin, 2016).  

 

The resource I provided is a list of digital formative assessment tools that teachers can use in the classroom to formatively assess their students in a timely manner, giving teachers a better and more accurate picture of what the students know and what they are ready to learn on any given day. 

The guideline of O’Connor’s that the resource addresses is that grades should be “supportive of learning.” O’Connor argues that in order for grades to be supportive of learning, they must be informative. In his article, Reporting Student Learning, O’Connor states, “Most formative assessments provide descriptive feedback to students, followed by opportunities to revise in light of that feedback and be assessed and accredited anew” (2011). In order to address this guideline, formative assessment needs to be occurring continuously in the classroom. The difficulty, therefore, is the time-consuming nature of formative assessment. The resource I provided addresses this concern by introducing digital tools that can cut down on the time it takes to get a “snapshot” of student learning on a daily basis. 

How Will Colleagues Benefit From the Resource:
Many school districts are moving toward a 1:1 technology model. As beneficial as this can be, it can also be overwhelming to teachers to sort through all of the digital tools that are out there and find ones that will work for them. The resource that I provided makes that task easier by providing a list of 15 digital formative assessment tools that have already been tested and approved by teachers. Once a tool or two from this list is chosen by a teacher, formative assessment can become much more efficient and less time consuming, benefiting both teachers and students in the grading process. 

This website goes over self-assessment as well as peer assessment.  It asks you to look at the benefits of both as well as some of the challenges you might face in implementing this in your classroom.  As you move through the website, it provides a nice pie chart that helps teachers to set up self-assessment, while making sure that we know that the importance of self-assessment is two-fold: assesses the end product or outcomes of learning, but also the process of learning (how students are approaching it, strategies, strengths, improvement, etc.)  I also like that it states that self-assessment skills will help our students in their professional careers by teaching them to regulate their own performance.  There are also examples of self-assessment activities.

This addresses Guideline 8: Discuss and Involve Students in Assessment Throughout the Teaching and Learning Process from O’Connor’s (2007) Eight Guidelines for Grading because it goes over the importance of student’s involvement in the assessment process through communicating their achievement and progress.  It helps to provide the teacher with resources so that they can begin student assessment in their class and help their students learn this process so they can be successful.

This website gives examples of self-assessment activities that can be incorporated into the classroom both for assessing the process of learning, or the metacognitive strategy and assessing the product of learning, such as assessing sample work, self-rating, etc.  It also has resources for peer assessment that engages students and provides them with the opportunity to not only give feedback, but also receive it in order to reflect on their own work.  It gives examples of this for teachers as well breaking it up into for competencies-cognitive, meta-cognitive, social, and affective.  They also make sure to state that these are things that are valued by employers and help prepare students for the future.

Description: 
In this video by Rick Wormeli, titled: Redos, Retakes, and Do-Overs, Mr. Wormeli explains why teachers  should allow students to complete work more than once till students show understanding.  He does also explain that this should be done as time and resources allow, making it clear that there are limitations.  However, as educators, we should be invested in our students being successful.   

Guideline:  
This connects to guideline 5: Keep records that can be updated easily 

This video explains why students should be given multiple opportunities to show what they know and can do.  It explains why a good educator would allow students to  retake tests.  

 

Many teachers believe that it is not fair to give students a retest since it may mean students do not get consequences from not applying themselves the first time.  Wormeli goes into explaining why some teachers think this way and then gives reasons why this way of thinking is not what is best for students.  This is a great resources to convince teachers of the importance of do-overs.       

Jump Rope is a standards-based grade book which organizes grades based on the mastery of standards. This is a great resource to incorporate all O'Connor's guidelines into the classroom, especially Guideline 2. It provides resources on how to incorporate the grading system into classrooms. Teachers can use Common Core standards or write their own standards. One of the major issues of transitioning to a standards-based grading system is it is hard to do it as an individual teacher because our grade book system is dependent on the school district. The Jump Rope grade book is accessible to individual teachers for free so it creates an easier way to start using standards-based grading. The grade book will benefit teachers greatly as standards based grading can seem overwhelming and time consuming.

Another feature of the Jump Rope grade book is that it provides customizable reports on growth and mastery based on the chosen standards for the class. Jump Rope not only gives parents access, it allows reports to be emailed directly to parents. This is a way to create more communication with parents on how their child is doing in the classroom.