Wow, that is very helpful, Tom. I love that your department is working in this direction as a whole. Thanks for confirming that 'grading' a proficiency is not ideal. I love the idea of grading rather for skills we are seeing and that we want to see. That I can do - and isn't it all about what they CAN do?? (smile) As for the percentage for participation, that is my old breakdown. I plan to keep that breakdown for this trimester, since most of our work was done in that paradigm AND because we have only about 6 classes left til the trimester is over. Once we hit trimester two, however, I want the whole thing in OWL. I agree that participation is huge. Still unsure about quiz/test evaluation, but not as foggy as yesterday! Heartfelt thanks to all!!! Cathy Bird Middle School French Colorado Academy 303-986-1501, x.2622 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Thomas Hinkle" <thinkle@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: ola@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Wednesday, November 6, 2013 7:07:21 AM Subject: [ola] Re: Grading questions My recollection was that Arnold was pretty opposed to mapping proficiencies directly to grades. The thing that jumps out to me about your grading currently is the 10% class participation grade -- I would think that should be a much bigger part of the grade in an OLA classroom. Their learning is predicated on their participating in the environment; if they don't do that, there is very little they can learn, so the grade should be weighted accordingly. As far as grading proficiency, it is complicated to map to letter grades. We've been spending a lot of department meeting time discussing this and where we've come out in recent department meetings is to say that what we need to identify and target are the behaviors we want to see in a rehearsed or practiced task, behaviors that are appropriate to students learning and that will push students towards the next level. It is not trivial to map from the performance guidelines directly to these behaviors, though. For example, we want NH/IL students pushing themselves toward intermediate behaviors, so our rubric identifies as "A" lots of things that are intermediate behaviors, with the idea that in a particular, intentional assessment, kids can and should do these things in order to stretch toward the next level. Under "C" we've identified things that largely represent backsliding for kids into novice behaviors (constant listing, etc) -- the behaviors we expect kids to be able to handle and that we want to push them beyond. Here's our work so far to create rubrics on this basis: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1angdptJCy1AO7sGkt-GqWeU7jPphIrb0TabmzCKN9DI/edit?usp=sharing The thing is, a grading rubric is not the same thing as a proficiency standard which is not the same thing even as a performance standard. In a (relatively) traditional school, we use grades and rubrics to tell students how far they are along toward mastery, what they need to do to make progress toward a skill, and what they should do on a specific task -- all of these purposes are different, and the conflation of them makes for complicated work. Tom On Wed, Nov 6, 2013 at 4:55 AM, Ashley Uyaguari <auyaguari@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > No. Not dense at all. It's so new. We will elaborate. I'll do a search for > old list serve emails for you. I believe Arnold has written about this. > > Nanosh, is there a way for Cathy and others to go to old emails before they > joined? > > I recommend a mopi training for helping with this too. Especially with > Arnold because he relates it back to classroom application. > > > On Tuesday, November 5, 2013, Cathy Bird wrote: >> >> What does that mean? I am sorry if I appear dense here, but how do I >> evaluate and give a letter grade/percentage for writing? or oral? Do you >> give NM an A and NH a B? I had planned to evaluate students on their >> progress from one level to another, but that isn't something I can evaluate >> yet...only one month in. >> >> And what are your tests? Open ended writing? What about quizzes? I know >> what to do in traditional, but need more explicit ways of equating a grade >> for the work done in class. >> >> Cathy Bird, via iPad >> >> On Nov 5, 2013, at 5:41 PM, Caleb Zilmer <caleb_zilmer@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: >> >> I don't know about anyone else, but I have gone almost entirely >> proficiency/performance. 90% of the grade (50% tests, 20% final and 10% >> quizzes) is based on what they can do other the language. >> >> That's an important note, actually: it's about what they CAN do, not what >> they can't do. I have stopped nitpicking discrete points if grammar, etc. >> Can they communicate a message at approximately NM, NH, IL? Good enough! It >> makes the grading go much quicker and easier, and more students succeed, too >> :) >> >> Enviado desde el iPhone de Caleb Zilmer >> >> El 05/11/2013, a las 17:28, "Cathy Bird" <cathy.bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> >> escribió: >> >> Hello, OWLers. I need some help. I am in my first month of OWL in my >> French 1 class and it is time to get some grades in the book. I have a >> number of grades from the first month of traditional, but nothing really >> from the past month of OWL. Originally I imagined giving grades on HW, class >> skills (ie: OWL goals), writing and speaking, but it is as clear as mud >> right now. >> >> >> >> My standard break-down for grades is 20% Homework; 25% Quizzes; 25% >> Tests/Projects; 10% Participation; 10% Preparedness; 10% Citizenship. I feel >> good with HW, participation, preparation, and citizenship… but tests? >> Quizzes? >> >> Here is what I have… >> >> >> >> 1. During English week, I said that students would earn 10 points >> per day – 6 pts for speaking in L2 and 4 pts for homework being done. I did >> not assign a lot of homework, but I did note who had done it or not, so I >> have a homework grade for them. >> >> 2. I evaluated their alignment with OWL goals and gave them >> feedback, asked them to argue with me if they felt I was off base, but I >> feel a little uncomfortable grading that document. Is ‘meets’ an A, >> ‘approaching’ a B, and ‘just beginning’ a C? >> >> 3. I gave them a pre-assessment writing activity that I could grade >> as a quiz/test. It was a homework, rather than an in-class assessment. >> >> >> >> Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Merci >> >> >> >> Cathy Bird >> Middle School French >> Colorado Academy >> 303-986-1501, x.2622 > > > > -- > Ashley Uyaguari > > Spanish Teacher 6/7/8 > Team Curriculum Coordinator > Innovation Academy Charter School > Tyngsboro, MA 01879 > 978-649-0432 x3301 > > This email may contain confidential or privileged information. If you are > not the intended recipient, please advise by return e-mail and delete > immediately without reading or forwarding to others. > -- Thomas Hinkle English & Spanish Department Coordinator Innovation Academy Charter School