Your Name Grading and Reporting on Student Learning What is it? A system of assessing and reporting that describes student progress in relation to standards. When a student demonstrates mastery of a standard, he/she can begin on the next level of standards for that subject. The focus is LEARNING!

What’s CC all about? Common Core State Standards provide teachers an opportunity and a challenge: to help students UNDERSTAND what they are learning and APPLY and TRANSFER what they learn…. That equals DEEP LEARNING. It means ALL learners have to learn to think in complex and creative ways.

Step 1: Teach Up growth Teaching Up TEACHING UP is rooted in Carol Dweck’s “Growth mindset” and how a person’s willingness to work hard encourages and informs hard work. Teachers with growth mindsets believe the brain is malleable and can become smarter. Teaching Up means planning instruction for the broadest range of learners. It includes aiming high and building scaffolding to help all kids reach the top. Teachers think of the most thought-provoking, interesting lessons to ensure kids want to invest energy in a complex question, issue, and/or master skills for success with critical content!

Step 2 – Learning Targets The key to challenging CC curriculum is understanding the role of standards in curriculum and what it means to use them to engage student thinking and promote understanding. Standards are IMPORTANT in designing curriculum, but they are NOT the curriculum! To decide which standards are most important, determine what a student should know, understand, and be able to do as a result of a segment of learning. Be thoughtful in selecting standards that will contribute most to student understanding of critical content. These become our learning targets or essential skills!

Step 3: Designing Lessons To create lessons that are responsive, we reflect on our learners. We use three questions to guide the process: 1.How can I deliver learning targets for my students so they engage, make sense of, and use what they learn? 2.In what order will it make most sense for students to encounter, practice, and apply what they are learning? 3.How long is it reasonable to spend on each segment of teaching/learning, knowing there must be flexibility? So….Determine which Standards to cover? What to know What to understand What to do

Step 4: Assessing Formatively Assessment FOR learning – to monitor development of student knowledge, understanding, and skill. Formative Assessments - * sample student learning rather than assess thoroughly * are short * rarely graded * Give great teacher feedback * Give opportunity for kids to analyze results using clear guidelines, rubrics * Lead to instructional adjustment

Step5: Refining Instruction “What approach to tomorrow’s lesson will help me best serve each student?” When we refine instruction we ask ourselves, “What approach to tomorrow’s lesson will help me best serve each student?” The answer is a three-part process: targets 1.Recall targets of the assessment – if we don’t have clarity on what we are measuring we can’t instructionally get useful information from formative assessment responses. patterns 2. Determine patterns in student responses. This is where you can cluster students based on what they know or don’t know. cluster students for practice 3. Decide what comes next – again, find patterns in student responses and cluster students for practice targeted at their next steps in learning.

Step 6: Scaffolding and Extending Challenge Effective challenge for students stretch them beyond the comfort zone and requires teacher support, peer support, and/or both.

Step 7: Assessing Summatively OF Assessment OF learning: after  Summative assessment comes after kids have had appropriate time to both encounter and make sense of new knowledge, understanding, and skill. ARE  They ARE usually graded.

Step 8 Leading and Managing for Success with Challenge Managing routines includes: knowing how to start and stop a class smoothly knowing how to start and stop a class smoothly when and how to move around the room to complete tasks effectively when and how to move around the room to complete tasks effectively how to tune in assignments, get help, etc. how to tune in assignments, get help, etc.

Why Change Practices? Douglas Reeves states, “If you want to make just one change that would immediately reduce student failure rates, the most effective place to start would be challenging prevailing grading practices.” Grades SHOULD provide accurate, specific, and timely feedback designed to improve student performance.

Change often happens TO us. Think about Technology… It evolves to address a need for improvement. Why can’t we have the same philosophy about change in education?

Small Group Discussions on Chapter 1 from GRADING SMARTER NOT HARDER GRADING SMARTER NOT HARDER by Myron Dueck Chapter 1: Grading: How does Behavior-Based Grading Contribute to Statistical Sabotage? What are common grading practices at your school? How does Behavior-Based Grading Contribute to Statistical Sabotage? What are common grading practices at your school? What are some possible solutions for addressing incomplete work? What are some possible solutions for addressing incomplete work? What is wrong with using zeroes? What is wrong with using zeroes? What could be a solution for late work? What could be a solution for late work?

Three commonly used grading policies Use of zeroes for missing work Use of zeroes for missing work Using the average of all scores Using the average of all scores The single project, test, lab, etc., that will make or break the students. The single project, test, lab, etc., that will make or break the students.

How SHOULD Grades be Determined? 1.Examine student performance on assignments and assessments 2.Give more weight to recent information in the unit or quarter 3.If necessary, discuss content with student to shed light on his/her progress 4. Eliminate the use of zeroes.

NEXT MONTH….. Chapter 2: Homework “Why do you keep asking for my homework? I never have it done and I don’t think I ever will!” Between now and then… Have a conversation with your staff about current beliefs and practices with grading.

Learning Goals/Targets and Success Criteria 15 minutes Questions to think about while watching the video:  How does the teacher involve her students in establishing the learning and success criteria?  What observations does the teacher make during the discussions?  How does the teacher help kids assess their own learning? To help students truly understand and OWN the goal, it is very helpful to have students help create the SUCCESS CRITERIA, which helps describe how students will know when they have MET the learning goals! The video shows a formative assessment lesson on effective collaborative discussions. She wanted her students to understand the success criteria of 1. Asking each other questions, and 2. Adding on to what other students said. Learning goals and success criteria truly shift ownership of learning.