Is Your Rubric Hitting the Mark?

In recent years learning objectives have also been coined learning targets (LTs). One can easily Google image search LTs and find everything from student target evaluations to pedagogical taxonomy targets. All of these targets are unique ways in which teachers can unwrap instruction so that students can clearly see their levels of performance in relation to the LTs.

In a recent #sunchat discussion about rubrics I had an idea to turn the traditional box rubric into a circle.  After multiple attempts to create the perfect rubric I realized I was missing the mark.

Even the best of teachers can get caught up in the creative components of a project which ultimately leads students astray from the intended learning target.  In short, a rubric should not be about teachers creating the ultimate project for students to attempt. More so, a rubric should be about students creating the ultimate project to show off what they know and can do. Therefore, this post is not a "how to" for creating rubrics, but more so an evaluation process to ensure your rubrics are hitting the mark.

The draw back to traditional grading rubrics is the assumption that all students have received the same instruction. Therefore, all students should be equipped with equal understanding when beginning a project. Thanks to Rick Wormeli we know that teaching and learning in a one size fits all model results in many students missing the mark.

We must keep this in mind when creating grading rubrics in order to effectively measure what all students know and are able to do.  While the point of a project is for all students to demonstrate understanding of the same learning target(s); we must take care in how we ask students to perform.

Here is a performance learning target I made (you can use mine or make your own) using action verbs from both the Depth of Knowledge and Taxonomy charts. Notice that all verbs represented are focused on what students can do not what they are not capable of doing.

Traditional rubrics are designed in boxes and are typically made for students ready to perform at higher levels of understanding.  I simply placed a box over the learning target above to capture the higher level performance zones.  Let's take a closer look at the levels of readiness we capture when using traditional rubrics.

The key complaint I have with traditional rubrics is that they are set up to show you (the teacher) what you already know....students capable of higher level activities will perform within the box and students that are still on the outer edges of the performance learning target will rarely hit the mark.

Traditional rubrics actually include a category emphasizing what students do not know and cannot do.  There are even learning targets out there that include space for students that "lack understanding". Why do we do this? Why do we include space on any rubric or any learning target emphasizing what students don't know?

If I have my fingers on the pulse of student learning, I can tell you before even beginning the project which students will hit the mark in the box and which students will not.  Letting the out of the box students proceed with any project without adequate support sets them up for failure.

Saul Mcleod (2010) wrote the following in his article Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD):

"Vgostsky believed that when a student is at the ZPD for a particular task, providing the appropriate assistance will give the student enough of a 'boost' to achieve the task."

In order to change the face of traditional rubrics, teachers must assess the purpose of the project.  I believe all projects should be two-fold:  1) for students to successfully reach beyond what they thought themselves capable and 2) for students to show off what they know and are able to do.

This means, gone are the days of assigning a student project so that you can get caught up on grading, organizing or whatever other task that takes you away from supporting student learning.  During any project it is your job to give students a "boost."  It is imperative to take into account student levels of readiness and provide the tools and appropriate support for students to hit the mark.  There is no down time for teachers that are dedicated to student growth.

Clearly you are a teacher dedicated to student growth or you would not be reading an educational blog post!  Therefore, I'm certain you already have fabulous projects in place for your learning targets. All I want to do is offer you suggestions as to how and bring the learning target within reach of all students. Here are a few ideas for defining learning targets and fine tuning your current grading rubrics:

• Select verbs from the Depth of Knowledge and/or Taxonomy Wheel to clearly define (in student friendly language) what students should be able to know and do for each level within the box.
• Use performance learning targets (such as figure 1) for students to place marks as to where they think they are in terms of hitting the mark.  Student self-evaluation, student voice and student teacher conversations are essential for student growth.
• Students that are out of the box (on the outer edges of the learning target) will benefit from scaffolded practice and support such as:
• learning workshops while other students proceed with the project
• one on one support
• flipped videos emphasizing rules, procedures and/or skill sets with in class practice and teacher support
• Once students are on the edge of or within the boxed target zones students should mark the place on the target they are aiming for
• they should challenge themselves to aim closer to center than where they currently are, but not so far out that it becomes impossible to hit the mark
• Students within or on the edge of the boxed target zones can now proceed with the project in mixed ability groups in order to provide peer support

When we disregard levels of readiness, we are asking all students to aim at the learning target from the same distance. Rick Wormeli emphasizes that fair is not always equal. This means we must meet each student at his/her level of readiness by moving the learning target within reach of each student. Moving the target will allow students to either reach proficiency and/or aim for the bullseye by pushing themselves above and beyond.

So go ahead and keep creating rubrics within a box....just make certain all students have the appropriate tools, aiming distance and support in order to hit the mark.

McLeod, Saul (2010) Zone of Proximal Development. Simply Psychology. 
           Retrieved from  http://www.simplypsychology.org/Zone-of-Proximal-Development.html

How Transparent Are Your Grading Practices?

In March 2013 I wrote a post (click HERE) discussing the tidal wave of educational changes specific to grading practices.  On Twitter these days there seems to be a battle ensuing between those in favor versus those against Standards Based Grading.  If you want some heated reading simple follow convos between folks from #sbgchat and @stopsbg.  All of this talk made me reread my post on grading in the gray.  Both sides have valid points.  I'm going to kick start things with StopSBG's top reasons to put an end to SBG practices (their site stopsbg.com) 

• There is no solid data available showing it is successful

• With no clear mathematical way to convert a 1 to 4 grading scale into 0 to 100, GPA’s could be adversely affected

• Colleges don’t widely recognize SBG, so may not understand the letter grade on a transcript is not based upon traditional grading.

• Homework is not graded and extra credit not allowed, which takes away additional ways for students to demonstrate knowledge and mastery.

• Because only testing and assessments are graded, behaviors such as work habits, attendance, time management, and accountability for late or missing assignments no longer matter.

Two years ago I attended the Marzano Consortium offered in my school district.  So, I dove head first into the SBG swimming pool.  I almost drowned in that pool trying to align SBG with traditional high school grade books so I can see why teachers get frustrated with the SBG process.  I absolutely agree, there is no "clear mathematical way to convert a 1 to 4 grading scale" to percents.  However, here comes my first disagreement with StopSBG:

• I disagree with the argument above that states "GPAs could be adversely affected" and the implication that colleges won't understand what the GPA means. In truth, no one knows what one teacher's letter grades mean over any other teacher's letter grades.  What is an A in one class could be composed of mostly homework while in another class an A could be composed of entirely summative assessments. Talk about gray, which A has more rigor? The A that focused on homework or the A that focused on tests? Seriously, I have no idea.  Maybe the homework was more rigorous than the other teacher's tests or visa versa.  In truth, there is little validity in GPAs when there is such a vast difference in grading practices.

The next two StopSBG arguments are interesting, yet again I find these statements land in the gray.  Here comes my next disagreement:

• Let's define "graded".  Do we mean a numerical value is put in the grade book to negatively or positively impact a student's grade? Or do we mean descriptive feedback is given in order to improve understanding of content? Or even possibly both? All of these are effective ways to assess understanding so I am left unclear as to the statement claiming students cannot "demonstrate knowledge and mastery".  Rick Wormeli does a fantastic job describing the purpose and value (yes, even numerical value) of homework in his video series "How much should homework count?"

• Let's define "extra credit".  Does this mean the student has mastered every practice and assessment and now wants to go above and beyond? Or does this mean the student needs a few more points to raise his/her grade?  Whatever "extra credit" is, I'm hoping it aligns to standards in order to increase student understanding.  If that's the case, is it really "extra"? 

Now comes the last StopSBG argument that "work habits, attendance, time management, and accountability for late or missing assignments no longer matter." Again, this is very vague....very gray...

• Let's define "no longer matter".  I do not know of any school (especially public) that does not value attendance, after all attendance equals money.  Next, my school is a melting pot of grading practices and I do not know of one teacher that dismisses work habits, time management or student accountability.  While all of us may grade in different ways I can say with confidence that all of us care about these life skills.  The difference comes in how we choose to teach these life skills.  For some it means grades are negatively or positively impacted, for others it means a reporting out of these skills without it directly impacting grades.  Even for the later of these two, work habits and skills will no doubt affect student understanding thus ultimately impacting grades.

When I released many traditional grading practices my grading pendulum swung to SBG.  However, over the last two years the pendulum has come to rest in the center.  The truth is there are just too many variables for me to see grading as black or white.  I can't whole heartedly say that I am true SBG because I do not use 4321.  I believe our levels of understanding run a wider spectrum than 4 numbers or even 5 letter grades can offer. Instead, I have chose to blend the grading worlds in order to become more transparent in my grading practices. Merriam-Webster (2014) offers these definitions for the word "transparent":

• free from pretense or deceit 

• easily detected or seen through

• readily understood

• characterized by visibility or accessibility of information especially concerning business practices

With those definitions in mind ask yourself these questions:

1. Are your grades free from deceit?  
2. Are they easily seen through and readily understood?  
3. Are your grading practices visible and accessible to all stakeholders?  
4. Most importantly do your grading practices reflect what students know and can do in direct alignment to learning objectives?  

Here is a look at my Transparent Grading Practices:

• Purposely scaffold learning objectives to guide instruction and grading.

• Make known to students and parents what they must know and be able to do for each grade entered in the grade book (my grading practices are posted for all to see click HERE).  

• Practice and formative assessments are vital to student understanding and are entered in the grade book. However, they do not negatively impact student grades especially once mastery of those objective are achieved.
• If we want to successfully prepare our students for college we must teach them now that practice is what makes perfect. However, it is the test that will be the ultimate reflection of what they know and can do.

My general rule of thumb is this...am I fostering point chasers or knowledge seekers? I have never been lead wrong when landing on the later of these two...be it extending time for students that learn in different time frames or different ways to speaking with students about work ethic and accountability it all comes down to...are we creating a generation of life long learners or are we creating a generation of point talliers that will cry out "but I did the work and I jumped your hoops so I should get the credit!"

I most definitely do not have all of the answers.  StopSBG states there is no evidence citing it is successful.  Honestly, we can all dig up some kind of evidence in order to support whatever claim it is we want others to believe in.  Again, this argument is not very clear.  I think that for any one hoping to discover the ultimate grading formula they might have more luck discovering the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  I urge all educators, regardless of grading systems, to spend more time making each of our grading practices as clear as each color of the rainbow. Perhaps then we can clearly see what each student is capable of in regards to learning objectives and life skills so that we can better meet their needs.

transparent. 2014. In Merriam-Webster.com.

       Retrieved January 3, 2014, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transparent

Life Lessons about Extra Credit & Giving Points

Why I said "no" to giving a percent in order to bump a grade and what I did instead....

"The Middle" airs on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EST on ABC.

ABC's The Middle, Season 5, Episode 6 hits the nail on the head depicting college freshmen struggles with trying to pass classes.  As we know the struggles really begin well before college.  All too often we see high school students at the end of the semester wanting extra credit or hoping to turn in just a few more assignments to raise their grades.  It is how we, as educators, choose to respond to students in these circumstances that will define how they will handle similar situations as adults.

If you follow me on Twitter (@differNtiated4u) or read any of my posts....by now you know that I am on a mission to transform point chasers to knowledge seekers.  Therefore, I do not allow extra credit or busy work for students to raise their grades.  I don't allow this because I do not believe this is an accurate reflection of student understanding.  At the same time, we must keep in mind that we teach children; children who, in the words of Axl, will one day become "unsupervised" adults.  For high school students, we are reminded daily that although their bodies are bigger, they still have some growing to do.  Therefore, it is imperative educators provide gradual release of responsibilities and repeated opportunities for growth.  

Yes, you read that right, I said "repeated opportunities."  How easily we forget that the prefrontal lobes of the brain (where rationale decision making and emotions occur) do not fully develop until one reaches their 20's. Gargi Taluker wrote an article for Posit Science's website Brain Connections titled "Decision-making is a still a Work in Progress for Teenagers" (2013).  The article points out that "teenagers need guidance...in order to make rationale decisions" and we "can help this process along through open communication and clear boundaries." 

In a previous post of mine (click HERE), I mentioned a student that wanted me to "give" him a percent in order to raise his grade to a B for the semester.  I admit it took me a number of days to run the gamete of emotions I felt in regards to this student wanting his grade changed.  Those emotions ranged from "no way you had your chances" to "but what if he's ready now."  

That later of those two thoughts kept running through my head..."what if he's now ready?"  I got to thinking, if we know that students learn content in different time frames and in different ways, then it should also hold true that life lessons are learned in different time frames and in different ways.  I thought perhaps this could be this particular student's time to not only learn the content but to learn a life lesson as well.  I just had to find a way to do both.

After communicating with his parents, we decided to reassess his proficient understanding of the summative final.  Now, you may be thinking, "Whoa, wait a minute? Aren't you just enabling this kid?"  Had I offered extra credit or simply given him the percent, then yes I would have enabled him, but I did neither of those.  

Instead here is what I did....Since we are on winter break and grades are due upon our return I did some out of the box thinking as to how I could reassess understanding...I landed on Google Hangouts (GHO).  In addition to scheduling the GHO, the student had access to practice documents in Google drive.  He was able to complete the practice and shared it with me so that I could give feedback using the Google Docs comment feature.  

For your viewing, I captured the process from start to finish using Google Hangouts, Screencast-O-matic & YouTube video editor.  Here it is! 

Now, I am not a (GHO) expert by any means.  I am certain there are more tech savvy educators out there that have thought of more creative uses.  No doubt I could have enabled screen sharing for him to complete it on the computer and/or utilized Google doc sharing but I figured the more tech I added then the more directions I had to give thus detracting from the point of the GHO.

And what was the point again? Ah yes...for the student to demonstrate increased understanding of the content.  This student can proudly say that he did.  He also now knows that it is only through increasing his understanding that he can raise his grade.  All too often people go through life thinking, "yah, but I did the work so I should get the credit." We must teach our students that it is the quality of their work and the depth of understanding it that will propel them to greatness.  

As the scene below points out, some day our students will no longer be ours.  They will be students of others, be it in the same building or when they move on to college.  Some may directly enter the work force or join the military.  What ever path it is they take, before they leave us, we must ask ourselves if we provided every learning opportunity possible for them to grow as learners and as individuals.

"The Middle" airs on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EST on ABC.

Unveiling the Half Truths of Standards Based Grading

I'm always perplexed by the nay-sayers of Standards Based Grading. Common outcries against SBG are:

• SBG does not teach or account for responsibility
• SBG does not value participation, practice or effort
• SBG fosters laziness in knowing that redos and retakes are always an option 

While there is a sliver of truth for each of the statements above, they are only half truths at best. When grading is based solely on student understanding of standards then we can unveil the half truths above for the whole truth.

SBG is not about point chasing, it is about knowledge seeking.  When we stop to assess student understanding of content based on clearly defined standards and levels of understanding for those standards then we release points as the driving force for instruction and student learning.  In a traditional classroom points for participation, practice and effort muddy the waters of what students truly know and are able to do with the content.  In an SBG classroom there is no room for mudding the waters of understanding.  That being said participation, practice and effort are highly valued (possibly even more so than in a traditional classroom) as they directly impact student understanding.

Now, does SBG eliminate student point chasing?  No, and really we can't blame them as our educational system has trained them for years using a point chasing mentality.  By the time students reach me in high school most are used to playing the numbers game.  They have become a custom to picking and choosing what they complete for points in order to produce a desired class grade.

So here I am at the end of the semester and low and behold there is a student email in my inbox.  The interchange between this student and myself unveils the half truths of Standards Based Grading. 

Here is how the first email reads...

"Hey mrs stephens, I took the Semester 1 final today and it took my grade down to a C since im so close to a B i wondered if you could round up by any chance. I studied for at least an hour last night and i think i deserve a B." 

My response to the student...

Student's final response...

"okay, i wasn't worried about all of the facts like that. i just figured since you graded the written part by hand you could give me an extra point or so..... I will try to do better next semester, can you seat me away from....so i can get more work done? "

As this student points out, SBG is solely about the facts (for a follow up on this student Click HERE).  While he is still seeking some point chasing, his mind set is on the right track to knowledge seeking as he states he will try harder next semester. He further seeks to have control over his learning environment by requesting to sit elsewhere so that he can focus better. Funny, I don't have assigned seats.  He has had the choice all along. Alas, my work with him is not yet done.  Luckily we have another semester to dampen his point chasing mentality and instill ownership of learning.

For the nay-sayers of SBG, here's the unveiling of those half truths:

• SBG does teach and account for responsibility of self
• SBG does value participation, practice and effort in order to increase understanding
• SBG fosters perseverance in knowing that redos and retakes improves student knowledge in order to demonstrate higher levels of understanding

For more on grading practices check out my post 
"How Transparent Are Your Grading Practices"