In the Rick Wormeli, video he points out that in the grades should be a communication of what has been learned. Grades should indicate master of content and bounded by evidence. According to Wormeli Grades should not be used as compensation.
In the Gonzalez / Sackstein Podcast, Sackstein believes that “teachers need to separate behaviors and achievement and consider grading to be a way of communicating achievement, not compliance.” Making grades tied to conformity actions places the focus on following rules instead of focusing on the learning process. As I reflect on my years of teaching, I have based many of my ‘grading’ protocols on a compensation model. In the past, I had viewed the assignments in my class as preparing students for the grind of the real world. You have duties that are assigned, you have due dates, you need to get the job done on time. You are rewarded by being given a grade for your work.
I completely ran my class on what Wormeli would call a compensation system. I still believe there is value in this model of instruction / grading. However this system was never really never tied to learning. The system I was taught and used was really just rewarding students for doing the work. The learning was incidental. They had to learn the technology tools to do the job. They show some evidence of learning because they accomplished the task and used the tools I asked them to use. But did they really prove they understand the tool and how to apply it in real life situations? If I am being honest, I am not sure what level execution they could use these tools in real life.
Another point I appreciated from the Sackstein podcast was that her objective is for her students to achieve “mastery of standards in a particular area.” And what is key in her approach is the understanding that “it’s not going to take all of them the same amount of time to master those skills and forcing them to master it at the same time is unfair.” Sackstein uses a system where evaluation is not final at any point during the semester on any particular standard. Students are at
NI - No Information
A - Approaching Standard
M - Meets Standards
E - Exceed StandardsSackstein accompanies these evaluation levels with feedback to help the student continue to grow in their mastery of the standard. In Sackstein’s class, the mastery of standards is not tied to a timeline.
In Dylan Hyman’s video, She pointed out that ‘“65% of kids in primary school today will do jobs that do not exist today!” This tells me that we need to be teaching students to be life-long learners. We must teach transferable skills and we need to train them on how to be independent discovery learners.This spoke to me as a computer teacher because it seems like technology is in a constant state of change. Many years ago we converted an old “keyboarding” curriculum into a basic computer application concepts course. The class has continuously evolved as technology changes, existing tools are updated to new versions, and new technologies emerge. In this class I try to teach discovery approach to Spreadsheet software, Presentation Software, and Document production software. I give students experiences in at least 2 different applications in each category. We compare similarities and differences while emphasizing that while the tool may change the basic concepts behind the application will be similar to one of the ones you have worked in.
In technology education student’s need to be comfortable in investigating and exploring new tools. This is possibly the most important skill I teach. Many times I will introduce a new application and tell students to take the next 30 minutes and “Play around with the application.” I will give them some loose parameters about what I want tools I want them to work with, but in reality I just want them to learn that it is ok to explore a new tool. I like these days were the kids explore, but never know how to fit it in the gradebook. The resources in the last two modules about formative and summative assessments have made me more comfortable with giving activities like this without grading it.
Hyman referenced testing is like “a very very accurate telescope that are focused on just a few stars at the expense of a universe of knowledge.” Instead of giving the students time to explore, I could show the student how to do a specific task. The students would follow along and do it. But will they remember how to do the task in the future? Will they apply the knowledge in a situation they need to apply it? Will my student’s just be limited to the skills that I know? Exploration allows my students to find new ways of doing things that I could not bring to the class. When I am caught up in the “Grading” everything we do in class cycle, I sacrifice the exploration portion where kids learn through spontaneous discovery.
Overall this module gave me though provoking ideas on how to transform my teaching from a compensatory grader to one that will use formative assessments to guide students towards mastery of standards.
In technology education student’s need to be comfortable in investigating and exploring new tools. This is possibly the most important skill I teach. Many times I will introduce a new application and tell students to take the next 30 minutes and “Play around with the application.” I will give them some loose parameters about what I want tools I want them to work with, but in reality I just want them to learn that it is ok to explore a new tool. I like these days were the kids explore, but never know how to fit it in the gradebook. The resources in the last two modules about formative and summative assessments have made me more comfortable with giving activities like this without grading it.
Hyman referenced testing is like “a very very accurate telescope that are focused on just a few stars at the expense of a universe of knowledge.” Instead of giving the students time to explore, I could show the student how to do a specific task. The students would follow along and do it. But will they remember how to do the task in the future? Will they apply the knowledge in a situation they need to apply it? Will my student’s just be limited to the skills that I know? Exploration allows my students to find new ways of doing things that I could not bring to the class. When I am caught up in the “Grading” everything we do in class cycle, I sacrifice the exploration portion where kids learn through spontaneous discovery.
Overall this module gave me though provoking ideas on how to transform my teaching from a compensatory grader to one that will use formative assessments to guide students towards mastery of standards.