Sound Grading Practices 2/8/2013

2/8/13 In Attendance: Ina, Aria, Marie, Ann, Carla, Tom, KC, and Gerald

We watched 15 Fixes to Broken Grading Practices on Youtube. Then we each went through and answered the three questions below.

	Which broken grading practices are you guilty of?
	Justified to keep doing	Want to change		Which do you need more support with?
Marie	Behaviors for grades IF they’re part of a standard. For instance, listening, speaking, discussion model standards.	- Still averaging the vocab strand, but want to change that.		Need more support with the 4.0 grading system.
Carla	Don’t do any of these anymore. But used to do all of them.			Need help with the group scores. Setting up the grade book. How to better communicate with students.
Aria	Maybe keep doing group scores? B/C working productively in a group is so important.		Want to change group scores, but maybe make it one standard to focus on rather than having it be the overall grade. Cooperative grading would go into “work readiness” part of report card. What is the “Power Law” formula?
Ina	None		Figuring out a better way to evaluate students when they’re working in groups.
KC	Summarizing learning accumulated over time. Students show that they understood it initially but not later.		Still depending on the “mean” for the grade.		Figure out what to “count” when for some students they do better the first time but other students they do better when they get to do it a later time.
Tom			Will not do bonus questions anymore.		Become more proficient in standards-based grading. How to set up my gradebook.
Ann	Including group scores because I know it boost their grade. I know this distorts their achievement.		I want to know how to make group work true cooperative “learning” rather than cooperative “assessment.”

1. Include student behavior in grades.
2. Reduce marks for “work” submitted late.
3. Give extra credit or bonus points.
4. Punish academic dishonesty with reduced grades.
5. Consider attendance in grades.
6. Include group scores.
7. Rely simply on the mean.
8. Summarize evidence accumulated over time.
9. Assign grades by comparing students to each other.

10.   Use formative assessments or practice in grades.

We looked at Donadio’s graphic reflection of standards that students used in class. We looked at how Ann is assessing a lab report using standards. Carla suggested we bring organizers as we develop them.

We looked at what the new progress reports on EGP look like to the students. We discussed the paper increased need, since we’re assessing more frequently. Progress reports require more individual paper/student.

Agenda for Next Time:

1. Discussion of cooperative learning. Finding a rubric to use.
2. Look at the specific fixes to Organize Evidence and to Support Learning.

*HW* Find a standard in your content are that has to deal with cooperative learning.