4 days ago, I was perusing the always interesting words of the great Dan Meyer when I came across this post.
Standards. Based. Grading.
Now, I know that SBG is nothing new.... but, it's new to me.
Since I stumbled across that post, I have been obsessively consuming everything I possibly can about SBG from Shawn Cornelly, Jason Buell, Rick Wormeli, Matt Townsley, Sam Shah.....
I CAN'T STOP.
Now, my current struggle is this: It's the end of February. I have essentially 3 months left. I can't just 180 my classroom right now without students and parents having complete mental breakdowns (all the while I'm yelling at them, "No! Trust me! This is better! I've been screwing it up all along!)
So what changes can I make now to start walking down the path of enlightenment?
Here's what I've come up with so far:
- Make a concept checklist for the standards I have yet to cover this year.
- Start chunking any quizzes/tests into the concepts and record the students' progress on these specific concepts, but still record a holistic test grade in the gradebook (boo, I know.)
- Allow "re-dos" of missed concepts on assessments for full credit. Now, I already allow students to correct any questions they got wrong along with an explanation of why they got it wrong the first go around for half credit, so this is a minor tweak.
- Assign less homework. 1 or 2 problems (once again, a la Dan Meyer). Hopefully this will encourage students to think "Hey, I can stomach one measly problem." And if they don't, so be it. They're no worse off than they were for not having done the 20 problem homework assignment.
- Change all 0's in my gradebook to 50's so that they are recoverable. In the words of Rick Wormeli, "I shall not be a rim waver!"
It kills me that I can't go full blown SBG right now. I can't believe I missed out on this whole beautiful world up until now, and I cannot wait to begin.
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