Standards Based Report Cards v. Letter Grades (Game On)

I have been waiting to write this post since August.  I'll probably need to revise it at some point.  I'll state my opinion at the beginning of this post.  That way, if you are no longer interested, you won't end up wasting your time.  (Kinyatta, stop reading now.)  I think all teachers, K-12, should use standards based report cards.  I feel so much better, just having typed that!  My voice has been heard!  That's all people really want half the time anyways, right?  LOL, I digress.

Five years ago, I was on a committee that created a school district's elementary (K-6) Standards Based Report Card.  It was technically a "STRANdards Based Report Card," because when read, it only listed strands, not specific standards.  To me, a Standards Based Report Card is only such if ALL the standards are listed, at least core standards anyway.  The report card committee that I was on lasted two years.  Every time the committee met during year two, I would make one request, "Can we please list all core standards on the report card?"  It never happened. I was told the document would be too long, parents wouldn't understand it, etc.  This type of reasoning doesn't transfer anywhere else in the real world.  For example, when I take my car to get serviced, the dealer doesn't tell me, "I just printed out parts of the report because you aren't a mechanic and you wouldn't understand it."  Or, "I want to save paper, so I'm only printing out half of the report."  Doctors and lawyers don't operate this way with their clients either.  I think a lot of the undermining that goes on in the teaching profession is done by ourselves.  We are to blame- either directly or indirectly.

The district provided a lot of informative documents for teachers about standards based reporting and education for parents as well.  At one meeting, we were deciding if we should have a 3- meets standards and a 4- exceeds standards.  We decided to go with the 3 and label it "meets and/or exceeds standards."  I thought it was a good choice.  It took me about one year to understand that I could not relate letter grades to meeting/exceeding, approaching, or below standard.  In other words, a 3 does not equal an A, nor does 2 equal a C, and 1 does not equal an F.  What does an "A" tell a parent or a student?  In my opinion- nothing!

In a single subject, what does an A, B, C, D, or F mean or even represent?  I teach soooooooo many standards that an A means nothing to me.  Maybe the A represents that the student turns in his or her homework and classwork consistently.  Maybe the A represents that the student tests well.  I don't really know how a letter grade associated with each subject is more informative than assessing and reporting out on the specific standard.  And what about the student who turns in all their homework, yet fails every type of assessment - they get a B?  What have they learned?  Where are they at in terms of mastering the standard?  What is going on at home during homework?  

Here is an example from 6th grade math: "CCSS.Math.6.NS.B.3 Fluently add, subtract, multiply, and divide multi-digit decimals using the standard algorithm for each operation."  This is how I would assess the standard: I would look at data from Edusoft and Renaissance Place, as well as work done in class by the student.  My definition of fluency is 85% and up.  If the data shows the student does all of these operations with decimals with what I have defined as fluency, that student would get a 3.  If the student adds decimals fluently, but is not able to fluently subtract, multiply or divide them, the student would get a 2, and consider the student's mastery of that standard as approaching, since the student is at least able to add decimals.  If a student is not able to fluently complete any of the operations with decimals, I would give them a 1- below grade level standards.  Standards are black and white.  It's kind of like deciding if a number is odd or even.  It is or it isn't.  A student can either do the standard (3), kind of do the standard (2), or can't at all (1).

At this point you might be asking, "Where is this coming from?"  To make a long story short, I switched schools.  I'm back to letter grades.  I miss my standards based report card, dearly.

I see the issue of standards based reporting as a glacier.  As Eloise would say, at the "tippy top" of the glacier there exist the letter grades.  However, I recommend traveling to the bottom of the glacier, where the glacier itself is colder and bigger than anyone could imagine.  Could a high school GPA be calculated using a standards based report card?  The answer is yes.  What role does secondary grading have in elementary grading?  I always asked myself if I was preparing students for  the reality of letter grades for their transition to junior high.  I don't think I was, but I was able to accurately determine their progress with mastering standards.

If anyone LOVES their letter grades, I'd LOVE to hear from you.  I'm interested in your perspective. Why are people sooooooo attached to letter grades?  When my last school switched from letter grades to standards, there was a lot of push back from parents, students and teachers.  Why?  What is the reasoning?    

iPad v. Chromebook- Let's Clear the Air!

I am lucky.  I work in a school where each of my students has an iPad, provided by the school district and property of the school district.  I like to think of it as 1:1 computing at its finest.  I have an iPad, a MacBook Pro, an iPhone, and a Chromebook.

This year, two schools have come to observe me teach and (more importantly) observe students using, interacting with and learning from their technology. They were classroom teachers (grades 4, 5, 6), principals and a supt/principal.

After each observation, we debrief.

Each debrief has included this question from the observers: Should our school buy iPads or Chromebooks?  Which is better?

My answer to this question changes daily.  Today my answer would be both- the iPad and the Chromebook.  I know this is unrealistic in many ways.

I'm going to explain my thinking behind this by first starting with my personal experience.  I use all of my devices for certain things.  I use my Chromebook mostly when I am in my Google drive, when I am working in the cloud.  I use my iPad, MacBook and iPhone when I am tweeting, making iMovies, and Power Point presentations.  For example, right now I am blogging on my MacBook Pro because I am not blogging from my school district Google account.  Personally, I love Apple.  I willingly let Apple, (mainly Siri) run my life. Apple is my personal device.  All of my iTunes, iPhotos and videos are on my Apple devices.  I will only tweet from my iPhone!

Next up is my teaching experience with the iPad and Chromebook.  I've had one or the other in my classroom.  This year with iPads, my students have no keyboarding accountability.  The past five years, they had keyboarding proficiency/automaticity standards.  If memory serves me correctly 6th grade proficiency was 15-16 wpm w/ 3 or less errors.  Negative for the iPad- lack of keyboarding.

If you are going to let the Smarter Balanced Assessment rule your life, your students need to be able to keyboard accurately (i.e. not hunt and peck).  Trust me- I piloted the ELA portion of the test last spring.

iPad negative- keyboarding.

Chromebook- great for keyboarding.

iPad negative- it doesn't run flash.

Chromebook- great for flash (enVision math).  I see value in having students take a 5 question math quiz on-line from the enVision curriculum.

Chromebook great for running Sumdog.  iPad- again, doesn't support flash.

iMovie- can't be beat.  iPhoto- can't be beat.

Durability- personally, I think Chromebooks break as easily as iPads.

iPad apps cost money (usually).  GAFE seems to have more choices that don't cost money.

iPad negative- management.  Pushing out apps, synching apps, IOS updates- it's a nightmare!!! (And I don't think part of my job description is effective iPad management that is done well/efficiently.)  But I try my best.  I don't have to manage Chromebooks the way I manage iPads.

iPads/Apple has allure or popularity factor.  Apple products are cool!  Apple products are in!

My class understands that their iPad is property of the school district and to be used for educational purposes only.  It is not their "personal" device.

My final opinion on this day in November, 2013 is.......iPad over Chromebook because of increased student engagement.  My bottom line is student learning outcomes and student engagement.  My students are most engaged on their iPads.

I dedicate this blog to my sister-in-law.  My biggest blog fan!!!

Today Was A Good Day, Reflection.

A good day, reflection.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to be observed by a principal of another local elementary school and a fourth grade teacher from that school.  It was an activity that I had not done before.  I talked myself into doing it by thinking about risk-taking and telling myself that it would be okay to fail.  In all honesty, while I think you can learn from failure, I don’t like failing.  I don’t even really like risk-taking.  I consider myself to be a creature of habit.  I also think that taking risks is easier said than done.  I don’t like change either, but change is necessary.  The premise of the lesson was using the Educreations app to have each student teach another student how to do the order of operations.  There were no guidelines specifically about how they could create their lesson.  There was no time limit for the duration of their lesson, they could use their math book- or not.  I told them- you will share your lesson with another student and have discourse through the SMP lense of attending to precision and constructing a viable argument and critiquing the reasoning your partner.  I told them spelling is not up for critique.  And that was basically it.  They did it.  They shared their lessons.  The app worked seamlessly.  Some students shared their lessons with the whole class.  The lessons from each iPad projected through the SmartBoard seamlessly.  It was good.  I was glad I took the risk.  It was a successful risk because I thought it would work anyways.  I’m not afraid to try something new, but I do get flustered if it goes wrong, or there are bumps in the road.  I like to live as close to perfection as possible.  It’s lonely at the top.  We debriefed the lesson.  They loved it.  They saw value in it.  The stress and nerves from Monday and Tuesday were worth it for the Wednesday observation.  After the debrief and lesson, I was on cloud nine.  Happy with myself and happy with my perceived perfection.  After they left, I checked my phone.  I had a missed call and a voicemail from my mom.  I figured she needed to know what time pick up my daughter from Spanish class that day, so I just called her back without listening to her voicemail.  Here is how the conversation went:

Me: Hi, I saw I missed your call.
Mom: Have you talked to your brother?
Me: No. Why?
Mom: He didn’t tell you?
Me: Tell me what?
Mom: He is interviewing Buster Posey in San Francisco for Bleacher Report at 11am.
(it was 11:33am)
Me: Whaaaaaaaaattttt??!?!? OMG!!!!!!! Seriously!!!!!

My brother had a better day than me.  And I thought my day was good.

 Here is the link to his article.

Dolphin Toothpaste

I thought this was a pretty catchy title.  And you might enjoy the catchy story that goes with it.

Today we were comparing pictures of different types of waves.  I thought it was a relatively interesting  area of curriculum.  The 6th graders probably had their own opinions....which I didn't ask for.

So as we compared one of the questions was, "How are the waves changing?"  The answer is the waves are breaking at the shoreline and more white, instead of blue.  Everyone got this, easily.  So, to make things more challenging, I said, "What causes waves to turn white?"

I called on a student who I knew would have the right answer.  The student said, "Waves turn white because it's dolphin toothpaste!"  Although this wasn't the right answer, it made my day!  I kindly said, "You are incorrect, but that was the cutiest part of my day and TYVM for that!"  While this student had the wrong answer, the answer immediately made me think of everything I love this year (but not limited to): llamas, unicorns, llamacorns, rainbows, glitter, fainting goats, mermaids and dolphins!

The Annual Summer Post

I am at the yearly Project LEAD week-long seminar.  For those of you who aren't familiar with it-- it is Monday-Friday, 7:15-4:15.  That time frame includes, wake up time to get home time.  I always feel compelled to blog during this week because it puts me back in the school mindset.  This is the last year of the LEADership program.  This is what I have learned from the program over the past three years....(in no particular order) 1) Teachers will pick through a bowl of fruit salad forever, regardless of how long the line is behind them. 2) Teachers get mad when there is not any regular Coke or Pepsi selection at lunch.
After three years in this program, this is what I have learned....  1) I am going to go into administration, then work in a county office.  LEADership does not equal poverty.  I am grateful for the opportunity that this project has given me to realize my leadership skills and the direction that I want to take my career in.  I will end with an Alice In Wonderland quote that I relate to and you can draw your own conclusions as to why...

The caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice.  


'Who are you?' said the caterpillar.  


Alice replied rather shyly, 'I-I hardly know, sir,  just at present, - at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.'  


'What do you mean by that?' said the caterpillar sternly.  'Explain yourself!'


'I'm afraid I can't put it more clearly,' Alice replied very politely, 'for I can't understand it myself to begin with; and being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing.'


-Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Flipped

I'm watching Cee Lo Green perform on The Voice right now in a gold metallic shoulder pad, dress-like ensemble outfit and I all I can think is, "I wish I could wear this outfit while I am teaching math."  The thing is I could possibly make it happen.  The Flipped Classroom was introduced to our school district and teachers were super-excited about it.  For me it was like a pandora's box of sorts.  A teacher videotapes him or herself teaching a lesson.  The students watch it at home and come in ready the next day to work.  Here is a super cute teacher example!  After I watched this video, and I believe I was at our district office the first time I saw it....I immediately thought- "This is my big break! My own little way to be on television!" Yes!!!!!!  But then I had to remind myself that the Flipped Classroom isn't my audition tape for The Bachelor, Top Chef or American Idol for that matter. I'm sure my Flipped Videos would have some type of entertainment value, besides just being annoying and me flipping my hair around a lot...one can only imagine.  I mean, this is how I feel after I teach every 6th grade math lesson.  We will see....I'm sure my sister-in-law would record my flipped classroom math lesson with my flip video camera.

It's the end of the 3rd trimester.  I've found that I've invented a new word, which I'm really proud of-  "cutiest" (adjective), sentence, "As the year has gone by you keep doing the cutiest things like talking with English accents." Pronunciation cu-tee-est.  Definition: a way to describe something that is beyond super cute, but borderline annoying.  Maybe I could make a lot of money off of inventing this word.  I'm sure it could be used as an adverb too.  I thought I invented this word too: chittered (verb), but apparently it's already a word.  I've used it in my own sentence a couple of times....like on the last vocabulary test: "I couldn't cross the bridge to the cabin at camp because a raccoon was chittering at me."

PEMDAS- Ain't No Thing!

I gave my anti-PEMDAS monologue to the 6th grade this morning at math.  I think it was well-received to say the least.  Most of them had tuned out in 5th grade when exposed to the misconception of PEMDAS in the first place.  PEMDAS is the most misleading part of math that I have ever heard of.  PEMDAS (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction)-- aka-- Order of Operations.  I'm pretty sure that one will not be successful in Alg. I w/out attending to precision in the Order of Operations.  The acronym PEMDAS implies that first one would evaluate within the parentheses, then evaluate exponents, then multiply, then divide, then add, then subtract.  When in actuality, yes one would complete the parenthesis and exponents first, then one should multiply and/or divide (whichever comes first) left to right, then you add and/or subtract (whichever comes first) left to right.  To use such an acronym that suggests multiplication would come before division and addition before subtraction is just as offensive as calling a fraction greater than one an improper fraction.  PEMDAS- you are improper and incorrect!

Back to today's math lesson: after they wrote the notes down and learned how deceiving and manipulative PEMDAS was towards them and their future math careers, they tried about 6 or 7 independent practice problems from the textbook.

Then I asked, "Who is ready to see into your near future?"

Much to my chagrin, no one raised a hand, no one said, "YES!  We never knew you had a crystal ball!"

Alas, I continued on....I took out my Alg. I book and wrote twelve Alg. I Order of Operations problems on the board.  There were a few gasps (which I love), some expressions of disbelief (which I love even more), and then it felt like all of the air was sucked out of the room (which is my most favorite thing ever)!  After a few seconds, all of the 6th graders started breathing again and decided to rise to the occasion and meet their futures a little bit early.  I told them, "This will be the hardest part of your day!  Please-- embrace it!  I promise we will do buddies, art, computer lab and class meeting the rest of the day, people-- this is it!"

I think they surprised themselves.  There were no tears of sadness or joy for that matter.  Order of Operations exists in a mathematical world, where you need to Attend To Precision #6 (scroll down) and appreciate the exactness and preciseness of the Order of Operations.