I have made a chart for assessments that I am comfortable with. I am think it will be well-received by anyone in the district who would question the labels as I gleaned them from the ODE performance level descriptors. Take a look:
State Performance Level Descriptors*
Advanced: Students performing at the advanced level show excellent progress by using grade 5 concepts and skills to solve complex problems. They consistently demonstrate deep knowledge and skills across the standards.
Accelerated: Students performing at the accelerated level show good progress by using grade 5 concepts and skills to solve a variety of problems. Students use informal and some formal reasoning to evaluate and justify the reasonableness of a solution. They communicate mathematical thinking and solutions in a clear and concise manner.
Proficient: Students performing at the proficient level show adequate progress by using grade 5 concepts and skills to solve familiar problems. They apply mathematical concepts, terms, and properties to problem situations. Students use informal and some formal reasoning to evaluate and justify the reasonableness of a solution. They communicate mathematical thinking and solutions using a combination of informal and mathematical language.
Basic: Students performing at the basic level show progress by using some grade 5 concepts and skills to solve simple problems. Students solve problems for which the method or solution is easily recognized and straightforward.
Limited: Students performing at the limited level demonstrate skill and understanding of mathematics below the performance required to reach the basic level.
The next part of my diabolical plan is to teach. I will be entertaining. My lessons, activities, and projects will be engaging. Students will leave math tired. Students will learn.
There will be homework. I hope that given longer periods of time to teach than I've ever had before will reduce the amount of homework, but alas, there will be work to practice at home.
Formative assessments will not be "graded". Please don't confuse that with "ignored." Feedback will be given, I will learn from the homework, and there will be scratch-and-sniff stickers! But they will not go in the gradebook.
Summative assessments will take the form of quizzes, tests, conversations, problem sets, projects, etc.
Students will be given a checklist of the indicators, written in their language, on which they will also record their assessment scores.
Students will be expected to work harder, spend one-on-one time with me, ask for help, remediate, and reassess any indicator which is scored a 1 or 2. Only one reassessment can be done per day.
There will be multiple assessments for each indicator. They can and will be spread throughout the year.
There.
This feels good and it feels right.
While I have the framework in place, I have some unanswered questions. I would greatly appreciate help from anyone with an opinion.
What about......
.....kids who think they don't have to do homework?
.....online grades? (I struggle whether to use the most recent grade or the median for the indicator. Either way, we use Easy Grade Pro for parents to monitor their student's grades. EGP displays the mean.)
.....grade cards? (And then there's the end of the 9 weeks! Do I report the median of all of the indicators? Would the mean be acceptable for the end-of-term grade? Do I take the mean or median of the most recent assessments?)
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the academy....oh, wait. Wrong speech.
Seriously, without following great teachers on Twitter, I would not have done any of this. I would still be struggling with the discrepancy between grades and learning and too much emphasis placed on homework.
Please feel free to offer comments, suggestions, and answers.
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