Non-continuous

Mike asked and so I’ll share.

The underlying ideas here are, first, that when students see grades they think something is finished. They look at the grade and either smile or frown. Then they file the paper away – too often in the circular file. Secondly, even if I have provided feedback on the paper, the grade rules and the feedback is generally ignored. So, in the footsteps of one of my heros, Shawn Cornally, I got rid of the problem – the grades.

My thinking has shifted on assessment lately also. I used to think that if I was studying domain and range with my honors precal kids, then my assessments should be a few domain and range problems. Usually they are pretty low level Bloom’s stuff and kids that could memorize and repeat had an advantage. I hate admitting this about my assessments, but in general I think teachers test what is easy to test. The thing that changed my mind though was realizing that these same types of problems that I was testing on were the problems we were already looking at in class. What data was testing on them going to get me that I didn’t have already?

So, I decided my “assessments” would be more open ended or application type, and try to get at the big picture of whatever we are studying. Like this one on on functions or this one on on domain and range.

The students complete those in around 15 minutes each and then I put feedback on them that night. I try to stagger them, so I only have one class to do per night. They are handed back the next day(ish) and the students respond to my feedback. This feedback loop continues until I feel like I’ve gotten the most I can out of the majority of the students. I think 3 revisions is the most I’ve done. Both the original shot at it and the revisions are all done in class under test like conditions.

For the first four weeks of school the two problems above were the ones that I decided would make up a students grade so far. I decided on this format for helping the students reflect on their work. Below the dotted line is where it’s my turn to make comments.

Here is a student sample of the work including all feedback. And here is the completed grade summary that goes home for a parent signature and comments.

My comments on the grade summary were directed at advice to help students get better, a goal for the student, and/or a statement of agreement or disagreement with the student’s evaluation. Parents would have an idea of what their student’s grade was before progress reports came out and more importantly, some concrete information on why their grade is what it is.

Next thing to think about is how to have students summarize a grade for themselves for an entire quarter worth of work (and eventually a semester). They have 2 assessments on domain/range, 2 on functions, and 1 on transformations of functions. Maybe a summary of each idea which is then somehow combined into a single letter grade, or maybe a holistic approach that looks at their overall progress. I’m open for suggestions.