Grades Search Results

Standardized Tests Aren’t Going Anywhere. So What Do We Do?

…are newer. Jack Schneider, Hutt’s co-author on the recent and very helpful book Off the Mark: How Grades, Ratings, and Rankings Undermine Learning (but Don’t Have To) (Amazon | Bookshop.org) is leading the project, which includes the Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment and the Education Commonwealth Project. What makes the project so exciting is they’re looking at the entire system from student-level grades, to the nature of large-scale assessment measures, to how communities assess the quality of their schools. Another front to keep an eye on is the Every Student Succeeds Act (the most recent reauthorization of No Child…

Teaching Students to Avoid Plagiarism

…across. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again. John W I think its a behavior issue and needs to be treated as such. It also is best as a school policy that everyone carries out consistently. Rose Warrell Could you use these lessons with 4th Graders? Debbie Sachs Hi Rose! Jenn’s Avoiding Plagiarism mini-unit is geared for grades 7-12, however, I think many of the strategies can work really well with most grades. I’d just modify the lessons (i.e. length…

Episode 32: How and Why We Should Let Our Students Fail (Jessica Lahey)

…has happened where like if I go out and I haven’t entered grades into the system—and I’m not using it right now, but when this was happening before—you know there’s this kind of feeling like Why aren’t you at home doing that grading?, because you know, really need to see this stuff. And teachers I’ve talked to have said “Look, I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t because if I don’t put the grades in, I’m getting all kinds of emails saying ‘Why aren’t the grades in?’ And the minute I the grades are in, I’m getting…

A Non-Freaked Out Guide to Teaching the Common Core

…— it only covers the anchor standards for English language arts. Also, because Stuart is a high school teacher and speaks from his own and his colleagues’ experience, the concepts will be less applicable for primary teachers. But for everyone else — I’d say grades 4 and up — this will serve as a useful guide. The book also does not delve into grade-specific standards. For that level of detail, Stuart recommends Jim Burke’s Common Core Companion series, which has separate volumes for Grades K-2 , Grades 3-5 , Grades 6-8 , and Grades 9-12 . Although I feel the book…

A Step-by-Step Plan for Teaching Argumentative Writing

…in the meantime? Throughout this 2 week stretch? Jennifer Gonzalez Ideally, you wouldn’t need to take grades at all, waiting until the final paper is done to give one grade. If your school requires more frequent grades, you could assign small point values for getting the incremental steps done: So in Step 3 (when students have to write a paragraph stating their point of view) you could take points for that. During the writer’s workshop phase, you might give points for completion of a rough draft and participation points for peer review (ideally, they’d get some kind of feedback on…

The Youth Boxing Club that is Changing Lives in Chicago

…happens if a student’s grades drop or they get into some trouble? In both cases, the answer is support. On the academic front, the idea is to catch problems before they get too serious to fix. “We have young people who are getting check-ins at least every other week,” Cannon explains. “Some of them if they’re in an emergency level of assessment, they’re going to check in every week. With grades, there’s an academic repair plan. So it starts with the student going to the school with a sheet that says, these are the things that I’m missing or I…

Is Your Lesson a Grecian Urn?

…is something we all need to be aware of in our own teaching. I also find it frustrating how often those “Grecian Urns” get praise from other teachers/administrators. Thank you for addressing this. Barbara A comment and a question here. First, I think sometimes “urns” are assigned to help students raise their grades. If students don’t perform well on tests and quizzes, their grades sink. An “urn” gives them the opportunity to earn an A–and hey, it’s on a complicated project!–to help bolster sagging grades. Second, what about interactive notebooks? I’m experimenting with a science/SS interactive notebook this year (I’m…

When a Student Hates You

…I had my reasons, sort of. I was trying to make them feel better. They knew Mark got fantastic grades. And Mark was so mature, so laid-back. He knew I thought he was great, right? He could take a little ribbing. I was so sure of this that when I made the comment, it didn’t occur to me that it would bother him. But as he left class that day, he didn’t look over and say “see you later” like he usually did. He kept his eyes straight ahead. Stone-faced. No lopsided grin. It registered with me, but not for…

Frickin’ Packets

…than giving everyone the same stuff. Show them how to select the materials they need and where to store them for future reference. 2. Skills Practice Many teachers use worksheets to give students practice in required skills. This seems to be most common in math (or, in the later grades, with things like chemistry equations). While this method obviously gives teachers some of the results they’re hoping for, if you take a few things into consideration, you can probably refine the practice. Here are some questions to consider when heading to the copy machine: How much practice is really needed?…