Grades Search Results

Making Cooperative Learning Work Better

Listen to this post as a podcast: Sponsored by Pear Deck and Participate As a middle school English teacher, I incorporated plenty of group work into my instruction. I did it for a number of reasons. Sometimes it was because a task seemed like a natural fit for cooperative learning, like days when I wanted students to brainstorm ideas together. Other times it was just to mix things up and do something different. And then there was the “fewer grades” principle: If I had 120 students and I gave an assignment to groups of four, that meant I would only…

How to Create a Self-Paced Classroom

…are “bad” at school. They might say they “can’t write” or “can’t do math” or simply “don’t like learning.” We have become accustomed to hearing students express these frustrations, but we don’t spend enough time asking why. The truth is, countless students have spent their whole education career feeling rushed. Instead of giving them more time, we usually give them partial credit and completion grades to push them through the system. Over time, they grow to hate school because they have never experienced the joy of authentic mastery. Self-pacing gives students the opportunity to experience the feeling of true mastery,…

Project Based Learning: Start Here

…fact it can take longer, are you able to get several grades out of the project? In my district, we are mandated to give a certain amount of grades per quarter. Camryn Tucker Hi Shelley, I struggle with this as well. I feel that we barely have enough time as it is to teach what standards are required of us. I feel it would be hard to incorporate the PBL aspect of it as well. Debbie Sachs Hi Camryn, A well-designed PBL project doesn’t necessarily need to be a long-term project, however, as with any unit, it’s important to identify…

Meet the Single Point Rubric

…idea on what the student will be able to do to show the objective was met, that should qualify as 100% mastery. (I say this all while of the opinion that traditional grades are, unfortunately, still a necessary evil.) Debbie Sachs Hi Gail, You’re not alone on this. In the post, How to Turn Your Rubric Scores into Grades, you’ll see how you could use points with a single-point rubric, so that a student could get a score of 100% if all criteria in the middle column are met. Hope this helps! Yerin Seung Hello! I’m an elementary school teacher…

Know Your Terms: Holistic, Analytic, and Single-Point Rubrics

…rubric scoring, b/c I see a lot of teachers simply adding up the number of squares and having that be the total point value of an assignment, which leads to incorrect grades on assignments. I’ve found some converters, but haven’t found a resource that has the math broken out. Jennifer Gonzalez Thanks for the feedback, Jeremey! You are not the first person to request a clearer breakdown on the math for this rubric (or others), and you’re right, teachers definitely have different approaches to this. I have some good ideas on this, so I will plan a post on it…

Retrieval Practice: The Most Powerful Learning Strategy You’re Not Using

…of studying—strategies like review lectures, study guides, and re-reading texts. And what they’re finding is that nothing cements long-term learning as powerfully as retrieval practice. The Research Agarwal and her colleagues studied the effects of retrieval practice with students in a middle school social studies course (McDaniel, Agarwal, Huelser, McDermott, & Roediger, 2011). Over the course of a year and a half, while the teacher continued teaching as normal, students were regularly quizzed on the material with no-stakes quizzes, meaning they wouldn’t count against their grades. These quizzes only covered about one-third of what was being taught. The teacher left…

Kindergarten Redshirting: How Kids Feel About it Later in Life

…the red-shirted people in grades below me, yet were older than me felt bad and felt that they were “behind”–I had thought many had failed an earlier grade and had to redo it. Kris In my case, I didn’t really have a choice – I wasn’t about to go against the district’s recommendation – with an October birthday, my son wouldn’t even have been considered for kindergarten in many districts. In the case where a parent may factor physical size/athletics into a delay decision, among other things, however, I wouldn’t call cheating. Every parent has their own reasons and their…

Classroom Management: 4 Keys to Starting the Year off Right

…that 50% of a students grade is on behavior and not on their ability to do well in the content. Debbie Sachs Hi Kaycee. I work for Cult of Pedagogy and wanted to let you know this is a question that we’ve recently received from others as well. Giving grades for behavior and participation is something Jenn is still thinking and wanting to learn more about. Debbie Sachs Kaycee, so much of what I’ve read about Linsin’s classroom management I agree with. When I find an educator that really speaks to me I tend to jump into all their stuff…

Students Sitting Around Too Much? Try Chat Stations.

…to do!!!!!!! Jennifer Gonzalez I just put up a new post this morning. Click “Home” and you’ll see them all! lovepeace ok thank-you The momna I love this idea. I will be switching to 5th & 6th grade reading and was flabbergasted as to how to set up stations with those grades. Awesome and sounds really easier to do. Do you do these everyday with different content? I am attempting to do novel studies. As a first timer at this I really want my scholars to be engaged and keep it fun. Here’s to a new year and I shall…