Making Standards Based Grading Work in Your World Language Classroom

1. Jenni Highfill highfilljenni@rockwood.k12.mo.us Kim Lackey lackeykimberly@rockwood.k12.mo.us Denise Pahlpahldenise@rockwood.k12.mo.us Eureka High School, Rockwood School District All presentation materials available at http://eurekaworldlanguage.wikispaces.com/ Making Standards Based Grading Work in Your World Language Classroom

2. “NO MATTER HOW LOFTY OUR ESPOUSED EDUCATION GOALS, OUR GRADING PRACTICES REVEAL WHAT WE TRULY VALUE.”-Tony Winger“What we know today does not make yesterday wrong.It makes tomorrow better.”-Carol Commadore

3. Where are we coming from? • Rockwood School District / Eureka High School • All Spanish teachers / PLCs incorporate the same standard-based grading practices. • RSD has a grading and reporting policy that is a work in progress. • Disconnect between grading and reporting system • Our focus is on Standards Based Grading and Feedback – NOT Standards Based Reporting. • We are not experts. We are learning everyday. Our practice is constantly evolving.

4. What power does a grade have? • Think • Pair • Share

5. What are the 15 fixes for broken grades? • Ken O'Connor, a.k.a. The Grade Doctor, is an independent consultant who specializes in issues related to the communication of student achievement, especially grading and reporting. • Rockwood School District has used Ken O’Connor’s book as a starting point for book studies and common language about standards based grading.

6. 1. Which of the following are currently reflected in grades in most classrooms in the U.S.? • how well students behave in class • how well students can take tests • if students are responsible and do their homework • if students participate in class • what students know and are able to do • group work and projects that students do • student attitudes towards the class • extra credit • if students bring their materials to class each day • all of the above

7. 2. What do you think grades should reflect? • how well students behave in class? • how well students can take tests? • if students are responsible and do their homework? • if students participate in class? • what students know and are able to do? • group work and projects that students do? • student attitudes towards the class? • all of the above?

8. 3. What do wethink grades shouldreflect? We believe grades should reflect what students know and are able to do.

9. What should count in a grade? What shouldn’t count in a grade? Vocabulary Assessments Grammar Assessments Speaking Assessments Listening Assessments Reading Assessments Writing Assessments Work that is graded Work that shows what a student knows and is able to do Participation Behavior Homework completion If you brought your book to class Extra credit for extra work Extra credit for bringing in a box of Kleenex, etc. Attendance Group work grades

10. Ehsspanishgradebookcategories and weights

11. What do we do about Non-academic behavior issues? • Failure to complete assignments • Turning work in late • Coming to class unprepared • Attitude problems; lack of cooperation • Not working up to potential • Falling asleep in class

12. What do we do about Non-academic behavior issues? We deal with them as BEHAVIOR issues with behavioral consequences. • Talk to the student • Behavior modification tools (getting planner signed, reward system, physical proximity, seating chart adjustment, etc.) • Phone call or e-mail home • Mandatory academic tutoring • Detention

13. What about late work? • What about when they get to college and their professors don’t accept late work? • Why not just take off a letter grade for every day that it’s late? • What about teaching kids responsibility? • What about the real world?

14. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHeij2Zfil4Rick wormeli on late work

15. What about late work? • What about when they get to college and their professors don’t accept late work? • Why not just take off a letter grade for every day that it’s late? • What about teaching kids responsibility? • What about the real world?

16. How is it fair to make the entire grade based on assessments only? • We believe that ALL students can learn, just not always at the same rate. • Students need to be held accountable for learning the material. • Students who do not demonstrate proficiency are given opportunities to learn the material and re-assess.

17. Opportunities for re-assessment • Designed for students who do not demonstrate proficiency (not prepared to move forward in their learning) • Same format with different prompts or words. • Must be done outside class time – generally before or after school • Students must complete additional practice prior to reassessment. • 2nd grade counts – most recent evidence of what students know and are able to do

19. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjle20GlZk0I am worried about my grade

20. How do you decide what to TEACH? • National Standards for Learning Languages • Alignment of the National Standards for Learning Languages with the Common Core State Standards • ACTFL Performance Descriptors for Language Learners and Proficiency Guidelines • District Curriculum • Professional Learning Community Decisions

21. How do you decide what to assess? • Unit Plan (backward design / unpack standards) • Based on district curriculum / national standards • Consider all three modes of communication • Consider cultural connections • Consider what students need in order to successfully communicate in all three modes about the topic/prompt • Use knowledge of your own students

22. Taking the mystery out of assessment • Share unit goals with students at the beginning of the unit. • Share rubrics with students before assessments. • Provide practice and feedback before the assessment (practice quiz, skills practice, etc.) • An example from The Cosby Show

23. Cosby Show ExampleMystery test

24. Use quality assessments • What should be assessed in a World Language classroom? • Are the purposes for your assessments clear? Are they clear to the students? • Do your assessments match the goals you have for your students? • What do quality assessments look like? • What are some of the problems with using assessments produced by textbook companies?

25. Textbook assessments? Pros Cons Convenient, Time-saver Creates consistency among teachers Aligned with other book resources Often include visuals, audio, and short readings Usually objectives are clearly stated Static – PDFs, difficult to modify or correct mistakes Not tailored towards your students Generally do not include a scoring guide; Guidelines for scoring are questionable Poor quality feedback Don’t grow with current society (vocabulary, concepts, culture) Difficult to “save as” and make a practice quiz / retake quiz, Form A/B Test security becomes an issue Teacher has no control over the blueprint of the assessment

26. Teacher-created assessments • For each assessment…. • Reflect on which specific skills should be tested. Discuss and create the criteria for the rubric. • Create assessments on which students demonstrate those skills • Create a rubric that communicates the differences between performance levels • Use the rubric to evaluate students’ skills and give detailed feedback to students. • Analyze and share results. What do we do if they got it? What do we do if they didn’t get it?

27. Set the bar high, but help them reach it • Use clear standards/goals/performance expectations • when creating, • explaining, • giving, • grading assessments • Frequent, intentional formative work • Practice assessments, modeling, talking about the scoring guide – these are all key steps to encouraging student success. • High quality feedback on formative and summative work

28. Intro to scoring guides (see GOLD packet) • PALs rubrics from Fairfax County (p. 2) • This was our starting point for using descriptive standards-based rubrics department-wide • http://www.fcps.edu/DIS/OHSICS/forlang/PALS/rubrics/ • Various levels, Speaking, Writing, Interactive Tasks • Note: The lowest grade is a 50% (not a zero)

29. PRESENTATIONAL writing rubric

30. Why use 50% as the lowest grade? • A grade below 50% for work that was completed involves inappropriate mathematics. With the common grading scale where 59 and below is an F, there are • A=11 points (90-100) • B=10 points (80-89) • C=10 points (70-79) • D=10 points (60-69) • F=60 points (0-59) • The range for an F is six times greater than the other grades. • Using 50% as the lowest grade “evens things out.” • A=11 points (90-100) • B=10 points (80-89) • C=10 points (70-79) • D=10 points (60-69) • F=10 points (50-59)

31. Do I have to do math? (p. 1)

32. COMMUNICATION RUBRICS • PRESENTATIONAL COMMUNICATION • WRITING • SPEAKING • INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION • SPOKEN • WRITTEN • INTERPRETATIVE COMMUNICATION • READING • LISTENING

33. Presentational communication • Students present information, concepts, and ideas to an audience of listeners or readers on a variety of topics.

34. PRESENTATIONAL SPEAKING RUBRIC

35. Interpersonal communication • Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions

36. INTERPERSONAL WRITING RUBRIC

37. INTERPERSONAL speaking rubric

38. interpersoNAL SPEAKING Scoring sheet

39. Interpretive communication • Students understand and interpret written and spoken language on a variety of topics

40. INTERPRETATIVEreading rubric

41. Reading text

42. Interpretive communication Listening rubric

43. OTHER RUBRICS • GRAMMAR • PRETERITE AND IMPERFECT CONJUGATIONS • INFORMAL COMMANDS • VOCABULARY • COMPREHENSION • PRODUCTION • PRONUNCIATION • LIFE-LONG LEARNING PROJECTS (COMMUNITIES STANDARD)

44. Grammar rubric

45. Grammar rubric

46. Vocabulary comprehension quiz rubric

47. Vocabulary comprehension quiz rubric

48. Vocabulary production quiz rubric

49. Vocabulary production quiz rubric

50. Vocabulary production quiz rubric