Concept Mastery Data

Disclaimer: I am not a Google Sheets expert! But I'm pretty good and able to eventually achieve what I'm thinking so that I'm working smarter, not harder. It takes some time, but Sheets is so valuable and such a time saver.

One thing I need to improve on with Standards Based Grading is the recording and reporting of progress. I had a long, painful process this Spring (you can read about it in this reflection post, #5). As I was looking more into options this summer, I ran across Mari Venturino's post on Tracking Data. She has a Google Sheet she keeps and she did a lot of conditional formatting and "=countif". She uses a binary approach to the mastery tasks with either a 0 or 1. I like how she determines the letter grades, and that was something I was already considering (still working out though). Her Sheet was a good starting point for me. I made a copy and started to adjust to the needs of my class and my students. Since it will include student names (alphabetical!) it won't be something I can share with students and parents. 

I've been trying to meet with students on a more regular basis to go over grades and what they need to be working on, so this wouldn't even work for that purpose. My idea was creating something where I would just need to input 1 set of information (student ID#) and then it would import the students data (scores and current grade). Enter "=vlookup"!!! I copied over some data and went to testing. It works BEAUTIFULLY! I'm so excited about this aspect - this will be a game changer to student conferences and discussions. Data Template. The letter grade assigned is based on the level they are performing at on the concepts overall. Here is the current break down that is programmed into the Sheet (subject to change, but thinking it's pretty accurate for this school year):

A… at least 85% of skills are Got it or better; no score is developing, not yet, or missing

B… at least 70% of skills are Got it or better; less than 10% of skills are developing or not yet, and zero skills are missing

C… less than 30% of skills are developing or not yet and zero skills are missing

F… more than 30% of skills are developing, not yet or missing

For the upcoming school year, I also have plans for students to record their own assessment scores. I liked the document that Everybody is a Genius posted about. I plan to make a few tweaks to it since I don't have a 3+ score. Here is my Record Sheet Template (and a second version that is portrait - I made it so it can easily go in a composition book and only 2 sides would need to be trimmed). The other thing I'm going to implement is having students do a self-assessment on the concepts (I do skills/concepts instead of the actual standard since that isn't kid friendly). I love that Sheets has the Checkbox feature now, so you can see how easy it'll be for students. Here is my First Semester Skills list and my Second Semester Skills List for Integrated Math 2. I like including the Mathematical Practices here since they are such a huge aspect of math. You will also notice I'm trying to not have too many skills, so some ideas are together (like sine and cosine are together not separate).

I also still need to figure out how I will inform parents of student progress. I only have a few more weeks though to try to figure out something!

Standards Based Grading Reflection

The school year has ended! I spent the last quarter using standards based grading in my Integrated 2 classes. Before starting, I spent some time researching and coming up with a system that I felt would work for me. It wasn't perfect, but it was enough to get me to dive in and disrupt the grading system.

Below are a few things I did and my reflection on it:

1. Since I was changing this during the middle of the academic year, but at the start of a fresh grading period, I didn't want to make too radical of a change to the category percentages. So, standards/concepts were about 70% of the total grade (before quizzes were 20 and tests 50). The final was 15%, a concept extension was 5, and assignments were the remaining 10%. Reflection: Moving forward, I don't plan to count assignments, but instead have 10% or less for student reflections. Reflections on lessons and self-assessments on concepts. I also will not have the concept extension, so that makes a majority of the grade based on knowing and understanding the standards.

2. For skills, I went with a scale of 0-4, but students could earn a 5 by getting a 4 on two assessments in a row. 0 was for students leaving a skill completely blank. Students could also get a 3.5. Reflection: I'm dropping the 3.5. it was just too much and too confusing.

3. I associated each scale with a percentage in the gradebook. A 5=100%, 4=90%, 3.5=80%, 3=70%, 2=55%, 1=40%. I wanted students and parents to be able to see and understand what grade they had. Reflection: I'll be changing this aspect for next year. I'm going to go more to the idea that to have an A, you'd have to have no score below 3 and a certain percentage of the skills at 4/5. Then figure out B, C, and have no Ds. I'm not exact on this detail yet, but I'll post when I iron it out.

4. Students were assessed (at least) twice in class assessments, usually about a week apart, with highest grade being recorded. After that, students could then request to retake (copy of Form) a concept. I used Shawn Cornally's idea that students could come in once a day to reassess one concept. I was originally hoping I would do more problems on the fly and ask for more explanations, but this proved to be very difficult when I had multiple students coming in at lunch for different concepts. I had to create assessments and have them ready to go for students to take. Reflection: I will still only allow the once a day for one concept. My schedule is more limited in the upcoming school year, so students will only be able to retest at lunch. I'm hoping to make changes to the initial assessments, so those changes will then transfer to changes in reassessments. I still don't think I'll be able to do them on the fly, but I'm going to require some more explanations so I can see if students truly understand.

For the quarter, I had 169 requests to reassess! A few requests were duplicates, but this is pretty accurate. My frequent flyer had 15 (out of 30 skills) requested - I had to have a conversation with this student several times as they were not using class time wisely; this was frustrating. Other than that student, most students took the opportunity serious. I still feel it was a lot for already having a retest in class. It was also overwhelming with the difference between my two class periods - 3/4 of the requests were from my 2 period. Reflection: Rarely did students come see me to get help. They often got help from each other, which I love, but many looked at mistakes, tried to remember the procedure, then hoped for the best. In the fall, I plan to require a little more effort on their part to show they reworked problems and that they understood.

5. Tracking and recording scores become a lot of work! I really wanted students to be able to look up their performance on concepts, so I had them create a PIN (personal identification 'name') and then they used that to look up on the spreadsheet. Main issue was that I didn't alphabetize this since that would be too obvious when they looked at it. I had a paper sheet I recorded all attempts on, then I would type into the Sheet (I'll call it the Teacher Sheet) the score. Both of these were in the same order (not alpha). I then created another Sheet (Student Sheet) that imported whatever I typed. This only listed the students PIN, so this is the one they had access to and would view. Plus side with this sheet is that I didn't have to do anything with it as I was updating my teacher sheet (=Importrange). Here is what the students saw:

So after the second attempt, I then used my alphabetical sheet to record the best score for that skill. Finally, I recorded the score into the online gradebook, for us it is Aeries. In Aeries, I used the sayings not the number. As you can see, this was WAY more work I put on myself. Reflection: I like paper, so I still plan on keeping that since I don't grade in front of a screen. But, I'm only keeping one paper. I'm still going to have a Google Sheet, but this will be for me. I have plans to have a Sheet that I can use for conferencing with students that will bring over the concept scores automatically (more to come on a future post!). I am for sure going to have students keep track of their own scores. Sarah from Everybody is a Genius had a student tracking sheet that I liked. I'm going to modify it a bit, but it is a good starting point. I haven't figured out how to keep parents informed of student progress yet.

6. At the end of the quarter, I asked students their thoughts about this grading. The results are to the right. Most of the students that said they didn't like it gave reasons like it was confusing, they were used to the other way, and that the sayings ("not yet", "progress", "got it") felt less real than the points. It was confusing - even for me. I can understand being comfortable with the usual way too. But a lot of students preferred this since they knew exactly what they needed to work on. They mentioned they liked that they were assessed twice, knew exactly what they needed to study and improve on, and were able to reassesses as needed. Reflection: This is a WIN in my book. This comment sums it up "I feel like this is a good system because it encourages reflecting and improving on work." What teacher wouldn't want this!!! 

Moving forward with this, I know I have things to improve on. I've spent the past month thinking about what needs to be fixed, looking at what others have done, and figuring out how to make this system work better. I'm excited about what I've read others have done and am looking forward to writing about my updates soon!

Numeracy vs. Literacy

Earlier this week I ran across a blog post from High Heels in High School about "When will we ever use this in real life?".  Then, I read this tweet this afternoon from Dan Meyer: 

Both really struck a chord with me. This has been my soap box this school year!

Long before this, I've been asking why it's okay for people to not be able to do math, but not okay to not be able to read? One of the points our math department presents to parents at Back-to-School Night every year, twice a year actually, is that they shouldn't say "I was never good at math" at home or to their kids.

In education, literacy and numeracy are often talked about. But numeracy always comes second, like the red-headed step-child. Yet, we expect the same results - proficiency. Data for the two is collected and compared, and math always is outperformed by ELA. The way math is treated though, this shouldn't be a surprise; us math teachers face an uphill battle. And I am sooo prepared for this battle!!

At our District, the top two goals of our Board are:

1. We want our students to demonstrate high levels of literacy in English (reading, writing, and listening & speaking).
2. We want our students to have expertise in mathematics.

Red-headed step-child!

I've heard of schools that have DEAR or SSR- so much emphasis is placed on English literacy. Reality is, students are using English every day, in each of their classes. All teachers are integrating English into their curriculum. But math is lonely - other teachers steer clear of it, even saying they don't know if or have needed it. AHHHHHH!!!  In January, I gave an Ignite Talk on this topic to math teachers in my District. Just last week, I was asking where our District's Math Center was, since we have a Literacy Center. I jokingly, well half-joking, was proposing a name change to the Math and Literacy Center. And, we also just completed our state testing. Every year, English tests the first week, math the second week. Once again, we are last. I was over testing as that second week began and it was only a schedule change that affected me. I can only imagine how the students actually testing were feeling. But it's always been this way. I don't know if math scores would be any better by going first, but it's worth a try to me! 

Alright, so I'm stepping back down off my box. Let me know if you have any solutions or suggestions!!!

Changing the Gradebook

Before our Spring term started in January, I was thinking a lot about how I can see if students are improving on concepts. The tests we administer were already assessing spiraled material. But, the way I graded, there was never a way for me to really tell if a student was improving in an earlier concept. Or rather, I didn't have a way to remember if they were!

Yes - I know what you are thinking .... Standard Based, duh! I've always agreed with the idea, but have been overwhelmed with seeing the implementation (I'm the type that really has to have it all mapped out before I execute). In my earlier years of teaching, I did Grading for Learning, but didn't feel it went too well. Anyways, back to this Fall....

Talking out my thoughts with 2 colleagues (thanks Jackie and Megan), we were able to come up with something that wouldn't be too overwhelming to implement. Our tests category in our grade book would now be broken into Chapters. Each test we gave would now be broken by chapter. So, for example, on the Chapter 4 test, there would be sections for Chapter 1-3. Each would have a new entry in that chapter in the grade book. The goal: see if there was improvement as time went on.

The quarter ended last week. I finally was able to finish up my grades, analyze effectiveness, and have the time to write this up. Thoughts:

1. When it came to conferences with students, this was great because I was easily able to tell them what area they needed to work on.
2. It was a little extra work to reorganize assessments, and record multiple scores for each assessment.
3. Students grades improved!!!!

The last reason is the best! I kept a second grade book for 1 of my classes that was my "old" way. When I finalized grades, I compared final percentages and letter grades. In my class of 36 students, I had 1 student who did worse (went from 91.1 to 89%). I'm not exactly sure why this happened. A third (12) of the students final grade improved. Of those 12 students, half of them increased by moving into the next grade (i.e. D+ to a C-), the other half increased within that grade (i.e. B- to B). I see this as successful!

What makes it worth it:
1. A student that improved from an F to a C-
2. A senior, who took 3 tries to pass Integrated Math 1, passed my Math 2 course (first half) on the first attempt! With this new way, he went from an F to a D.

Final thoughts: this wasn't perfect. It was a good step into concept mastery and encouraging to see that it helped students be more successful. As we start the next semester, I've decided to disrupt the status quo and dive even deeper into Standards Based Grading. I'm not sure how it's going to go and I'm certain I'll be driving myself crazy along the way. But I've been wanting to take this step, so now is as good as ever!

Emergency Sub Plans #MTBoS

As part of the #MTBoS #SundayFunday Weekly BNogging Challenge, the post this week is on "Emergency Sub Plans"  Note: I missed last weeks on Teacher Hacks! 😕

I probably should do better about having Emergency Sub Plans. I do have something in a green folder in my desk - clearly labeled, of course. I remember they are a class set of equations to solve - perfect for many courses. I'm not sure where the actual file is, so I can't share that right now, but I will link it next week when I get back to the office.

What I will say about the assignment is that it is boring! It's just about 30 equations of varying difficulty that students are suppose to solve. Hey, if they are for an Emergency I want them to just quickly work to keep students occupied.

What I will also say is that in 11 years of teaching, I've never had to use them. I had one time (during my second year) where I was really sick and didn't make it into work, deciding at 4am I was too ill. I remember just tying out what the students needed to get done - what was in my plan already to do. This instance, I was out for 2 days and the 3rd day happened to be a snow day. But I returned that Thursday and just used the time to follow up on some of the topics. It seemed to be ok. So why go through the trouble?

Now, with some of the access students have to technology, I feel I can easily push something out into Classroom. Students would know what they were expected to complete. I'm organized enough that I know what I have planned at least a week ahead of time, so that makes it easier. I also trust that my students would be able to complete assignments without me around!

One other reason I don't feel putting Emergency Sub Plans together is a priority is because I work with an ABSOLUTELY AMAZING group!! My department is so awesome and we will always help each other out. We plan together and have documents posted in Google Drive. If needed, I can send a text to my team and they would be more than happy to fill a substitute in on what needs to happen for that day.