Notes: December 5, 2002

We started talking about introducing performance-based assessment and portfolios to parents and other teachers. Rachel said that her parent conferences are lasting longer now, but that parents seem to be accepting the rubrics and graphics well.

Someone raised the point that the kindergarten teachers are having questions as to whether rubrics and portfolios are useful for young children. Julia gave the example of a five year old who came to her Wednesday night assessment class to present her literacy portfolio. The little girl was very excited to present it the class and showed a really profound grasp of literacy -- that it means not only reading something but knowing what it means. She showed (and read) pictures of environmental print that she can read (i.e. McDonald’s).

Erica talked about how her students are really getting into using the graphing -- the students want to graph how much they watch TV. Rachel talked about how hers are voting on goals, which they then graph. Lupe said the important thing about what we’re doing is that kids are taking ownership about what they are doing and Erica suggested that it’s not even all that important the end goal, but rather, by graphing their self-selected goals they make progress. Rachel suggested maybe some of the resistance to this kind of assessment may come from giving power to students. Erica also said that part of it may be difficulty in thinking about how to implement it -- it is hard to envision how to make it work in your classroom. Someone else noted that another positive aspect is that this kind of assessment helps you clarify what you want to teach and do. By really working out what the criteria are, it helps us become more aware (What does it really mean to be good?). By working on rubrics or setting goals, it helps break down the very big goal of “getting ready for the next grade.” And then it help us link activities to the standards and generalize learning from different activities into others. Diana suggested that learning to use graphing, charting, and rubrics through behavior is a good way to transition into using them for academics.

Silvia asked how Rachel taught her students to use the behavior rubric, because it’s pretty complex. In her class they first talked about what the class rules for good behavior are. (Erica and Rachel both talked about what good behavior means - mission statement and goals - as an “anticipatory set.”) Rachel then started with each level of the rubric and talked about it with her students. It took about 30 minutes to explain the four levels and talk it through with them. That same day, later in the morning, she graphed their behavior with them. She felt that it took several weeks until they really understood and knew exactly what the rubric meant, so she went over it every day. She still periodically goes back and revisits the rubric now and then. She also goes over the rubric with them when they graph their behavior, especially is she feels that they are not thinking carefully about exactly what they did that warrants the rating that day.

Erica and Rachel shared that the class mission statement includes big things the students want to accomplish by the end of the year (i.e. become good readers) and includes all kinds of things like academics and behavior. The goals are monthly concrete things that students can do to get to their mission, like read three books this month. One big shift they found with using this kind of system is that you have to take time to set this up in the beginning (you have to go slow now so you can go fast later). It seems like that it may take time, initially, from academics. But Erica found that if you start with behavior, then it’s not a problem which takes constant time from academics, later. It also makes it easier to use this kind of assessment for academics.

Rachel said that by setting goals together with her students and then by graphing, it has made them more of community than before. Both Erica and Rachel have found that their students have reached certain places earlier than their classes last year (i.e. counting to 100). Also, with the charting, the students seem to be learning what behaviors they should be shooting for and then it isn’t as necessary to use the prize box as before they graphed students’ behavior. We talked about the notion that we want children to have internal motivation and that it seems that this kind of assessment helps with their internal motivation because you can’t just expect children to know what they are supposed to do. The rubrics and discussions help students know what it means to have “good behavior.” So it seems to be a way to develop intrinsic motivation.

We talked about all of the dilemmas involved in getting students to bring homework back. Joyce has managed to get all but three students to bring their homework back, but those three are very difficult. We talked about different problems, from kids who sleep in different homes every night and get no support from parents to help, to kids who get help but don’t remember to bring it back. We talked about how much help we should offer, such as through homework clubs and to what extent that enables parents.

We finished up the semester well, with wonderful food and thoughtful conversation. Thanks much to all of you for coming, participating, thinking sharing, and developing a real learning community this semester. I enjoying learning along side of all of you!
 
 

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