Growing Pains

Well, it's not a weekly reflection as I hoped it would be, but 1 month later, here I am.  I have to remember to breathe, take small steps, take it one day at a time, and all those expressions that basically say its okay if it doesn't happen right away.  Keep plugging away and in no time, it'll become a regular habit.

Boy, I'm trying to push myself to be a better teacher and person this year.  I wonder if I'm overdoing it.  I really liked how SBG worked last year. So far this year, it's smoother since the students have had one year under their belt and know how it works.  The new students are going through their learning curve.

So my issue that I'm facing these past few weeks is working on becoming a better inquiry teacher.  Working so hard on developing questions that will challenge students.  I also get so frustrated sometimes when students aren't able to arrive at a conclusion.  So I'm asking those who are reading this for advice.  Do students struggle to comprehend because they are not given enough direction to begin with or is it because they are struggling with higher level thinking skills?  I want to jump in and just give them the answers!  I know this won't help them in the long run, though.  It makes me want to pull my hair out of my head!!!!!


For example, here's a question I posed to them.  Lots of the students were interested in pyramids.

               "What is the latitude and longitude of the pyramids in Chichen Itza?"   I gave them a list of
                vocabulary words that included latitude, longitude, equator, and prime meridian.  I asked them to
                find the answer to the question and in their reports, they were to incorporate the vocabulary given.

Most of them just looked up the meanings and wrote down the latitude and longitude of the place.   That was it.  I don't know what I was expecting, but I didn't expect it to be so bare bones simple.

So lay it on me -- how was that for an inquiry project for them?  Too little to start with?   What was it supposed to look like?   Any feedback you can give me will be great.  You won't hurt my feelings, I promise.  I want to hone my craft.  Iron sharpens iron!


Thanks to all who give feedback!

It's Done!

Earlier I posted that most of my SBG skills lists were done, but not all.   Well, NOW they are all done!  I am so excited about how they look.  I'm anxious to find out how it will go over with students, with myself, and how the grading will stand up to the challenge this year.

A colleague I was working with said something I had already felt: "I feel like I know what I'm going to look for and what students are going to learn for the entire year."  (emphasis mine)   Zing!   Isn't that a great feeling?  A nice feature of SBG!  Pacing guides are great, but they are just general ideas of what topics we'll be diving into.  SBG will help assess (ready for it?)  - learning!

Of course, as usual, our human nature comes up after a good feeling --- what if this doesn't work !?!  I cannot say that I'm not worried.  I have read all about it, researched it, followed people who use it, and looked at countless examples.  So it should work.....right?  It is a big change (risk?) and that's something I'm not used to.  However, I do have confidence in the evidence that is out there.  And if I fall flat on my face, I'll shoulder all the blame.  Isn't that part of growing and learning - trying new things?   I just hope it doesn't come at the expense of student growth.  I have usually been against using students in some "research project" or something similar because I don't want to mess with their education.  But I find myself in the same shoes that I was pretty much against.  We shall see....

Now on to the assessments themselves.  That'll be the challenge.  I know I'll be doing these on the fly -- not ideal, but considering the time I have left, I'll have to do it week by week.  I'll be browsing around some of your blogs for ideas, but any suggestions from you SBG users?

Starting on the SBG Road - No Homework?

Ok, so now that I've got my stuff organized (see last blog post), the easy part. The hard part was figuring out how was I going to grade the students? I didn't want to grade regurgitated facts – I wanted to grade their learning. Again, Twitter came to the rescue. I believe it was @ccarmen, @gardenglen, and @Brunsell... who turned me onto the idea of SBG – Standards Based Grading. They directed me to a couple of sites and from there, the snowball effect took place.

In my early attempt to define it (since it cannot be summarized in a short way), the students are graded based on the standards. It has nothing to do with effort/participation, quizzes, bonus points, etc. The grade is based on how well you understand the standards or perform the standards. One thing that got my attention me – homework is NOT graded. Yes, you read that right.

I had always believed in giving homework --- my goal with homework was always practice, practice, practice. What struck me especially was that students should be able to practice without pressure. Why punish students for practicing? (punish in this case means a bad grade) It doesn't matter what one is doing when they are practicing – they usually won't get it right the first time, be it sports, music, or schoolwork. They should be able to practice without pressure - just be able to try and try again.  That really hit home with me – my students usually have a lot of personal issues to deal with and they don't need another pressure point with homework. I would love for them to practice. If they couldn't do it, they could come see me the next day. If they can, what would that do for their self-esteem? One of the biggest things about my students is they often get a message (intentional or not) and the message is “you can't.” I want them to believe in themselves and see that they CAN.

There is a lot about SBG that I will have to learn. But I have gleaned that 1) it will be harder for students, 2) grades should drop – fall more in line what state testing scores, but 3) it can and should reflect their actual skills. More on this in the following posts.....

If you use SBG, what is it that you like about it most?