SBG and Retention

Just wanted to make a quick post today before I take my students on a weekend trip for fieldwork in the wetlands - so looking forward to this.  Field work is real science - at least I'd like to think so.

This is my second year of using SBG and suffice it to say, it's still a work in progress.  I'm still trying to figure out the best way to do assessments.  In the past I had used quizzes, but am slowly (ok, stubbornly) learning that quizzes are actually for me to judge the effectiveness of instruction, not a student's understanding.  I need to learn different ways to assess student learning & understanding besides just quizzes.  How can I vary the way I assess students?  Someone suggested that a student project can be used as an assessment.  My challenge to that is -- but if I'm supporting/helping the student as they work, how can I determine they are learning?  Isn't the purpose of SBG for students to show me they have independently learned an idea or concept?  Can anyone shed light on this?

I just read a post over at Think Thank Thunk today and it triggered some thoughts about student retention.  What is learning?  What is retention?  How realistic is it to expect students to retain information about dwarf planets or the process of a dividing cell when they probably don't care about it?  It may be important to them now to retain the information because they earn a grade for it.  However, after they finish high school, will they continue to retain the information?  Most likely not, unless they have a career interest in NASA or being a veterinarian.

One thing I have determined -- students who have been in this SBG system for the 2nd year show increased effort and desire to do well.  First year students are also somewhat learning how it works.  What I want them to do is learn the values of (to name a few) hard work, practice, honesty with themselves, and developing problem solving strategies - these are the things I hope they "retain" after high school.  No matter the content they want to learn about some day, they will have these values that will drive them to be successful.

It is our character that helps us to be successful, not the amount of information we know or retain.

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?