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This year I have posted several blogs about grading and assessment. I encouraged teachers to stop taking grading home for two simple reasons: When I tell teachers I have not taken grading home since January of last year, they are immediately interested. They want to know exactly how I have managed that as a high school […]
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Over the last two years, I’ve moved further and further away from traditional grading. I’ve blogged about grading for mastery of skills instead of the accumulation of points and ditching my traditional grade book in favor of an ongoing assessment document. Each grading period I identify target skills and assess those skills. Instead of spending hours […]
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In my last blog post titled, “Stop Taking Grading Home,” I explained how I use the Station Rotation Model to provide students with real-time feedback as they work instead of taking grading home. I had one teacher ask me what I do when a student arrives at my teacher-led station and has not done the work required. […]
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In January I wrote a blog post titled “New Year Resolution: I’m Moving ALL Assessment into the Classroom.” I’m here to update everyone. Since January, I have not brought a single stack of digital papers home to grade! It’s been amazing! It’s not that my students aren’t writing. In fact, they just completed a detailed six […]
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When I began using the Station Rotation Model with students, I made a habit of printing directions for offline stations and typing directions for my online stations. I used Google Docs for my online directions because it was easy to mix text and images then share that document directly with students. My goal was to […]
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I don’t typically make “pie in the sky” New Year resolutions, but [clickToTweet tweet=”This year I am bound & determined to move ALL assessment into the classroom!” quote=”this year I am bound and determined to move ALL assessment into the classroom!”] This may sound like a crazy resolution given that most teachers spend hours of […]
For years I’ve watched students lug cumbersome binders to each class–dutifully take notes and collecting large quantities of paper. I’ve often wondered how useful these binders are and how often students sift through their papers to review information. Look familiar? This year, students in N.E.W. School traded in their traditional notebooks for multimedia digital blogs using […]
Who does the following tasks in your classroom: Plans daily lessons Teaches or facilitates each lesson Designs projects Troubleshoots technology hiccups Assesses student work Communicates with parents about student progress If the answer to most of these questions is you, the teacher, then you’ve already realized you are doing the lion’s share of the work […]
Last year, I began experimenting with standards-based grading and wrote a blog titled “Grading for Mastery and Redesigning My Gradebook.” My goal was to shift the conversation away from the accumulation of points and, instead, focus on the development of skills. Although I appreciated the immediate change that took place when I began grading based […]
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Whenever I train teachers on the Flipped Classroom Model, I’m always asked the same questions. “What do you do if your students do not complete the homework?” or “What do you do if students do not have access to the internet and/or devices at home?” These are valid questions and concerns. Homework completion and online […]
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At the start of this year, I wrote a blog titled “Grading for Mastery and Redesigning My Gradebook,” which detailed my desire to rethink assessment in my classroom. I was tired of students always asking me about points and grades, instead of asking me about how they could improve their skills. I wanted feedback and […]
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When I volunteer in my children’s elementary classrooms (1st and 3rd grade), I am struck by how frequently the teacher finds time to work directly with small groups of students to offer additional support, review concepts, assess understanding, and practice skills. At the secondary level scenes like this are less frequent. Many middle school and high school […]