So just now I was thinking... are my Habits of Work grades helpful, harmful, or a waste of time?

by jessica maciejewski

If you're thinking, "Habits of Work seems like a shady, character-based rando category," it's one that my department had in place and that I at first wasn't that into either. However! I've already been doing character work for the last two years based on the KIPP character traits and the amazing book How Children Succeed: grit, curiosity, and the hidden 
power of character by Paul "my last name is awesomely ironic" Tough, and since I believe in mastery teaching, it all comes together. As long as kids have turned in a draft or whatever on time, they can redo or retake the assessment later. But this makes some kids feel like, "Hey! I can turn all of this in the week before midterms!" which is not cool and also not fair to me. So first drafts are due, class time encourages completion, and Habits of Work means no A unless you're doing stuff on time and being a generally good participant and respectful person.

Why would I include those "soft skills"? Because they're what most of us are required to do for our jobs. A lot of our graduates are hitting college heartbreak hard when they find out that no, their professor will not take late work whatsoever, and no, there is no "retake center." I want to do right by them, and that means this is a piece of the pie. Check out three of KIPP's adorable and useful character posters, with description and the rest of the 7 here: KIPP character traits


                                                        

In talking about this with colleagues, one idea was a progressive late work policy over their four years, from no penalty (just noted) to not being accepted. While some college professors may accept late work, many (most?) do not... and most work places aren't cool with you doing things when you feel like it, either. Okay, so what does this look like for me? Along with those posters & minilessons (which are still works in progress, ideas welcome!), here's the weekly goal sheet and then Quarter 1 reflection I had students do:

Want to know more about this so-called character work? Check out my posts on character and grading.

So just now I was thinking... about implementing standards based grading. Woo!

by jessica maciejewski

Midway through our "EG Lead Learners Team" meeting today, my brain was afire with big-picture ideas. Now I'm the kind of person who is critical of ideas (my own included), but once I'm excited and have done basic research about something, I want to run with it. Give it a "trial by fire," persay, and see how it goes, reworking along the way.

So this summer I had the privilege of attending the Pearson Assessment Training Conference in Portland, Oregon, on grading practices. While I am skeptical about Pearson's actual interest in improving education versus making cash monies and maintaining ranking as a top institute merely for the value added to their brand, based on my own experiences with standardized tests and trainings as well as the awesome John Oliver's exposé in regards to standardized testing (holy crap this sentence is already "wordy"),



I left the conference with an educator crush on Myron Dueck and feeling intrigued by a 4- or 6-point grading scale based on below basic, basic, proficient, and mastery levels.

After viewing a bunch of different teachers' grade books (one from 1946, then the rest modern & online), I didn't see any I thought were effectively communicating student progress or fairly assigning grades. Then I looked at my own. I didn't like that one either (though I did like it a lot more than the others at least?). So I set some goals for my 2nd quarter:

(AND THEN THE WORLD): 

Soooooo my current grades are feast or famine. Which is maybe encouraging(?) because if a kid turned stuff in (at ALL), they're at a B. If s/he didn't... it's F City. Ugh, it feels intimate to share this:



Now, by the end of the term, that "grades are real!" hustle will kick in and I'll get more essays and etc. But is that fair? Am I doing this right? If a kid has not turned in aaaaaanything, I can't assess them, so it's listed as missing (which counts as a zero). They can make this up whenever. The sooner the better. Yep, made phone calls home. Yep, conferences with kids. Yep, referred them to the tutoring center. If I didn't do the Missing/0 thing, that kid would think they were passing and then ::SURPRISE, YOU FAILED!:: would happen the last week of the quarter. :/ Should they be passing at all if they have done zero work? E1 FD is Essay 1 First Draft, then E1 R is the revised version. Vocab is mastery oriented (vocabulary.com), self-paced, and falls under reading skills as does IR (independent reading). The grammar tests are self-paced. SAT is multiplied by zero and is not a score, just a baseline "fyi" for kids from our first SAT Writing in class test.

So here are my big idea steps/goals for Q2:

• break down skills based on the Illinois grades 9-12 ELA Common Core (<that was ridiculously tedious to actually get to)
• create descriptors of each level of ability in each skill
• redesign rubrics based on skills
• update gradebook for quarter 2 with all skills; include related assignments in comments section (Haiku Learning seems like it would be a fantastic standards based grading system, though I just discovered it and have never used it)

Ooookay. Sounds like I have enough for right now. I'm not even sure I can do this for Writing/Grammar, Reading/Vocab, and Speaking by next term. Ideas and *constructive* feedback welcome!

Want to know more about Habits of Work? Check out my post: HoW & Character