(Page 35) “Always err on the side of substance, not fluff.”
I love projects. I mean actually doing them myself, making something. I did a fabulous job last year on Ava’s “All About Me” project for her pre-school class. I’ll even go out on a limb and say it was the best one in the class. (Okay, that’s not really going out on a limb—some of the projects didn’t show the effort of any 3-D effects at all…they were just simply colored with Crayolas.) So what did I learn by doing, I mean helping, Ava with that project? (Other than cute cloth at a fabric store is really expensive.) Not a whole lot. While I do think the project is valid for pre-schoolers to do, when we assign projects in our class we have to ask ourselves, “What is the student going to learn from this?” or “How will this further the student’s learning?” I’ve seen some neat projects in my time but have wondered what the student learned in the process. Just because students are making some nifty project doesn’t mean they’ve necessarily learned anything. Don’t think I’m not guilty—I’ve certainly assigned pointless projects in my time. I think it’s Maya Angelou whom Oprah gives credit for saying, “I did then what I knew then. When I knew better, I did better.”
I love projects. I mean actually doing them myself, making something. I did a fabulous job last year on Ava’s “All About Me” project for her pre-school class. I’ll even go out on a limb and say it was the best one in the class. (Okay, that’s not really going out on a limb—some of the projects didn’t show the effort of any 3-D effects at all…they were just simply colored with Crayolas.) So what did I learn by doing, I mean helping, Ava with that project? (Other than cute cloth at a fabric store is really expensive.) Not a whole lot. While I do think the project is valid for pre-schoolers to do, when we assign projects in our class we have to ask ourselves, “What is the student going to learn from this?” or “How will this further the student’s learning?” I’ve seen some neat projects in my time but have wondered what the student learned in the process. Just because students are making some nifty project doesn’t mean they’ve necessarily learned anything. Don’t think I’m not guilty—I’ve certainly assigned pointless projects in my time. I think it’s Maya Angelou whom Oprah gives credit for saying, “I did then what I knew then. When I knew better, I did better.”
On another note, I like how Wormelli goes into detail about rubrics and how to design them (pages 44-48). After reading it, I definitely realized that the HSAP rubric is analytic—hence the reason why students can get different scores when different people score the responses. I also like how he suggested not to have five levels on the rubric because students tend to automatically think of the A-F scale. I had never thought about that, but it does make perfect sense. I think our clapping engagement in our first class reiterated the importance of giving the rubric to the students before they actually start the assignment.
13 comments:
rest of chapter 3 and chapter 4
Okay… after doing the readings I have a question. How do we introduce Airport High School students to new technologies and not assess the hardware/software portion of the presentation? On the bottom of p. 33 and top of p. 34 Wormeli reiterates it takes solid technical skills to prepare a multimedia presentation on a topic, but what if we are dealing with a few hardware resources and want to at least expose our students to new technologies?
For example, we are getting a SMART Board installed in the media center (and four more installed at Airport High School this school year). How do we teach students this exciting technology, and at the same time be fair about assessing their knowledge of the proprietary notebook software and interactive whiteboard? Or do we? If Airport High School teachers are the sole creators and users of the notebook files, are we helping or hindering our students as they enter high tech institutions of higher ed. and/or the 21st century workplace?
On a completely different note, the Election 08! committee is going to meet and plan optional school activities for interested teachers leading up to the election. Would the reading notations Wormeli describes on p. 55 be a meaningful thinking activity when students read the Obama and McCain websites and examine the candidates’ positions on the issues? I believe reading notations would help students self-assess where they (the students) stand on issues, and be able to cast an informed vote during the October 30 mock election, but am interested in whether others in SCRI study group have used reading notations and what that experience has been.
Wow, is this author thorough! I mean, do all of you put as much thought into planning a lesson as Wormelli indicates on pp. 35-36?
All in all, I didn’t find that there were many surprises in the reading. My assessments certainly need the work. I did, however, appreciate his point that there is a time and place for both real-life and skills assessment. An “expert” in World Language assessment categorizes as such: “game,” “game-like” and “drill.” Drill would be, “Practice putting these verbs into command form.” Game-like would be “listen to these directions and follow along on the map. Then, identify the destination.” And Game would be “Give your partner directions to your house from here.”
After reading this, I find I’m guilty of teaching students the skills they’ll need for the unit and testing them on them without guiding them on how to apply the skills to the task at hand. To me, it seems obvious, but it apparently isn’t to my students.
Andrea, in response to your questions, I think the reading notations would be an excellent idea. I think students tend to get bogged down with reading so that they forget what they feel. Having them leave themselves clues will help them to go back later and sort out the information. It might also be a good idea to have some sort of organizer where they can list the issues of the election that are important to them and where they stand on each of the issues. Then, as they read the candidates’ information, they could make notes about their positions and why.
Also, his comment about technology bothered me, too, but for a different reason. I find it less and less likely that a student doesn’t know how to use technology. In fact, quite frankly, I find that the students often know much more than I do. It’s more often a lack of access to the technology that I run into. I try and remind my students that they have access to computers in the library, but, for whatever reason, they don’t often take advantage of that.
I had a question: I think I misunderstood something he said on p. 40. In the little print, he made a comment to the effect of “summative assessments (ie graded assignments).” Is he saying that we should only grade summative assessments?
Fair Isn’t Always Equal: The Rest of Chapter 3 and Chapter 4
Deb said……..
On page 32, it states “that authenticity refers to two aspects of assessment. First, the assessment is close to how students will apply their learning to real-world applications” and in the next paragraph it states, “that real applications are secondary. Holding students accountable for adult-level proficiency as it would happen in their lives beyond school is often inappropriate”. I felt that these statements were contradictory to each other and left me baffled and confused to the author’s intent. Maybe we could discuss this further in class.
On the other hand, Chapter 4 was a lot easier to digest. It definitely supported what I felt earlier in my last blog about portfolios. The author pin points that they are an excellent way to determine accurate grades for students in differentiated classes. The section on Rubrics was also beneficial and will be invaluable for me as Special Education teacher. It provided several factors, and qualities to help create good rubrics for my classroom. Rubrics will be a useful tool to present to my students on what is expected of them to be successful with their class work or projects.
Student Self-Assessment:
Last year, Anna’s strategy was on how to utilize Interactive Notebooks with our students and in this weeks reading it was mention as a popular way for self-assessment for students to demonstrate mastery of content. I have seen first hand how beneficial this has been to students to retain useful information. I feel that this author verifies my opinion on the use of Interactive Notebooks.
Secondly, this section coincides with what I do in my classroom. My students have to write in their journals and learning logs each day, so the sample prompts given on pages 52 and 53 will definitely be integrated in my classroom.
After reading the rest of Chapter 3and Chapter 4 a few things stood out to me. I believe that teachers should avoid assigning fluff assignments. Assignments should contain substance and have students using and learning the material to be assessed. Assignments should not be activites just to keep the students busy.
There are many factors that affect students learning. Even though it is hard and you don't always have the time it is a good idea to jot notes about students behavior. Ms. Kish and Mrs. Reed do an excellent job with this. It really does help administration when it comes to discipline issues.
When I taught I never did use portfolios. I always used rubrics. I believe students do better when they know what is expected of them. With rubrics they can see what is expected of them and they should be able to dtermine what grade they will receive.
Blog Two
Fair Isn’t Always Equal The Rest of Chapter Three and Chapter Four
Diane and I may have a lot of things in common, but her love of projects is certainly not one of them. I dislike them so much that I probably made a big mistake as a parent because of them and took Carlie out of the district’s Advanced Elementary Program (AEP) because she dislikes projects just as much as I do. Projects tend to be more a source of stress than learning. I would much rather have to take a test to demonstrate what I know or can do. For those of you who are wondering, Ava’s project was awesome! Diane should be very proud of the job she did.
I certainly do agree with substance over fluff. I think that oftentimes teachers mean well when they create assignments that are merely fluff. They give an assignment or project because they think they are then addressing multiple learning styles and multiple intelligences when they’re not. Or they assign a project because a project is much easier to grade than say an essay test that would allow students to demonstrate what they know.
Portfolios are something I’ve always wanted to try but not as the only assessment used to determine a student’s final grade. I would use a portfolio in conjunction with other required work. When I taught 75 students a semester, I still thought the task was pretty daunting. Now that I teach 122 students, I can’t imagine that I’ll try portfolios anytime soon.
Rubrics are something that I can and do use; but truth be told, I don’t use them nearly as often as I should. It does take time to create an effective rubric—a rubric that doesn’t make it easy for a student to get away with looking like he knows something or can do something when he can’t and vice versa. Wormeli writes about that possibility on page 45, bullets five and six.
Now student self-assessments are something I think I could really get into. I believe there’s great power in having the ability to be objectively reflective. That’s a skill I’d like to help my students learn.
Nicole, you’re exactly right about technology. The biggest frustration isn’t that kids don’t know how to use it. The biggest frustration is that you can’t get your kids into a computer lab when you want to; and when you can, you still have to be concerned with paper and ink cartridge usage.
Rest of Chapter Three and Chapter Four
First of all, I have to agree with Diane. I like projects, myself. I always enjoyed projects. I enjoyed creatively showing what I learned…even if it did provide a little bit of stress here and there. However, I, too, have to make sure I’m not the kind of teacher who uses fluff without substance in my assessments. In addition, I have to make sure that I challenge all of my students. On page 35 Wormelli writes,
“Students will spot a lightweight approach every time and they will resent it, even those you are supposedly letting off the hook.”
While I might think I’m helping my students, I’m only hurting them. In these instances, where the assessment becomes “fluff,” the students are not only unable to show their mastery of the material, but they’re also frustrated for being let off the hook.
I also enjoyed reading about the anchor activities. I had a bit of difficulty at our one-day seminar understanding what constitutes an anchor activity. I think they’re great to use, and I want to use them. I’m just a little nervous that I couldn’t be instructing small groups and running to check on everyone and their anchor activities all at the same time. This might be a good time, though, to have Shelley in the classroom (our Academic Support teacher). She could circulate throughout the room and help students with their anchor activities, and I could work with small group instruction. This would definitely support differentiation.
Another point…I loved the analogy on page 41. We don’t practice having a physical exam at the doctor’s office in order to be fit. Instead we work daily to make our bodies healthy and fit for the physical exam. Then, if we’re prepared, we’ll do well. In the same way, if we prepare our students with the right skills and mastery of our lessons, they’ll be ready for those dreaded tests, such as the EOC. I have to admit, this was a little upsetting for me. It’s very true. However, does this mean that the students who don’t do well on my EOC didn’t learn in my class? I’d like to say that’s not the case. But it does make me question my teaching at times.
Finally, I enjoyed chapter four. I like how Wormelli broke down various forms of assessments. I’ve always wanted to use portfolios. When I was in a graduate class at USC, we did a portfolio the entire semester. Even though it drove me crazy at times, I genuinely learned from it. I mainly learned from it—just like our kids would—because I reflected all of the time on what I was working on. By reflecting, we learn, we grow, we’re smarter! I also have to agree with Claire about rubrics. I use rubrics a lot, but I really need to revisit them and make sure they’re not just ways for students to get by and get a good grade when they haven’t reached mastery. This was a good reminder for me. Just because I have a rubric does not mean it’s perfect. I need to review the ones I have, and use Wormelli’s advice about the ones I still want to make. I do have to agree, also, that our HSAP rubric is a great analytical tool. I love using it. I have my students use the ER rubric every time they write an essay for me.
Great ideas. Great thoughts. Thanks!
I agree with Ruth Anne about revising and analyzing my rubrics. Often when grading with a rubric, I realize that I have left something out or have given too much emphasis on one area. Also, I usually make the rubric right before I grade. I know this isn’t ideal since the students need to know what it is exactly they will be graded on. Wormelli offers good advice in chapter 4 on implementing rubrics into my lessons. I really liked his advice about the levels. I never thought about a 5-level tier being equated with the grades of A-F. However, student grades are reported using the A-F scale? How would I translate the “word” score into a numerical score?
Fair Isn’t Always Equal
Rick Wormeli
On page 35, Wormeli provides elaborately detailed instructions for formulating your lesson plans. The question that arises in my mind is does everyone really involve that much time in preparing their lessons? I’d like to think I do, but he really made me stop and re-evaluate my thought process. I do, however, like the idea of numbers 11 and 12: “Evaluate the lesson’s success with students. What evidence do you have that the lesson was successful?...Record advice for yourself on changes when you do this lesson in future years...” I have heard several people say that they keep daily journals that evaluate and access their day’s work and for some reason it never really “clicked” until now. It seems like an absolutely wonderful idea!
Portfolios: I agree with the idea behind them and would really like to implement it in my class, in fact, next semester I have all senior English classes. After reading what Wormeli had to say, I think I’d like to come up with a way to make a portfolio apart of their final grade in my class, a reflection process, looking at how far they’ve come in their 4 years of high school. However, my students are constantly misplacing their work once it is returned to them. I stress to them how important it is to keep up with this stuff in their notebooks, but as I’m sure you guys know, they don’t listen.
And finally, projects, I have to agree with Diane and Ruth Anne, I love them! I know some of you questioned the valued learning behind them, but I find them to be an excellent source at demonstrating abilities that sometimes go unnoticed. For example, I am a horrible test taker. I literally freeze. I could go home and study all night and end up knowing absolutely everything there is to know about a subject, but place a piece of white paper with black words and a time limit in front of me, and I fall apart. Having projects served as ways to make up for poor test scores and also showed my teacher that I do have a clue as to what’s going on. But you guys are right, there has to be a distinct learning purpose behind them.
I'm kind of half and half on using/making projects. I feel they add a lot of extra stress when I'm doing them, but when they're done, I really enjoy the results. In my senior year English class, we had to write a two page paper every week about a year in our lives from 1-18. During that time period, I thought it was a waste of time and effort. Now, I love to look back and see how my writing and thought process has changed from then. I've even had my students do something similar.
Mrs. Reed and I talk about our "fluff and stuff" (as we call them) assignments a lot. Often times my kids see the length of tests and just mentally quit before they begin, so we're always trying to come up with test alternatives. Sometimes they are projects with rubrics and exit slips to display what they've learned and they turn out very well. Other times, I think we're not helping them because they'll eventually have to get past the notion of freaking out over tests.
We're making more of an effort this year to consistently explain directions and study types of tests so they don't seem as scary.
Mrs. Reynolds, the teacher who was here before me, had our students work on a portfolio throughout the year and I thought about continuing it and never did. I wish I would have because my students loved looking back through it and bragging about the work they did in it.
Obviously as a part of our class, documenting behaviors is a necessity. One reason outside of the obvious I like to do it is because I look back at when the behaviors were bad, what the cause was, what I was teaching at the time, and possibly how I could do it differently.
I really liked the variety and detail of rubrics provided in Chapter 4. Behavior rubrics are every day for my students. If they don't meet a certain point level, they don't go to their outclass or lunch, etc. That's what I think of first, but the way and depth rubrics were explained here made me want to use them academically a lot more than I do.
Wow! I think I am one of the last to enter my blog, and truth be known, I am typing while my students are working quietly on their writing journals in third block. I know, shame on me. Anyway, there is a wealth of information in these two chapters.
Like Diane, I love projects. I was definitely the queen of them when I taught middle school. I know that I like them in the classroom, because I loved them as a student. I do much better on those types of assessments than I do actual tests. I occasionally do projects with my students. For instance, all of them are writing and typing their own number tiles problem. I find them more difficult to do in Academic Support, though, because just as we get involved in them, all of the other teachers my students have assign projects and have tests and work that they need to make up for them. That is much more important than a project I would do. Also, I remember attending Janet Allen’s workshops for many summers, and she mentioned on a number of occasions that it would be better for students to just read more books instead of spending time on a project based on a book they had read. That statement really hit home with me.
Like Ruth Anne, I am interested in the anchor projects that are mentioned on page 38. I assigned the number tiles project with that in mind. If I can develop some quality anchor activities for students to complete on a weekly basis, then I could free up more one on one time to work with students who are struggling with a particular skill or class. This first week hasn’t been smooth, and in some respects I just created more work for myself, but they are doing a good job with the number tiles, and they are using technology (typing them). I just have to keep trying!
Fair Isn’t Always Equal- The rest of Chapter 3 & Chapter 4
No, Pam, you are not the last person to blog! I am but only because I could find the link last night! Now I have all these wonderful responses to ponder!! I have to say that I agree with Nicole about the TIME that goes into the planning and implementation of these DI lessons. I was feeling very inadequate as I read this. And, because I have so much free time on my hands now, I see no reason why it can’t be done! RIGHT!!!! That being said, I did agree with the Fluff vs. Substantive arguments on pgs. 34-35. I am guilty of this but only when I did not know any better. Now I think long and hard over assignments- I want my students to get something from the assignment. I also love projects but I have learned that they can kill me. I think that they are a good alternative to testing because some students do not test well but can soar with projects.
I was so glad to see the rubrics discussed in Chapter 4. I have struggled with rubrics in the past but feel that I have gotten better. However, I am guilty of not giving the rubrics to students ahead of time. I know the value of knowing exactly how you will be graded and I am trying to strive to do a better job of getting them out early.
I love Andrea’s idea of election activities. What a great way to put theory into practice! And like Claire, I feel overwhelmed with the idea of portfolios for 127 students. I realize that there are many different ways to do portfolios with my students but I do not feel like Wormeli went into enough detail. I thought the student self-assessment was something that we all probably do now- exit slips, notation reading etc. We have studied these strategies in SCRI I & II!
On rubrics:
This is something I've really tried to work on this school year. Last year I provided rubrics for major assignments or assignments where it seemed that students may struggle with an understanding of what was expected of them. While I would agree that they help the student to know what is expected of them, I feel that many times students rush through assigments so quickly that they do not always pay attention to the requirements on rubrics. I've been very good about using rubrics this semester and have noticed, that while it may help, many students still do not hit points or requirements that are indicated on rubrics. I think for group work, it is important to have a rubric and individual roles so all members know what is expected of them and so everyone has something to do.
On portfolios:
I think it was interesting that the reading mentioned using portfolios as a form of differentiated instruction. I, like Claire, have always wanted to try portfolios, but there just never seems to be enough time for me to fit it in, go over it,grade it, and keep up with it. I do think it is important for students to have the opportunity to watch their growth and/or revise their writings, but I do not want my students to become dependent on second chances (which is what we talked about last class with re-testing).
I am planning on looking at the websites that were included in the readings for interactive notebooks as well. I'm curious as to what they are. I think I may have only heard about interactive notebooks in passing.
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