Written by Two years ago I participated in a professional development program very similar to Cohort 21 that involved using design thinking to come up with an action plan. As I embark on my next action plan (blog post on that coming soon), I figured it would be great to reflect on my previous one and to share my results with the Cohort 21 community. Here is a summary of what I have implemented in my classroom based on my last action plan:
How might we emphasize learning rather than performance?
I was frustrated with students constantly focusing on grades, rather than the process involved in achieving the grades. I was also frustrated with students performing poorly on a test, and then just moving on without actually learning the material. I came across this quote (from Ditch that Textbook by Alice Keeler and Matt Miller), that really kicked off my journey looking at assessment methods:
This started my search for different ways of coming up with a grade – a requirement at most schools in Ontario. Shortly after reading the quote above, I found this post by Catlin Tucker that seemed to be the perfect solution for my problem.
I developed a chart that included the essential skills from a unit in my Grade 11 Functions and Applications course and gave it a try! An example of this chart can be found here. The students would fill in the self-assessment column at the end of each class, reflecting on their level of mastery of the skills used in that lesson. They would provide evidence for their learning, and a gameplan on how they would master the skill (if they hadn’t already). At various points throughout the unit, I would provide my assessment of their current level of mastery for each skill. Students would write a test at the end of the unit, but rather than having a question worth a certain number of marks, each question related to a specific skill on the chart. These tests were used as a “final” assessment of their mastery of each skill, rather than input as a grade in a grade book. A completed example from a student this year can be found here.
At the end of the unit, I met with each student and, using their assessment chart, agreed on a fair grade for that unit. Initially, I treated the levels of mastery as a score out of 4 (in progress = 1/4, mastery = 4/4) in order to approximate the grade. As I became increasingly comfortable with this system, I have been able to come up with an approximate grade with a quick scan. While it is by no means an exact science, I would argue that coming up with a value for each question or the emphasis of certain skills on a test contains a lot of subjectivity as well. Often the student would propose a different mark than I had in mind. If the student’s mark was close, I generally go with their mark choice (after all, what is the real difference between 75% and 78%). If their mark is lower, it leads to a good conversation about why they think they have earned that grade. Similarly, if their mark is higher, we are able to talk about why our grade suggestions differ. These conferences usually end with the student proposing the next steps in order to get the higher grade that they proposed.
I treat these assessment charts as live documents for the entire year. If a student is able to prove to me in January that they have mastered a skill we worked on in September, I give them credit for it on their assessment chart and update their grade for that unit. This has resulted in students working on filling in gaps in understanding well after the unit is over, something I believe is beneficial to their mindset and the assessment of their abilities in my course.
I have implemented this assessment method as the sole method in my Grade 11 Functions and Applications course (a “less academic” stream of Grade 11 math), with the exception of the exam. I am using it this year in my Grade 12 Data Management classes as a supplement to the traditional tests and assignments.
Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions, and I would love to read your comments either below or on twitter @Mr_ _ Murray
Great post Matt! This is something that I have been thinking about a lot as well. Particularly because I am trying to frame my Cohort action plan around building perseverance and resilience in the math classroom.
I think this is for sure a great tool for the senior classes (as you said with your 11s and 12s), but how do you think it would go over with 9s or 10s? I have both this year, and I am not sure how valuable they will find it. I can think of a few of my students that would follow through with this well, but for the most part, maybe partially due to maturity levels, they would not take it seriously. I would love to hear your thoughts on this!
I will be looking into this some more though, thanks again for the awesome info!
Thanks for reading, Stephanie!
I have a colleague who is using this with her Grade 8 classroom, so I think it is certainly possible with Grades 9 and 10, it might just take more explanation and prompting. Even if its not used to form a mark, it can be helpful for the students to see where their strengths and weaknesses in a unit are.
Hi Matt
This is exactly the kind of thing I am thinking about working on with my students as well. I would love to come see you teach or ask you more about this if you have some time! I also love that you have been treating it as a live document.
How much time do you alot to filling it in at the end of each class? And does each student have access to the document?
Thanks so much for sharing!
Hi Robin,
I am happy to answer any questions or pass along any resources you would like! I generally give about 5 minutes at the end of class to fill in the chart, and about 20 minutes at the end of the unit to “finalize” it (although it never really is final). Each student has access to their document – I distribute them using Google Classroom’s “Make a copy for each student” function.
Happy to chat more about this!
I love this, Matt – thanks so much for sharing with the rest of us!
@jgravel
@ldickinson
@elee
Thanks for the tag, Michael. This gives me a lot of food for thought on how to assess learning for my own 11Functions and Applications course.
Matt, I really applaud you here for finding a way to increase student engagement, improve their ability to self-assess, include them in the process of assessing their mastery and, most importantly for you, reducing emphasis on final marks and increasing discussion on the process.
As you can tell from the enthusiastic responses to your post, many of us are struggling with how to help students focus on deepening skills and understanding vs. getting a grade, particularly at the high school level. This takes the idea of a single-pint rubric to a new level by including evidence and providing students with some ownership over their grades. This also seems like a very authentic way to have conversations about learning. Win – win – win!
Matt – I’m looking more and more into this and thinking for sure it will be my action plan for the year. I just have to figure out how to use it in a class where the curriculum is much broader than in a hard skills course like math. I’m hoping I have time to wrap my head around it for Careers in February but at worst, will implement next year. So much to think about! Thanks for the post!
I’m glad that you were able to create a lasting and effective system based on your learning from this previous PD. I love that you’ve framed the self-assessment in terms of “essential skills,” that your final assessments are directly linked to each skill, and that numerical grades appear to be absent from the tool itself. Of course, when and how numerical grades are available is likely dictated to some extent by your school, but perhaps there is opportunity to limit the access students have to their numerical grades, focusing on this mastery-language-based feedback and self-assessment instead. If that’s something within the realm of possibility, it might help you facilitate a mindset shift further away from a grades-based one.