Looking, and Finding, the Answer to Conceptual Grading

About 3 weeks ago, we had an inservice at our school that answered my question, finally!  Or, at least in my mind, it did!  I’ve been having this ongoing conversation about what conceptual grading looks like and acts like, with many questions still lingering. One of the lingering questions was, “How does this look for each skill?”  I mean, I had examined my practice and figured out what I was doing, but I couldn’t pin it down for EACH SKILL!  Then, bam, the inservice hit!

So, here’s what went down!  Our district is still looking at training intermediate teachers in Common Core.  This particular inservice dealt with how to determine the success of a student based on learning ladders and continuums.  At first, I was skeptical.  I had never heard of either, and I’m out there a lot!  I pin, I read blogs, I follow multiple teachers on Facebook, I’m out there!  We discussed the rigor and the purpose, and that’s when I began to believe.  The purpose behind a ladder or continuum is to:

1.     Establish the clear and concise expectations for a skill.  During our inservice, it was support for the text. 

2.     To provide a clear and concise example of the expectation to the students. 

3.     And, if determined ahead, to provide a starting point for evaluating a student on the skill to be taught over a period of time. 

It was like hitting the mother load!   I started to see the realities of what could be done with a tool like this!  I saw the connection between these tools and Marzano’s Rubric for Learning.  This is what I’ve been searching for!  Can you tell I’m excited!!??

            How would this look in a classroom setting was my next thought-bam, answer provided!  There was a cool video about how to work with them.  The teacher had a small group of students with her and they had provided answers to a question she had asked in class on a post-it.  The kids then shared their answers and worked with one another on the continuum.  They had to agree on the placement with each other before the post-it could go on the continuum.  My thought, “I could TOTALLY do this!”  I completely believe that if you are going to teach a child how to do something, they need to know how to self-evaluate to be successful.  Many children do not go through elementary being able to do this very thing.  They have only been shown what teachers think of their work, and that is how they answer questions-to provide what the teacher wants.  Many of the open-ended questions we ask have multiple answers with none of them being wrong.  We need to be sure we begin to support our students in the skill of self-evaluation!  It is, after all, a life skill. 

            Now, to get to the transition from inservice, to classroom use.  During the inservice, I had already targeted a skill-author’s purpose.  My teaching partner and I had determined through assessments that students really only “got” author’s purpose on the very basic level- to entertain, inform, or persuade.  They did not, and, as the case is, many cannot get it on a conceptual level.  From this need of conceptual understanding, I developed a power point about Roald Dahl.  Here is a page from it.

Through this power point, we targeted Author’s Perception, the deeper part of author’s purpose.  As you research this, you will discover that the two are very separate, but are placed under the title of author’s purpose.  Our goal with the power point was to show them how important an author’s life and understandings are to the text.  Here is another example:

Roald Dahl was Charlie in so many ways, and that’s what this slide represents.  Imagine having the President of Cadbury bring you chocolates to try!  How would that torture you through your entire life!  How did Charlie feel about chocolate?  That’s a pretty good example of the perspective Roald Dahl brings to the text, isn’t it!

The kids were really getting it!  They could see, with their own background knowledge of the text from the movie, that this was important stuff! 

            Next, to bring a deeper thought development to the process, we assigned a thinking map!  Thinking maps are used to help kids use their own thought processes to develop understanding.  By not giving too much information or requirements, you can begin to see the child’s understanding emerge, or not. Each time they read, they can add to their understanding.  The more they share, again, the more understanding, or lack of it, comes forth. To be honest, I have some struggling readers making some deep insight into author’s purpose because of this.  I have some stronger readers with fewer insights.  It is my plan to go back to these and really examine them to determine who needs additional practice and who may, simply, need to learn how to transfer their thinking to question format. 

            After starting this process, I introduced the Author’s Purpose continuum. 

This is in kid friendly language.  I shared what each level looked and sounded like.  Then I let the kids get to work using one of the characters from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Then I let them work with their team to decide what level of author’s purpose they were on.  I was amazed to see them bring points out about each entry and how they felt each other did.  It showed up in two ways- in their oral discussion and in their reading journal entries. 

For the entry, I had them put their post-it in their journal, record what their team said, and, then, I responded with what I thought.  Most were right on!  The next step is to do this activity. 

The students will write in their reading journal “how” to get to a higher level on the continuum.  From this experience I discovered that most kids want to write about the “who” of a character.  Who they are, what they do, etc.   Author’s purpose is really more about they “why”-why the author included them, why the author made them behave a certain way, why did the outcome occur. This is where the impact is. 

I am really excited to see where we go with this study.  I will share more as we go.  If you have any great ideas for author’s purpose, I’d love to hear about them.  Feel free to leave me a comment or a website that you have had success with!

Wacky Wednesday

            Many people would call it Wacky Wednesday, but in our house, we do the Geico commercial.  We now call it the “family” commercial-Julie, Mike, Mike, Mike…Do you know what day it is???  It’s…….The start of my week!  Yes, that’s why it’s Wacky Wednesday.  Let me tell you why I start my week on Wednesday (or even what I mean by starting my week!) 

            Years ago, when Balance Literacy hit the scene, I actually read Guided Readers and Writers by Fountas and Pinnell.  That is the book that got me started on actually reading professional texts.  It is a shame that many of us don’t read professional texts.  There is just too much out there to know now not to read them.  Anyways, off the soapbox.  When I was reading it, I came across the section on scheduling.  In that section, they suggested “starting” your week on a Wednesday.  New spelling words and new word work (notice I didn’t say story).  Remember, this was, and still is, best practice NOT to use a textbook.  Real literature matters and kids need real literature in their hand-not excerpts and especially NOT in intermediate!  I found this idea of a “new” start on Wednesday particularly appealing due to the fact that it had to do with SPELLING.  By starting a new list on Wednesday, you actually give the kids MORE time to learn the words-a true week!  So I tried it out-and loved it!  I’ve been doing this ever since (even when I did use a textbook.  Then I started my story on Wednesday too!).  Through time I discovered something else-the kids and parents liked it BETTER!  It takes a little while for them to adjust, but it does a lot for families.  I know from doing the Thursday night stress studying that this puts a lot of strain on families.  When the majority of review is done on Monday night, families are fresh, minds are not tired, and they really come in prepared.  To me, that says WIN WIN!  Today was the start of our new week!

            What did this look like?  Here’s how it went. 

All my wacky Words Their Way materials!

Last week, I gave the intermediate Words Their Way spelling inventory.  I know that there are a lot of Words Their Way leveled books running around.  For the inventories, you need the original, full text version of the book.  These inventories are great because you can target the specific needs of students by using the inventory page to assess skill level.  Once I got the groups, I then ran the sorts from the leveled books.  The sorts from the leveled books work better because they are organized in a way that makes for easy use.  I then took these and organized them into expand-a-folders.  This will make it easy to pass out each week. 

Eventually I'll add tabs to these.

The kids then received a copy of their sort.  First, they had to write their words in their agenda and have me check them.  This list will still act as a traditional way for kids to practice their words. Parents need this because it stays with tradition.  Teachers need this because it gives extra practice to build skills.  Our grade book needs it so we can keep track of progress through spelling assessments.  Originally, the writers frowned upon this theory.  I was actually glad when the leveled books came out and they had changed their stance.  The weekly homework assignment that I give them is called a Spelling Rubric. I found this YEARS ago online, so I have NO IDEA who even developed it.  Today we spent a good chunk of time just going over the assignments for that.  I assign it on Wednesday and it is due the day of the test, Tuesday.  The one thing I’ve found when using the rubric is that kids love the choice.  I rarely have to “assign” something to kids.  Some vary the rubric, and some do the same thing every week.  There is nothing wrong with either! 

            Once we completed that, the kids cut out their sort and stored it in a ziplock.  This will be saved in their desk each day for use.  Today we couldn’t get to teacher lead sorts.  There just wasn’t time, since this was our first go around.  Tomorrow, I will meet with each team and go through the sort by using the teacher-modeled sort.  I will say the words and show them where the words belong and why.   How I will fit this in, I currently don’t know.  That’s just plain honesty.  I do, however, have an idea.  If it works, I will share it in a post.  So I’m keeping it under wraps for now!  Then, each day, they will repeat their sort in a variety of ways.  On Thursday they will partner sort.  Fridays will be write their sort and explain what the rule or pattern is they are working on.  On Monday they will resort and then glue it to a paper for turning in.  I will probably have them do random sorts at different times of the day as well. 

            One thing to know about sorting and memory:  During our Quantum Learning training, we learned something called 10/24/7.  Sorting is a perfect example of how this theory works. When the teacher sort is finished, they will copy it on their own.  That’s the 10-within 10 minutes of learning something, they should do it again.  The 24 is in hours.  Within 24 hours, they should learn it again.  And the 7-that’s 7 days of time.  Within seven days they should be doing it again for full transfer to long-term memory to work.  That’s what makes sorts key to learning how the sounds and patterns in language work.  It’s hard work doing a program like Words Their Way, but the benefits for kids, both in written language and reading, pay off!  

So, think about Wacky Wednesday for your classroom.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comment section! 

Classroom Reveal!

        I figured I better get on this, since tomorrow starts week 2!  After that, it wouldn’t be new any more!  So, here’s what my place and space looks like!  Let’s start with my student area! 

The baby changing table has been transformed into my student supply center.  Here, students can access paper, their headphones, and other basic supplies found in the bottom two shelves.  The top shelf holds three baskets-two for homework and one for classwork.  I have made small tags for each basket for easy identification.  I also lined the table with a great wrapping paper of green and blue circles that matches the theme of my room-which is also the colors of our school!  The board on the wall is an “Out of the Room Board”.  When the kids leave the room , they move their number magnet to the appropriate spot on the board.  This allows me to do a quick check for where kids are at all times!  There is also our monthly calendar, the iHelp Job chart, and a place for the lunch menu.  I also keep the Homework Checker clip board there for easy access to record homework turn in!  This is important to the kids as well as myself since after 30 successful homework turn-ins, I give a free homework pass out!  On the wall is Marzano’s effort rubric.  I turned it into kid friendly terms.  I will take it down soon to explicitly teach effort.  I’ll share about this when I get to it.  It is really a key component to my expectation system!

            Next, on the white board, you will find a number of wonderful things.  First, let’s talk about the right hand side of the board.  There, you will discover two things. 

The first one are the frames I made to write the daily essential questions we are covering in all subjects.  They were really simple to make.  I found 81/2 “ x 11” scrapbook paper that matched my room. I bought the frames at the Dollar Tree.  Once I got the paper inside, I flipped them over and glued magnets on the back.  They are currently moved over from where they are here.  I made room for our Classroom Guidelines.

These are the rules we worked on together.  They were inspired by a post I saw on Pintrest.  In fact, my room looks like Pintrest threw up in it!  Can I say, I LOVE Pintrest?  (Here’s the Out of the Room Board)  I still need to print off the last page, have the kids sign it, and then get it up there too.  We all agreed on these guidelines and the signatures help to lock in the choices we made as a team.  I stress often-This is OUR room, not my room. Ownership is one of the 8 Keys of Excellence that we practice as a school.  They are located above my board and on the wall with the “Where Do I Live”  line. 

This is a lesson we do as a class about where you live, above or below the line.  It is part of our Quantum Learning training we received as a staff.  If you have never heard of Quantum Learning, you should check it out!  It was a really wonderful training where they tie brain research and best practices into one.  I can honestly say, it was one of the best trainings I’ve had in my career.  It wasn’t that it was chop full of new stuff-it just tied it together in a way that made you realize the “why” of things you do as an educator! 

Back to the board-You will also find this there.

Again, Pintrest!  I did recreate this so that the colors matched my room.  I’m not happy about the E in noise, so I might work on this a little.  I really like this system and have used it all week.  Here is the post that tells you how the teacher uses it.

Located in the back of my room is one, LOOOOOOONNNNNG wall with high windows.  These windows are there because my room meets the roof of our cafeteria.  In other classes, there are great views of our lake and the front areas of our school.  I do like this wall though, because it can house a lot of information.

In the corner you will find my library. 

Years ago I wrote a grant for the Water District. They provided me with a kit that had all those great puppets you see there.  I arranged them in food chain systems!  I also ordered those great posters from them! They were free!  If you are interested and live in my area, they are from SWFWMD.  You will also find my teaching area, which looks blah right now without the posters I add as I teach. 

Also in the back is my desk area and table area. I use this for remediation and for Book Club meetings.  

I have to show a close up of my lollipop tree!

I just love this and it adds fun to my desk!  I found this as a party item on Pintrest with no directions attached.  It was easy! I spray painted a candlestick, added a large foam ball (hot glue this), a tag, and started filling!  The key is NOT to add them on one side.  It will pull the ball off. You have to work around it to keep the balance of weight equal! 

Along the wall by my desk are my cabinets.  I will be adding numbers to them.  That is another Pintrest idea.  Instead of sending kids to the drawers with directions that get them lost (I know you are laughing right now because it is true), you put numbers on them!  Glue sticks are in drawer #5!  So much better!  I also have the Character Traits activity from Rachel Lynette on my cabinets.  I will be doing this again, and soon!  This made Book Club character descriptions so much easier! 

And, finally, one big look across all those desks!  

I have some bulletin boards I didn’t discuss, as they will come together when we start working on more things!  So, you have it-my room.  If you see anything you are wondering about, leave me a comment and I’d be glad to get back with you about it!  It’s going to be a great year!