Sure-It was about a year and a half ago, so my memory may be a bit spotty, but the gist of it was that that we differed substantially on the way to grade a student for a marking period. Here's the backdrop: In our district, we are required to PowerSchool and PowerGrade. These give parents and students the ability to see their grades online at any time. That's great for a lot of things, but not for showing progress--or lack thereof--in writing, as most of our teachers will tell you. It's particularly troublesome for those who want to use the 6-traits type assessments and differentiate 100 percent by creating a readers' and writers' workshop classroom.
Several of us had tried different approaches without any of us being satisfied that our students' grades are reflective of their growth as writers. That fall, I opted to try a different approach and that was to institute a daily "workshop" grade worth 25 points for students who were actively engaged in the day's writing lesson, applying it or other mini-lessons to their writing that day. In short, if kids were working as real writers during the session they could earn 25 points each day. I counted that as 50 percent of their grade. The other 50 percent was made up of the usual mix of language arts class assignments. I was pretty happy with the set-up, but not 100 percent and asked during the workshop--which, ironically, was on differentiated instruction--what other people did. Rick responded that he believed that marking period grading should only reflect a child's ability to meet the end goal--the language arts standard that is your teaching objective. In other words, he believed that any grading system that stressed the process, rather than the product or in addition to the product, was wrong. For my way of thinking and the research and reading I've done, this just didn't jive. I worked as a professional writer for nearly a dozen years before I began teaching middle school. I learned to write by writing and believe kids do, too. Somehow, I feel that the process of learning and doing has to be validated, and that's where he and I disagreed. I'm hoping to work with a committee of teachers this year to redesign our marking period report cards to reflect progress toward our state standards and get away from the A.B,C, etc., focus only. It'll be interesting! Mary On 6/25/07 11:42 PM, "Judith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Now I'm intrigued. Can I ask what the disagreement was about? DI is of great > interest to me. > > Mary Dovey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Hi Susie- > I have his books, liked them, and that's why I went to see him. Maybe what I > saw was an off-day...for him or me! I just remember that we had one pretty > profound disagreement about grading with differentiated instruction. > Mary > > > > On 6/25/07 9:17 PM, "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" wrote: > >> I've seen Rick Wormeli twice, and he didn't strike me as Harry Wong-ish at >> all. (I've seen Harry Wong a couple of times, too, and enjoyed that in >> different ways). I didn't get the feel that Rick is teacher-centered. >> >> You really should check out his books, and can start at the Stenhouse site to >> get an idea. >> The first one, Meet Me in the Middle, is perhaps is more teacher-centered >> http://www.stenhouse.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=0&idproduct=32>> 8 >> >> and there's Day One and Beyond >> http://www.stenhouse.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=0&idproduct=35>> 5 >> >>> From Fair Isn't Always Equal, perhaps you get a better feel of how he's all >>> about the students >> > http://www.stenhouse.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=0&idproduct=898> > > 2 >> >> I'm on some other listservs with Rick, and am very impressed. Here's one more >> example from Education World >> http://www.education-world.com/a_issues/chat/chat153.shtml >> >> Susie >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org >> >> To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to >> http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. >> >> Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive > > > > _______________________________________________ > The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org > > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive > > > > Judith > > > "To gain knowledge, add things every day. To gain wisdom, remove things > every day." -- Lao Tzu > > --------------------------------- > Choose the right car based on your needs. Check out Yahoo! Autos new Car > Finder tool. > _______________________________________________ > The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org > > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
