I read the digest almost daily and feel a connection to teachers across the world (it seems) as we journey with our students through the process of reading. I love the ideas, have head shaking 'I know' moments, disagree, agree, and take it back to the classroom and validate or change what I am doing. BUT every three weeks (progress reports are due Monday) I am jerked back into an ugly reality as I realize that I don't have this nice set of grades to stamp on each child. People will tell me "Oh just give them the grade you know they deserve"...So for that child who struggles but seems to be making progress would he receive a 76% or an 82% on comprehension? If you have been reading MOT posts for years you have seen some version of this e-mail from me before. (apologies!) At those points I stop reading the digests and wish that I had given objective tests on the books we read so I could quickly plug in those grades and be done with it. I sometimes think I am just too tired to fight this battle any longer and I am throwing in the "Mosaic of thought" towel and joining the club of quick and easy assignments that have grades. A friend I know actually uses SRA grades, with no apologies, so she can dismiss the report card and go back to the deep reading she and the kids thrive on. My question.....How do you all turn the reading work your students do into a percentage grade??!!! I am stuck with a classic percentage grade report card Reading- 87% or &3% or 50%. Putting a number grade or even a letter grade (because I have gone to a point where it is either an A, B, or C) on top of a reading response log is so backwards - I know it isn't saying the right thing to kids or parents. We do have a pilot program in which we have identified assessed target goals, use rubrics, and are to repeatedly assess these goals over a six weeks and take the final grade- the idea is that an average doesn't reflect what the student knows in the end. We also do not include on time performance in those grades. I am having difficulty finding the time for all that amount of grading. A large group of MOT members are classroom teachers, so I am certain you face this dielmma as well, but I rarely hear anyone address the grading component. Why is that? Do you all have a secret you can share? (-: Gina _________________________________________________________________ Make Windows Vista more reliable and secure with Windows Vista Service Pack 1. http://www.windowsvista.com/SP1?WT.mc_id=hotmailvistasp1banner _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org.
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