Monday, July 25, 2011

Power Grading part 1-Scott Benedict

In this session, Scott explained the "why" behind Standards-based grading and how he uses that in his own class.

Scott breaks down his grading into five sections that he weights based on Bloom's Taxonomy. Culture is worth 10% because this is mainly recall of information. Listening and Reading are worth 15% each because these require a little more thought. Writing and Speaking are worth 30% each because they require the highest level of thinking. I love this idea and will transfer my gradebook to this. Last year I had 95% assessments and 5% homework, but I had already planned on ditching my homework grades for the upcoming year anyway. I have had horrible luck with homework in my classes and HATE it as a parent.

Scott also talked about the difference between formative assessments (dipsticks for teachers to see how the students are doing so far...also to provide feedback for students to improve) and summative assessments (test of multiple learning goals).

My school has been working towards standards-based grading for a couple of years now, so I understood the why of this method of grading. There were quite a few people who were shocked by this idea, especially NO HOMEWORK and NO PARTICIPATION. I believe in it... Anyway, I decided to skip the second part, not because Scott isn't amazing as a presenter (as you'll see in later sessions), but because I was already sold on the idea and really wanted to hear Krashen talk about politics.

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