Building a Thinking Classroom Together: April

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From Jenna

“How often do you quizzes? and do you spiral back to previously taught things either from the same unit or from a previous one (either in CYU or tests and quizzes)? How does this work?

ALSO – how do you manage where you check things? Do you have a clipboard you carry around? I struggle flipping through a million pages on a clipboard. Also how do you communicate where a student is to the students? Do they do that before a big quiz like in the book? Or do you confirm it as well (so they don’t need to test?”

Grading and recording data is part 4 of BTC. When I talk to teachers who are working on changing their practices, this is the part that is the most intimidating. I know that is how I felt too. I researched as much as I could and then I jumped in. I am so glad I did, I will never go back. Let me share my experiences. 

I no longer grade or even look at homework. I give my students a lot of resources to be able to practice, but I don’t follow up to see if they have done them. This means I have no data from homework. 

My grading, which follows what Peter suggests in his book, is pretty much standards-based grading. For each unit, I have created a table that has each concept we cover. I split each concept into three parts: basic, intermediate, and advanced. Some teachers have renamed those as mild, medium and spicy! Each unit has between 3 to 6 concepts, which translates to 3 to 6 rows on the recording chart. When I test, I make sure to have at least two problems for each cell of the table. So if a unit has 4 concepts and each concept has three levels, then the test will have 12 problems. This allows students the opportunity for two check marks in each cell, which is what they need to get the points for that cell. (This is all explained way better in chapters 13 and 14 in Peter’s book).

Above I have an example of a unit I teach in Algebra 2. You will see each cell has more than 2 marks. That is because I am also collecting data throughout the chapter. In one of the FAQs in Peter’s book, someone asked about having enough data. He commented that you will find you give plenty of quizzes and might have too much data. To be honest, this was not my case. I do not like giving quizzes, never have, never will. So I had to find something that worked for me. 

Let me introduce you to an “Understanding Check”. I used to call it a quiz, but found that students have a very negative relationship with quizzes and many would panic when I started handing out the paper. It makes sense, a traditional quiz has the opportunity to take away points that you can never get back. If you get something wrong, those points are lost forever. (I know some teachers allow for retakes, but not all do and the students have been conditioned to fear quizzes). So I decided to change the name to “understanding checks”.

 I try to do an understanding check at the beginning of each hour. I usually just give one problem, but sometimes there will be two or three. It is nothing fancy and most often something I come up with quickly. I have a stack of scratch paper that I have cut in half and I hand one out to each student. I write the problem on the board and have the students complete it and turn it in. Most of the time it is a problem from the lesson the day before. Sometimes I circle back to a problem from earlier in the unit to see if they have retained it. I then mark it with the check, x, N, or S and record it in the table.

I really appreciate giving understanding checks. They give me a quick snapshot of how the class is doing. It also gives me a chance to reteach when I go over the problem with them when they are done. I also spend a lot of time at the beginning of the year getting the students to see how an understanding check is a chance for the students to see where they are in their own understanding and decide if they need to work on their “check your understanding” problems more. They don’t have to wait until the end of the unit to see they need to work on something, they have a daily check to tell them sooner. 

Where and how do I keep track? I have a clipboard for each class period. I print out a couple sheets with empty tables for the unit. I assign a table for each student. As I mark each understanding check, I quickly go through the sheets and mark the appropriate cell for each student. I also use Google Classroom for my classes. At the top of the classwork tab I keep a “Progress tracking” sheet for each student. Every few days I go into those and update the marks for each student (They each get their own copy and can only see their own). I also share these documents with parents so they can check on their progress, especially since I don’t have any grades posted until a unit test is done. When we start a new unit, I file away the tables from the previous unit and print new ones for the current unit. I don’t end up with too many pages at a time and I keep the classes separate from each other.

Also, to answer the last question, I have all my students take the unit test. I want to make sure they still can do it, that they have retained what they have learned. If they already have two check marks, they still do the problems.

I hope to see and meet you at the conference at the end of the month. We will have so many opportunities to visit about the BTC. Come find me and say “hi”!

***I am looking for more topics and questions to discuss. If you have a question about the Thinking Classroom, or if you have a story or success that you would like to share, please send me your question in this google form.

Until next time, keep on building! Together we will build a generation of thinkers.

Jessica Strom
Win-E-Mac School
MCTM High School Vice-President