Photo Credit: alianzatex.com
Ahh, feels good to be back! Though I haven’t dedicated much time the blog over the summer, I have kept up with many wonderful bits of advice from my awesome interweb PLN. I’m ESPECIALLY grateful right now since I have recently found that I’ll be teaching Spanish II and III this year — a huge change for me, as I’ve had the exclusive pleasure of wading through the [short-lived] deluge of enthusiasm from Sp1 kids for two years. Still, I’m super thrilled at the opportunity and can’t wait see [most] of my students from last year!
So, I’ve been busy Pinterest-ing and reading/obsessing over Twitter feeds and educator blog accounts (I mean, what teacher doesn’t?) and have picked up a plethora of neat lesson ideas/authentic material/tips over the course of the summer. I LOVE to stumble upon stuff, and as it is I now find myself buried in Evernotes that may or may not ever see fruition. The worst of it all is that I feel I’ve spent much more time looking for lesson ideas/authentic materials than actually reworking my nearly nonexistent curriculum. It’s a sad reality: my school’s FL department currently teaches by the textbook (Realidades), is missing teachers (only two Spanish teachers two weeks prior to the beginning of school), and isn’t exactly vertically aligned (we only meet twice a year). I can’t wait to meet with new colleagues — my hope is to plant a much needed seed of change! Anyway, my next few posts will feature changes that I have for sure thought a lot about as our new school year approaches.
Grading
I have decided to adopt the JCPS World Language Assessment Documents (by @tmsaue1 — Thank you!) as a guide to better assess my students based on ACTFL proficiency standards. As a fairly new educator, my PD experience (outside of the Internet) has been incredibly limited, so to find these documents was just a dream. What a way, along with Kara’s posts on steps towards proficiency grading and Martina’s posts on assessments, to explain standards-based grading to a newbie such as myself. Thank you. Here’s what my Spanish II grading scale (a combination of proficiency targets/Martina’s standards and descriptions/Daugherty’s Bicycles) is looking like so far :
Editable docs here: Level 2 Grade Chart (.doc), email srta.barragan@gmail.com for (.pages)
It’s really quite identical to Martina’s grading system, and I feel it’s what best makes sense both to myself and to a new student in class. Leaving out the letter grades is preferable, I feel, but students are likely to respond better to their inclusion as it is something they are familiar with. Holding an informational exercise a la “proficiency tacos” (@Musicuentos) is also in the works — perfect way to explain proficiency to students without overcomplicating it.
I agree! I need to start lp-ing (lesson planning) too.
I have one question about your grade chart. Are you expecting Spanish 2 to be intermediate low at the beginning of the year to meet “proficient”? Our Jcps level 2 scale start at novice high for proficient, and then shifts after the midterm to intermediate low.
Under the “Proficiency Level” column on the chart, “S1″ refers to the first semester of school and “S2″ refers to the second semester (which seems totally confusing to me right now — I commonly use S1 as an abbreviation for Spanish 1, and S2 to mean Spanish 2, so I should probably change it a bit!)
To meet “proficient,” level 2 students are expected to meet Novice High during the first semester (S1) and Intermediate low towards the end of the school year (S2). I believe this stays true to the JCPS level 2 scale. I hope this makes sense!
Gotcha! I didn’t even think “semester” because we have trimesters. Looks great!
Sounds like things are getting off to a great start! I love that bicycle chart.
Love the chart you made!! Would you mind to email the document to me so that I could edit it for Spanish I? martinaebex@gmail.com And somehow I missed the @musicuento post on Proficiency & Tacos…I’ll definitely use that next week!!
Absolutely!
I love this! I also teach using Realidades (loosely) and my department consists of myself and one other teacher. I am the only level 3 and 4/5 teacher, we share level 2, and she teaches level 1. This chart is awesome, I can’t wait to put it to good use! Thank you!
This is great! I also teach using Realidades (loosely) and am looking to change things up this year. I have a very small department as well, only two of us. She teaches level 1, we share level 2, and I teach levels 3 and 4/5 and ESL. This chart is great and I can’t wait to put it to good use!! Thank you!
This is so great! I started using proficiency levels at the end of last year but was having a terrible time assigning a grade/percentage to them. Mil gracias!
hi! this looks great and I love the bike analogies! I’d like to use them in my documents – I love visuals- who should I give the credit to for the pics? Gracias!
Hi! I agree — the bicycles make it soo much easier to understand! The bicycle analogy, as well as the use of the pictures, was adapted from Kelly Daugherty’s performance-based learning bike analogy found here: http://prezi.com/axzlriy65i7x/daughertys-bicycles-performance-based-learning/. Unfortunately, I am not sure if Kelly herself created the pictures — photo credit is not given on her Prezi presentation.
I know this is way overdue, and I’ll tell Kelly (she and I teach in the same school and gave the standards presentation together for which she created the bicycle chart) that she needs to credit the drawings…which her father drew for her!
Another late note, but maybe food for thought: most of the standards-based gurus are trying to move people away from the 100% scale. See Scott Benedict, Wormeli, Marzano, or O’Connor for starters. The easiest thing to do to make the 100% scale fit standards is to delete any grades below 50%. A 50% is still “Failing,” as is 59%, in that scenario. It keeps “averaged” grades (also a no-no in standards-based grading, but still necessary in most schools) fair. An F averages with an A to make a C, unlike what happens when a 20% F averages with a 99% A.
In our district, we have to keep 0 as the lowest grade, so I put in 1-20% F, 21-40%D, 41-60%C, 61-80%B, and 81-100%A. Some places won’t allow that either, but our school district still does.
Love your site and your rubrics and your enthusiasm!!
Oops! I hope it is OK that we are using the images that Kelly’s father drew for her — please let me know otherwise if you speak with her about this!
I remember attending a heated PD session over the 100% grade scale a few years ago at my last place of employment. If I remember correctly, most of the teachers at my school advocated for the “zero” as we were required to enter a “50″ as the lowest grade.
It was an at-risk school, and most teachers felt that we were being forced to “help” students who “didn’t care” make their grades up with little effort. I didn’t know enough about anything then, so I went with it. It wasn’t until I read your comment that I remembered how hotly debated this is. I will definitely look into this — Thank you for bringing it up!
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