Using Rubrics A rubric is a type of scoring guide that assesses and articulates specific components and expectations for an assignment. Rubrics can be used for a variety of assignments: research papers, group projects, portfolios and presentations. Rubrics are most often used to grade written assignments, but they have many other uses. Boix Mansilla., V., Duraisingh, E., Wolfe, C. R., & Haynes, C. (2009). Brookes, D. Mora, J., & Ochoa, H. (2010). Reddy, Y., & Andrade, H. (2010). Stevens, D. and Levi, A. (2005) Introduction to Rubrics. Timmerman, B., Strickland, D. Tractenberg, R. Signe Whitson: Rude vs. Mean vs. Bullying: Defining the Differences A few weeks ago, I had the terrific fortune of getting to present some of the bullying prevention work that I do to a group of children at a local bookstore. As if interacting with smiling, exuberant young people was not gift enough, a reporter also attended the event a wrote a lovely article about my book and the work I do with kids, parents, educators and youth care professionals. All in all, it was dream publicity and since then, has sparked many conversations with people in my town who saw my photo in the newspaper and immediately related to the examples of bullying that were discussed. I have been brought to tears more than once since the article ran, while listening to parents share their feelings of outrage and helplessness over their kids’ experiences with bullying in school. One gifted but socially awkward middle school student blew me away with his articulate, poised, yet searingly painful accounts of relentless physical and verbal bullying on his school bus. Explore HuffPost
How Rubrics Provide Feedback | Teaching, Writing | Chris Friend I’d like to start with an assumption about rubrics. I believe that rubrics are tools designed to serve two purposes:They help a teacher assess student work consistently and clearly.They help provide feedback to students through setting expectations and evaluating performance.With these two goals in mind—assessment and feedback—I’d like to examine how rubrics need to be built and used to be able to serve those purposes. I recently wrote about the different kinds of rubrics, and I’d like to focus exclusively on analytic (rather than holistic) rubrics in this discussion. I’ve seen a number of assignment rubrics that are poorly designed and poorly implemented, and I’d like to point out the trouble with a particular approach and show how it can be fixed. First, though, I need to clarify a critical term. That example includes all three elements of feedback. Note how the highlighted boxes in the table match the example comment quoted above. For a teacher, this can be huge. Tags: Teaching
What Do All Babies Need Yet Aren't Getting Equally? To break the cycle of poverty, young children need something that’s as free and abundant as air. An extraordinary program is giving it to them. Russ and Reyn for Reader’s Digest Babies need a few basic things to get started: mother’s milk, or something like it; love, attention, and playtime; clean clothes; and a safe place to sleep. Many low-income American children are suffering from a shortage of words—songs, nursery rhymes, storybooks, chitchat, everyday stuff. In many low-income families, warm and loving parents may struggle desperately to provide all the other basics, without a clue that their relative silence—and the lack of bedtime stories, picture books, and lullabies—hurts the babies. Beginning in the 1990s, researchers at Rice and Columbia Universities reported eye-opening findings about how many more words middle-class and affluent kids hear day in and out. The deficit has astounding and bitter consequences. She’s used to being on her own. From there it gets worse.
Grading, Assessment, or Feedback? | Teaching | Chris Friend assign credentials by saying students passed a course, achieved a goal, or mastered content. Grades also sort or rank students by performance, giving us the ability to discuss “B students” as a group or “above-average” students as a means of exclusion. They label performance based on arbitrary evaluative criteria. I say “arbitrary” because there is really no way to determine what an A means. Even if we look at percentages, the most common means of devising grades, we would be stumped by a simple question: An A is equal to 90% of what? If it’s work done, does that mean that 10% of the work was never attempted, or that 10% failed to meet standards? The inherent vagueness of grades is a self-fueling, all-consuming fire. But what do we tell ourselves grades do? When was the last time you only needed to assess one element of something? Assessment is the process of determining the quality of something, typically a student’s ability, skill, or knowledge. [Photo by riekhavoc (caught up?)
Howard Gardner, multiple intelligences and education Howard Gardner, multiple intelligences and education. Howard Gardner’s work around multiple intelligences has had a profound impact on thinking and practice in education – especially in the United States. Here we explore the theory of multiple intelligences; why it has found a ready audience amongst educationalists; and some of the issues around its conceptualization and realization. Contents: introduction · howard gardner – a life · howard gardner on multiple intelligences · the appeal of multiple intelligences · are there additional intelligences? · howard gardner’s multiple intelligences – some issues and problems · conclusion · further reading and references · how to cite this article I want my children to understand the world, but not just because the world is fascinating and the human mind is curious. Howard Earl Gardner’s (1943- ) work has been marked by a desire not to just describe the world but to help to create the conditions to change it. Howard Gardner – a life Mindy L.
De-grade your classroom with narrative feedback SmartBlogs Years ago, I stopped grading my students. This is shocking to most educators who wonder how assessment can be done without numbers and letters. The answer is surprisingly simple: I replace grades with narrative feedback. Renowned education professor and researcher Dylan Wiliam, who has studied feedback and grades for decades, recommends in his book “Embedded Formative Assessment” using narrative feedback in lieu of grades, rather than in addition to letters and numbers. Wiliam suggests that grades detract from the value of the feedback. In my class, students complete many activities and projects on blogs and other web-based tools. Consider the following example of narrative feedback in place of grades, using the SE2R formula. In my classroom, students complete activities and projects willingly, without grades on their work. Mark Barnes is a 20-year classroom teacher and adjunct professor at two Ohio colleges.
Top 3 Reasons to Improve Your Vocabulary - Litemind Developing a great vocabulary is one of the most overlooked ways to improve our lives. It is often believed that learning many words is only useful for writers and speakers, but the truth is that everyone benefits from it, both personally and professionally. Vocabulary Sharpens Your Communication Contrary to what some people believe, the point of having a good vocabulary is not to use fancy, arcane or complicated words to impress or confuse other people. In order to be effective, communication has to be simple. If learning new words and using simple language seem like contradictory goals at first, it makes complete sense when you understand that having a good vocabulary is more than knowing a large amount of words: the point of having a good vocabulary is being able to choose words with greater precision. Think of your vocabulary as your “communication toolbox”: every word is a tool, ready to be used at the right time. Vocabulary Opens Your Mind Vocabulary Gets You Results
Peer Review Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson And in Conclusion: Inquiring into Strategies for Writing Effective Conclusions While drafting a literary analysis essay (or another type of argument) of their own, students work in pairs to investigate advice for writing conclusions and to analyze conclusions of sample essays. They then draft two conclusions for their essay, select one, and reflect on what they have learned through the process. Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Unit Reading Shakespeare's The Tempest through a Postcolonial Lens Students take a postcolonial perspective on the portrayal of Caliban from Shakespeare's The Tempest by comparing it to a modern adaptation of the play. Analyzing the Rhetoric of Corporate Logos across Time Students think critically about how design elements in logos work together to tell a changing story about a company or product in this visual rhetoric lesson. Grades K – 2 | Lesson Plan | Minilesson Collaborative Stories 2: Revising
A Parent's Resource Guide to Social and Emotional Learning Encouraging Kindness and Empathy Cultivating Kindness and Compassion in Children (Center for Child and Family Well-Being, University of Washington, 2014) This summary of a public lecture by Kimberly Schonert-Reichl underscores the importance of promoting social and emotional learning, reviews some of the research about cultivating kindness and compassion in children, and discusses five practical strategies that parents can try. For even more parent tips, read Schonert-Reichl's Kindness Booklet. Back to Top Cultivating Perseverance and Resilience Carol Dweck on the Power of "Yet" (GreatSchools, 2013) Stanford University professor Carol Dweck, research pioneer on “fixed” versus “growth” mindsets, discusses how a simple change of language can inspire children to think differently about their capabilities. Fostering Gratitude Mindfulness, Emotional Intelligence, and Focus Home, School, and Community Partnerships Children’s Social Selves and Technology Additional Resources
Getting feedback right Part 1 – Why do we give it It’s become a truism that feedback is the most important activity that teachers engage in. Feedback, we are repeatedly told, is tremendously powerful and therefore teachers must do more of it. Certainly Hattie, the Sutton Trust and the EEF bandy about impressive effect sizes, but the evidence of flipping through a pupil’s exercise book suggests that the vast majority of what teachers write is ignored or misunderstood. Teachers’ feedback can certainly have a huge impact but it’s a mistake to believe that this impact is always positive. The point he makes is that teachers’ feedback often has unintended consequences; if we’re not careful, it may have the exact opposite result to what we intended. To provide clarity – most mistakes are made because pupils are unclear on precisely what they should be doing. If we understood which of these purpose we were engaged in, our feedback might be a lot more useful and a lot more likely to produced the desired results. Like this: Like Loading...