My action research goal is to create more meaningful assessments for my students. I have been doing a lot of research on the standards-based grading process as well as creating more meaningful and effective rubrics for the projects I teach. I have been updating my grading rubrics to focus more on the standards and power targets, according to my ELO's. I have been sharing the rubrics with students at the beginning of projects so that they know what they need to do to fully complete an assignment. One thing I have started doing with my fifth grade students is showing them each grading rubric on the board and going through each part of the rubric; I go into detail about how students can show proficiency, and what might warrant lower scores in each category. I have noticed that students ask a lot of questions during this time; in the past I had assumed that students knew how a rubric worked and hadn't given them this important opportunity to ask these questions. In addition, when students receive their work with the rubric they are very eager to see their points and I have noticed fewer questions about why they received a score they did.
I have always struggled with 'data collection' as well as showing data. I am trying to figure out how I want to show the data I have collected and will collect in the future. Reading the action research reports for the upcoming Spring Conference has been extremely helpful in the planning and writing for my own research report. I will be attending a few sessions that focus on standard'based grading so I am hopeful to learn a lot more information about this grading style. It has been very helpful to read the review of literature as well; I have found a few books and articles that are very helpful!
That is good to see the students taking an interest in the rubrics. I make the same mistake of assuming the students understand how to interpret a rubric and what I will be looking for when I grade. Good job!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that your rubric process has been successful! Have you come up with any ways to show the data, such as a graph?
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that looking at this years action research papers have better prepared me to understand what we will need to do next year. Keep up the data collecting!