Communicating student progress has been the biggest challenge for me. I provide feedback on students' mastery of the targets. I've long believed that this is far more valuable than a letter on a report card (what parent doesn’t prefer the specificity of information on the elementary school report card to the string of letter grades in high school?). But...the calculation of the final grade is something that I still need to refine. I have not yet moved into the JumpRope gradebook. This will be an important step in helping me communicate and I am beginning it with my new unit, as I discovered after trying to make this work in the Moodle gradebook. Here is an example unit report that I currently use. Here is one view of grades in the Moodle gradebook. Here is how I used a rubric in the Moodle gradebook to track targets. One thing I like about that gradebook is that feedback for students in retained-- as shown in the screenshot. What is does not do as well, though, is track targets across assessments.
I wholeheartedly agree with Wormelli about getting rid of extra credit and bonus points, separating out habits, and avoiding group grades. I also believe that grades should not be the motivators for students. There are, of course, external factors that can cause conflict here. As we communicate to students and parents about work habits, I am hopeful that they will begin to see the grade for what it is. When students recognize that good work habits bring about greater understanding and mastery, this should be motivation enough. I am also hopeful that colleges will become our allies in this endeavor by: 1) adjusting to standards-based transcripts and 2) applying standards based learning at their own institutions. As students leave us, how strange it will seem to them to enter a world of acquiring points and averaging them to determine a grade.
I wholeheartedly agree with Wormelli about getting rid of extra credit and bonus points, separating out habits, and avoiding group grades. I also believe that grades should not be the motivators for students. There are, of course, external factors that can cause conflict here. As we communicate to students and parents about work habits, I am hopeful that they will begin to see the grade for what it is. When students recognize that good work habits bring about greater understanding and mastery, this should be motivation enough. I am also hopeful that colleges will become our allies in this endeavor by: 1) adjusting to standards-based transcripts and 2) applying standards based learning at their own institutions. As students leave us, how strange it will seem to them to enter a world of acquiring points and averaging them to determine a grade.