Early this week, the kids have been finishing up a science projects that culminates their study on animal adaptations. The task was reasonably straightforward and was an on-your-own assignment:
Study a biome. Create a top-tier predator for that biome. (Once they had planned their predator, I added) Create a prey animal that has a shot at survival with the predator you just created as part of the biome.
We spent a fair amount of lessons looking at the mouths and feet of different animals, and, as part of that time, kids designed their predators bit by bit. This gave them collaborative time, as they shared ideas with each other, even though the project was individual.
Typically, I have a project rubric available at the beginning of a project, so that the kids know exactly how they're being graded. There are always at least two grades - the grade I give and the grade each child gives him or herself, with each of us using the rubric. Sometimes,especially early in the year, I'll have a peer-grade before I see it and give kids the opportunity to make changes based on the grade from the peer eval. The average of the grades goes in the book.
I never quite got around to making that rubric. I know; bad teacher.
Over the break, part of my professional reading was ROLE Reversal by Mark Barnes, a sixth-grade English teacher in Ohio. Check it out here. The Kindle version isn't expensive. (BTW, if you don't have a Kindle - I have a Nook - you can get an app for your tablet or laptop for free.)
One of Mr. Barnes' tenets is, since his class in a Results-Only-Learning-Environment, that his students assign their own quarterly grades. It's not random; they have to justify their choice and conference with him, but the grade they pick is the grade they get.
I teach fourth grade, and while asking them to reflect on a period of six weeks is most likely beyond their range, they can certainly reflect on the work of six days.
So, curious to see what they'd say, and too lazy to bother with a rubric at this point, I let them have at it. "Once your work's on display, write me a letter explaining what letter grade you feel like you've earned and why." No minilesson on evaluating or anything, just a cold write. What grade does your work deserve?
Here's what I got:
"I think I deserve a B because I did good but I don't think I tryed my hardest to spell the words correctly and we all know I suck at spelling, but I still think I should of asked for help in my spelling."
This is the work of an EC student. A lovely girl, somewhat overshadowed by an overachieving big sister, whom I taught several years ago. This sister's very shy, so I wasn't surprised when she was a bit wishy-washy about what she thought she'd earned.
"I think my grade should be a B or an A because i really don't think my prey go's good with my animal because they are almost both the same, but the prey is more stronger. So I think it should be an A or a B." I handed her letter back to her and said, "Pick one." She did; an A.
"A B because I didn't do really good on it, I just did good, and I think the info is pretty good. I just think I did good on the drawing and pretty good on the info."
Okay, not much of a letter, but earlier in the year, he'd try to cry his way out of most assignments and wrote just enough to shut me up on the others. He writes really light, so this didn't photograph well, but it's there, and the amount of detail in his drawings is significant. Had I had a rubric, he would likely have scored a C. The writing isn't as detailed as it might have been and, to be honest, the kid's no artist. What's really important, though, is that he rubric would have completely discounted the growth in task commitment and how much attention he gave this. This is breakthrough work for this guy.
A couple of kids tried the 'I'll butter her up' approach...
Study a biome. Create a top-tier predator for that biome. (Once they had planned their predator, I added) Create a prey animal that has a shot at survival with the predator you just created as part of the biome.
We spent a fair amount of lessons looking at the mouths and feet of different animals, and, as part of that time, kids designed their predators bit by bit. This gave them collaborative time, as they shared ideas with each other, even though the project was individual.
Typically, I have a project rubric available at the beginning of a project, so that the kids know exactly how they're being graded. There are always at least two grades - the grade I give and the grade each child gives him or herself, with each of us using the rubric. Sometimes,especially early in the year, I'll have a peer-grade before I see it and give kids the opportunity to make changes based on the grade from the peer eval. The average of the grades goes in the book.
I never quite got around to making that rubric. I know; bad teacher.
Over the break, part of my professional reading was ROLE Reversal by Mark Barnes, a sixth-grade English teacher in Ohio. Check it out here. The Kindle version isn't expensive. (BTW, if you don't have a Kindle - I have a Nook - you can get an app for your tablet or laptop for free.)
One of Mr. Barnes' tenets is, since his class in a Results-Only-Learning-Environment, that his students assign their own quarterly grades. It's not random; they have to justify their choice and conference with him, but the grade they pick is the grade they get.
I teach fourth grade, and while asking them to reflect on a period of six weeks is most likely beyond their range, they can certainly reflect on the work of six days.
So, curious to see what they'd say, and too lazy to bother with a rubric at this point, I let them have at it. "Once your work's on display, write me a letter explaining what letter grade you feel like you've earned and why." No minilesson on evaluating or anything, just a cold write. What grade does your work deserve?
Here's what I got:
"I think I should get an A+ (100) because I took my time, colored it, and I made sure it was neat where you could read it. Also I did my best in what we were doing. I re-read it to make sure it made sense. I also kept on drawing the animal to make sure it made sense but looked good. That's why I think I should get an A+.
This is the work of an EC student. A lovely girl, somewhat overshadowed by an overachieving big sister, whom I taught several years ago. This sister's very shy, so I wasn't surprised when she was a bit wishy-washy about what she thought she'd earned.
"A B because I didn't do really good on it, I just did good, and I think the info is pretty good. I just think I did good on the drawing and pretty good on the info."
Okay, not much of a letter, but earlier in the year, he'd try to cry his way out of most assignments and wrote just enough to shut me up on the others. He writes really light, so this didn't photograph well, but it's there, and the amount of detail in his drawings is significant. Had I had a rubric, he would likely have scored a C. The writing isn't as detailed as it might have been and, to be honest, the kid's no artist. What's really important, though, is that he rubric would have completely discounted the growth in task commitment and how much attention he gave this. This is breakthrough work for this guy.
A couple of kids tried the 'I'll butter her up' approach...
... and this was just too funny not to include.
I love the sincerity. He'll have to choose between a C and a B. Yeah, that last line's about dodgeball. Who knows...
So, what have we learned?
Obviously, we need to spend some time talking about what makes a good project. Most students cited the aesthetics of their projects rather than content, ("I colored neatly") though that wasn't universal. ("I tried my best on the predator doing its armor and how it catches food and I got a lot of facts.")
I think, at the beginning of a year, I should still share grading responsibilities and use rubrics, but over time, move to narrative grading that they control. When fourth graders start a year, they've only had one year's experience with letter grades at all.
It's also safe to let them grade science and social studies, because there's no test for those this year. I don't have to worry about report card grades lining up with testing results, so I can keep playing with it this year.
They grade themselves pretty hard.
With that in mind, I'll set a big ol' long-range goal: develop a set of minilessons that teach how to evaluate their project work. I think it might revolve around having them create feedback for a set of exemplars. If they think about how to write feedback well, they'll better understand the intention of the feedback they get.
Good night!
Elizabeth
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