This post will be more practical than inspirational. It represents my latest “Do” in the 180 classroom, which means as I move forward with it, I will no doubt “Reflect,” which then, of course, means I will eventually–hopefully–“Do Better.” The gist of the 180 approach.
Today, I am sharing the current manifestation of how I will seek to consistently report progress to parents this year. My students will complete and share Learning Logs with their parents every two weeks. I have also included the documents that led to this current creation. I will offer brief commentary for each below.
Learning Log
I will share this document every other Friday with my kids through Google Classroom. They will then have time in class to complete it and print it off. I have them complete it in class for two reasons. First, it’s important, so I feel I have the obligation to make “real time” for that which I deem important. Second, I am available to help kids if necessary as they work through the different sections of the Log.
Grading Policies
Here are the grading (gradeless) policies that we are using for all tenth-grade ELA classes at Cheney High School. I have shared them before, but I am sharing them again to help add some context and clarity for some of the things mentioned in the Logs.
Standards
We offer “three-levels of articulation” for our standards. We begin with the Common Core State Standards, which we then translate into classroom Focus Standards. As mentioned above, we distinguish some of those as “*Must-Meet Standards.” Finally, we present Learning Targets (see below) which really become the criteria for meeting the Focus Standards, though they too are generally broken down even further into single-point rubrics, so we can give even more specific guidance and feedback to our kids.
As always, please feel free to use/and or adapt. If you need me to share access to docs, please DM through Twitter @MonteSyrie. Hope you found some value in today’s post.
Do. Reflect. Do Better.
Monte: I finally got a chance to look at this in-depth. I smiled the whole time because it echoes and honors the work I did individually before even reading this. It was very comforting to see our procedures and forms and standards mirror each other. Thanks for the inadvertent “atta boy” to the work I am doing. Keep fighting the good fight.
Thank you, Aric. I was feeling a bit inadequate after reading your stuff that you shared on TG2 thread. Mine feels so sparse compared to what you have prepared for your kids. Excited for you to get back in the classroom this year. Hope it’s your best year ever.