New Idea: Class Quiz! I imagine implementing this on the 3rdish day of school, pretty early on. Picture this: Students have already gone through a lesson and are working on practice problems with their seatmates. After a few minutes of working, I make them pause and look up.
I imagine frantic working, possibly a small uproar at the unfairness. I don't care. Because I have more planned. And I tell them that they are wasting time when they need to make sure everyone in their group understands every problem.
While the 3 students are writing the problems on the board, I tell the class the rules for the grade: Each student will present their problem and talk through their thinking, and students must respond by asking good questions. During the presentations I ask questions too to make sure they didn't just copy another kid's work. I take notes on the student as well as the class (are they paying attention, asking good questions, etc.) as each child is presenting, pause for class questions. Then I ask, "what did X do well?" and "what's one thing X could improve upon?" and add any additional notes I took.
This plays out for the other students. I tell the class that while everyone did a fantastic job for the first time being up here, it was hard work and they still have a lot to improve upon. I don't think I would give the class a perfect score the first time, to teach them to work harder for the next time. I am all about standards-based grading, but I'm also very strongly for character grades, as well. How well can students work in teams? How well do students present in front of a group of people? How well can students read and synthesize information in a project? I think it's my roll to not just strengthen a student's math ability, but also their character. I don't, however, believe that these grades should make-or-break a students grade, so I'm imagining the standards being 90% and the class quizzes (character quizzes, really) only 10% of a student's overall grade.
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AuthorTracy Conte is a high school math teacher in Raleigh, NC. Archives
November 2019
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