How to Grade for Learning

My district has been spending a great deal of time revamping, rethinking, and adjusting our current reporting system to parents.  I had the opportunity to work on work this with other second grade teachers across the district and am excited with the changes we are rolling out this fall.  We have made changes for teachers and we've made changes for parents.  These changes will help us all understand what students are learning and how students are progressing towards learning second grade content.  While at one of these district meetings I noticed a pile of professional books outside the door and got giddy when I learned these are up for grabs.  As I stood there, I learned How to Grade for Learning by Ken O'Connor was a book that guided much of the report card revamping, rethinking, and adjusting that had occurred before I joined the project.  I knew I wanted to read this book to help me understand the changes more to help my students but to also help my parents this coming school year. 

These are the nudges I found for the upcoming school year.

-write more things down, I can't remember everything

-be more intentional with linking assessments to learning standards

-do and keep track of informal communications

-do more informal communications, bring back the sending home a postcard to families

-use questions for student responses for summative assessments p79

These are some quotes that are sticking with me and might interest you in reading this book more.

-"Students - and parents - have been taught to overvalue grades.  Although it will not be easy, if teachers grade better, both may learn to value grades more appropriately."

-"it is extremely complicated."

-"use grading as an exercise in professional judgement to enhance learning."

-"Teachers use a wide variety of assessment methods, not all sources of information need to be included in grades.  They decide which sources of information to include based on the reliability and validity of the data nada the purpose of the assessment."

-"...the prime purpose of grades is recognized as communication, not competition, and determine students grades is based on a pedagogy that views the teacher's role as supporting learning and encouraging student success."