Getting to Know You...

Asking students for feedback is always a double-edged sword. You're going to get answers that you love and cherish, but they might as well be invisible, because the answers that are tough for you to read seem to eclipse anything bright and cheery.

This year is no different. I've got a fairly (very?) long survey I offer students. (It changes from year to year, but click here for this year's version.) Some complain about it, and some seem to enter their most deepest secrets as they type, type, type their answers.

Here are a few reasons why getting to know students is oh, so important...

Last year, during the last week of school, I asked students what went right this year in ELA - what could they celebrate? In one class, they started talking about all we did NOT do... I was actually thanked for not yelling at the kids, or telling them I'm going to chop off their knee caps or light them on fire. Their words - not mine. This year, I have students who are fearful of such a thing - yelling or embarrassing them in front of others. Granted, sometimes I feel as if I'm "too nice" - on days when I have patience, I can calmly let students know what I need from them, and then slide on over to students who need help or are acting out and quietly have a discussion. Hearing that students will be embarrassed if I raise my voice (or - Heaven forbid - threaten them) reinforces the fact that I need to stay patient. I'm sure, just as with every other year, there will be a day when my own issues or troubles creep into the classroom and I snap a bit and get loud and sound strict. Maybe it won't happen this year - maybe I can keep in mind that many of my students have specifically asked - through the survey - to not be yelled at or cut down in front of the class. Makes me think of Brene Brown and shaming once again...

More than one student has already written a cry for help for ELA class - either for reading or writing - sharing how difficult it is for them.

More than one student has an "annoying" sibling that makes it hard for them to do homework. And at least one of mine misses a sibling that just left for college.

One student has said that both parents are busy - please give him extra time to get in papers signed.

Many of them have great questions for our class that they didn't share during our first week together. Now I can share the answers this week, and calm some of their fears.

Some students are coming to our classes with a chip on their shoulders - they've not had positive experiences up until now, and they're already not looking forward to being with us. It's good to know it's not always personal - some of them come with some baggage that I wouldn't have been aware of had I not asked...

Here are their answers this year to "The perfect teacher is..." I'll be asking them to be the same.

Of course, this is changed and added yearly to our classroom blog here. :)

Feedback In Lieu of Grading - Quarter Two

My reflection this quarter is for my students... I'd like to share with you your thoughts and suggestions, and how I'd like to proceed. Let's keep having the much-needed conversations about learning!

First class, block 2/4 Responses:

Let's address the concern in the last comment. (Yes, I moved the comments I wanted to address down to the bottom in each of these photos so I could see them better and be able to share them with you in order to write this post.) When we meet in our 1:1 (one-on-one) conferences, I let students know if I agree or not, and why. There were only a handful of students this quarter that I did not agree with, and those students didn't have evidence to support the grade they chose. In those cases, students created goals (or in some cases, we created small contracts) so that next quarter the student would be more accurate in his or her reflection. I also stated on those students' sheets that I did not agree and reasons as to why we had disagreements. In eleven (out of 67) instances this quarter did the final grade a student gave him or herself not match my own assessment of those students' reading, writing and grammar skills combined. The parents were made aware through the comments on our 1:1 conferencing sheets. I usually share something along the lines of "Your child was very reflective in his assessment of himself this quarter" or... "Your child and I disagreed on her grade for writing (or reading, or grammar), and have created goals to help her more accurately assess herself next quarter." Since we need to focus on learning, those eleven students have stricter guidelines now that, in fact, promote more learning through revisions or showing their skills during comprehension checks.

As a result of similar feedback from a parent last quarter, I added a small spot on our 1:1 conference sheet so parents would have a better idea of what I thought. Since I believe that school should be focused on learning, and that grades will reflect that learning, what I added was a reflection scale. This scale is to communicate to parents how reflective and how accurate student evidence was. I will continue to revise our 1:1 conference sheets to reflect parent and student suggestions.

Second class, block 5/6 Responses:

That last comment - "...sometimes I want to know what my grade is during the quarter..." Let's do it! Let's use the documenting sheets I provided each person, and figure out the midterm grade half-way through the quarter! The reason for creating the documenting sheets was so that students can pretty much always know what their grade is at any moment. Also, at any time during the quarter, you and I can meet to discuss the current evidence. Just ask!

Third class, block 8/9 Responses:

The last three comments here caught my attention. "It is challenging..." I like the challenge aspect - proving your claim is what so much of writing in our class is about. Proving it with evidence that students choose seems fitting for ELA class (and social studies, and science...)

The fact that "some students will truly benefit... and some will not because they will slack off" seems to be true for any type of grading.

"I prefer teachers grading us so that it is definitely the grade you are getting." Since we agree on a grade together, that is definitely the grade you are getting. If I truly disagreed with the final grade, I would intervene, parents would know I did not see the same evidence the student provided, and we would create a plan for the next quarter that would help the student be more reflective and accurate in his or her self-assessment.

Suggestions from all three blocks:

Line 2 & 9: Here are more writing prompts that you can use throughout the year. These are on our class Weebly under "Student Resources --> Writing Challenge" and also under "FAR --> Writing Guidelines." ;) It may seem as if I have not been giving more encouragement to write in class. I try to balance our reading with our writing, and it's always in my plans to provide more time for writing in class. Some students ask if they can write instead of read during independent reading time. That is an option for those who read on a consistent basis at home. You can always choose to write outside of class, as well. Add it to your independent reading practice at home.

Line 3: Let's remember to provide time IN class for this to happen. (Note: Some students already do this on their own.)

Line 4: I'm back and forth on "participation" points, as I've read a lot about introverts and how they are still retaining content from the class even without participating. Participating can cause introverted people actual, physical pain. We will have times when we need to present, but the culture of our classroom is trust, and I do not think it is fair to grade oral participation in this class.

Lines 5, 11, and 12: I will provide a mid-term check in this next quarter. We will use our documenting sheets to do so. This may be a good time for me to provide you with what I think your grade should be for reading, writing, and grammar at this point in time.

Line 6: Sorry. I have read too much research against traditional grading to go back now. Until our district uses standards-based grading, this system is more accurate and fair than how I used to grade.

Line 7: One time I made a change in a student's grade - by accident. I typed in the wrong letter on the wrong line. The parent gave me a heads up and I was able to correct it before it appeared on any final grade report. I have triple-checked our 1:1 conferencing sheets this time, so as to not repeat that error again (I hope!).

Line 8 & 10: I'm aware that for some students this type of grading can be "nerve-wrecking." I ask you this - can "traditional" grading also be nerve-wracking if you're at a 89.6% or if you have a test or a project due on the last day of the quarter? Use the documenting sheets to their full potential. They're with you so you know where you stand at any given moment and have more control of your final grade. Share more books with the class (orally or written) so you counter-act any "low" comprehension check data by proving you understand what you read. Submit more writing than is assigned so you have more choice as to what evidence you'd like to use for your writing and grammar portions of class.

I hope this is what students will feel by the end of this school year...

My resources so far: "FaR" tabs of our classroom Weebly

                                    Feedback Instead of Grades LiveBinder for parents to inspect
                                    My own reflections on this journey

Feedback In Lieu of Grading - Quarter One

We made it through the first grading period without ANY grades for all three of my 80-minute block classes!

My students and I met to discuss their learning two weeks before the grading period ended, and we came up with a grade together. Students were asked to bring this document to the table, and some did. Others did not fill it in. I had the evidence on a spreadsheet, however, so we still had proof of students' current skills.

Statistics from first quarter:

• I have 66 students
• 61% of students earned an A
• 31% of students earned a B
• 8% of students earned a C
• I gave audio/video feedback on 230 pieces of writing
• I gave more feedback on 97 revisions from 36 students

Here's what my spreadsheet finally ended up looking like for my own notes regarding writing and grammar pieces (it will be refined for next quarter):

Yellow highlights mean that student should be revising that piece. Dark rectangles mean the student decided to not use that piece for evidence. NI = needs improvement, D = developing, P = proficient, and M = mastery... Only my co-teacher and I saw these "scores." The YouTube links are unlisted links - they are not public. The question marks are because I neglected to jot down my own thoughts on their achievement! This happened with a couple of the first pieces I was giving feedback to. I was still working on a documentation system that would work for me. You can see it didn't at first!

What I learned from one-on-one conferences:

• At least one student didn't know what "revise" meant. He thought he had to re-write pieces or start anew.
• Students that I hadn't really connected well with (yet), have approached me more since we've met.
• Students who did "A" work and had all their evidence ready ahead of time had very quick conferences. Students who were not reflective about their work took approximately 10-12 minutes to conference.
• One student said she thought she deserved a "B+," but wanted to put down an "A-" for her final grade. She said her parents expected it. She then agreed to accomplish the goals she set for herself for next quarter, or she'd give herself the "B."
• I need to send home the goal setting sheet in the report card envelope.
• I need to send home student reasons for choosing the comments they chose.
• I need to copy the last two pieces of documentation so I can remind students of their own goals throughout next quarter. Heck - I need to give a copy of their goals back to them!!
• I needed to make a new document for students to keep track of their reading and writing. Here's the new reading documenting sheet, and here are the new writing and grammar sheets (thank you, Yvette!!).
• Now I need to make sure students update these three documents when we're in class together...

A fact that totally surprised me:
       I have never had so many entries into the gradebook!!
Check 'em out:

Each one of those dots is a written comment... Some have narrative feedback regarding enunciation and volume, some include a YouTube link to the audio / video screencast feedback on their writing, the comprehension checks have scores separated for literal and inferential questions, "book shares" have narrative feedback from this feedback form, and some are behavior notes (using ind rdg time wisely, preparation, goals...). Yes. I've been busy taking myriad notes and documenting them on the online grade book - without any grades but the one in the final slot.

After we met one-on-one, I asked students to fill in an open-ended survey. The question: Please let me know how the first quarter has gone. (I will ask parents to fill out a survey the day report cards are sent home.)
Here are student responses I received regarding grades (copied & pasted):

• we did not have as much stress as other classes and you could always inprove your grade
• If someone wants to see their grade, I would let them, but if someone wants to not see their grade then write comments. If you have grades, you could see how you could improve but without you can struggle a bit.
• I really liked how the students had to show evidence form their grade. I think it was good to learn. when you get a job you do monthly check ins and many adults don't know how to handle it. Once we are old enough to get a job we will all be great at this which will help us in our life. I also liked how we got all quarter to write different stories and we got to pick our three favorites. I also feel that many students tried very hard for the grade so they worked their best. I don't think i noticed many negatives personally. I think that everything was handled the right way by teachers and by students.
• I think grading ourselves is an educational good idea and that would help us realize what we need to work on.
• I think this was a good quarter, and it went by fast. I'm happy with the grade I got and the grading system is pretty good. At some points I really wanted to know my grade and I would get frustrated. I think our ELA class is fun, and has is different from other classes. Based on how the first quarter went, I thing the rest of the year will also be good.
• You are not as pressured as other classes to get a good grade on it but, you still get a grade. which is awesome. 
• I think this quarter has been really fun! I really like how we're learning how to give our opinions and back it up. It actually reminds me of debates on CNN when they have to back up what they're saying or else it's not true. Being able to say what we think our grade should be is a really good way for us to learn from our mistakes and do better next quarter. I guess the only thing I would like to do is do more creative writing than narratives.
• I like how we get to chose our own evidence because if you have one bad assignment it won't bring your grade down a lot like it usually would.
• I like how we don't have to stress over grade and can work at our own pace.
• I really like how the first quarter has gone. The grading system is really good. You have to grade yourself, but you need to support why you deserve this grade. So it's almost like the grading itself is a lesson of some sort. It's also sort of stress-free. There is a little, but it's not that stressful.
• I think first quarter went well for most people the no grades think was amazing. I think the no grades thing grades lots of people by not giving them stress helped lots of people have stress from other classes. Their were no real pit falls. 
• one benefit is that we make our own grades but we need the evidence, it is beneficial because it shows that you need to work for a grade.
• This quarter has helped me a lot with writing, grammar, and revising. It is also helping me become more organized and independent. I have gotten more into reading, I have found a genre that I love, and I have also found some books that really interest me. This quarter has been really fun and it has become my favorite subject in school. I do feel I need to read more and improve my vocabulary. I love the fish bowls and I hope we do more of them. I want to improve my debate skills for high school. I also love the "grading" system. 

My resources so far: "FaR" tabs of our classroom Weebly

                                    Feedback Instead of Grades LiveBinder for parents to inspect
                                    My own reflections on this journey

Feedback for ME: End-of-Year Surveys

It's the end of my 21st year of teaching and I still will not end the year without getting feedback from my students. Their feedback helps form my teaching! Instead of waiting to blog about how they responded, I thought other teachers might want feedback as well, so I'm sharing the documents now. I decided to not put student surveys on a Google form this time, as I didn't know if I'd have the technology available in class. (I also like to sit on the living room floor organize the papers into certain groups when I start looking at the feedback!)

Many thanks go to Aric Foster (the survey he shared is HERE), Jarred Amato (his survey is HERE), and Adam Schoenbart (his survey is HERE), for sharing their surveys via Twitter in the past two weeks. These acted as the catalyst that got me modifying my own. I stole many questions from them (all high school English teachers), and merged them with questions I've had from previous years.

These are on Google Docs - feel free to copy and modify to make one your own.

General End-of-Year Survey for ELA Class

(If you have a co-teacher, make sure you put his or her name on a version of this, as well!)

There is one question in this EOY survey that asks about students' favorite books. The day I hand out these surveys, we'll spend some time looking at the books we've read (I collected them HERE from our in-class independent reading log). We'll talk about our favorites and come up with a few to recommend to next year's seventh graders. I'll either cut out or type up their explanations on this survey for their favorite books, and add a photo of the book to go with it for our first bulletin board of the 2016-2017 school year.

General End-of-Year Survey for Parents 

(this one is a Google form I email)

Survey for Students (in just one class of mine) 

Regarding Grading

Survey for Parents (of students in one class of mine) 

Regarding Grading

I'm excited to pour over their brutally honest answers, and learn from them once again.

Update: Need more encouragement? 

"Why Teachers Should Seek Feedback from Their Students" by Richard Bruford 7/8/16

4 Pieces of Feedback that Teachers Should Collect From Their Students by Richard Bruford 7/13/16

Stellar Surveys

This is a "How-To" post for students.

You want answers to your questions. Should gum be allowed in schools? Is knuckle-cracking bad for you? What flavor cake do you like best? Which material should I use to make hats? Would you purchase my creation? What should I practice drawing? It's time to create a stellar survey!

Five Tips to Creating Stellar Surveys
1. Design your survey first. What is your goal? What do you feel you NEED to know in order to guide your research? Do you want to include opinion questions? Questions on a scale of 1-10 (with explanations of which is which)? True/False? Multiple choice? Rankings? Open-ended? How long or short should it be to keep the attention of the people responding? How can you word each question to ensure an honest answer? This step is a TON of work! Done right, it will pay off when you start seeing responses.
2. Use a Google form or a site such as Survey Monkey. This way, you can easily access respondents answers in a pre-made spreadsheet. You can also share these results with others, with one link. The best reason to use a Google form or Survey Monkey is that it's easy to share - through email, Twitter, on your blog, on your class website, or on this Survey Central document. The more results you get, the more accurate your research. Click here for Google form directions.
3. Do not make every question "required." You will turn off many possible participants if you do.
4. Include a question about age. Use age ranges, such as 5-10, 11-15, 16-20, etc. This way, you can organize responses to fit your needs.
5. Leave room for the unexpected. If you are using multiple choice, consider using "other" or "none of the above" as a choice.

If you use another tip, please let me know in the comments, and I'll add it to this list!

Survey Central

Calling all teachers of Genius Hour / 20% Time / Passion Projects!!

Problem: Getting answers to your students' surveys...
Solution: A survey CLEARINGHOUSE!

Why didn't we think of this before? I've created "Survey Central" - a place where teachers can add their students' surveys, and ask their own students to view other surveys and help their peers.

SURVEY CENTRAL

(tinyurl.com/GHSurveyCentral)

"View only?" Can't edit this document?
     Simply ask for permission by clicking "share" and then "request access." I didn't make it editable by anyone, as we want surveys that are appropriate for all students, without spammers adding who-knows-what.

The first survey was one I saw on the #geniushour hashtag this morning - that's how they get seen. Please continue to share your students' surveys to the hashtag on Twitter, and add them to this document. Then be considerate and tweet out the survey link as well - so other students can benefit and get data for their research. Let's continue to try to create life-long learners!

Share this post with students for tips on HOW to create stellar surveys.

Kudos to Mr. Kirr for generating the name of this clearinghouse document!