standards based grading

I created a spreadsheet for teachers in 3rd grade that I liked so much that I decided to revamp the one I was using in 2nd grade.  Instead of having three different spreadsheets each tab at the bottom represents one or two content areas.  I’ve also merged three columns to one per standard, but there are 3 columns, one for each body of evidence.  You can always insert another 3-column, column if you need or want to use more than three bodies of evidence.  If you use and like it, let me know.

2nd Grade Standards Template for 2nd Quarter

Sorry for delay in getting this spreadsheet posted.  I needed access to SMS for the 3rd grade standards.  Since I teach 2nd grade I can only see those standards.  Anyway…attached is the 3rd grade standards document.  There are 3 sheets in the document; the first one has the standards for language arts, the 2nd sheet is for math and the 3rd sheet is for social studies and science.  I use SMS to create these documents so that the order on the spreadsheet matches the order in SMS.  The spreadsheet is set-up so you can list your students down the left hand side on the gray rows.  Across the top I have tried to list the standard in its entirety, however the standards are very long and if I shortened it I tried to show the main idea of the standard.  Don’t forget – USE YOUR RUBRIC when you’re scoring a body of evidence.  Each standard has 3 columns, one for each body of evidence you use to assess that particular standard.  On my spreadsheets I use a 1,2,3 system – 1 for not meeting the standard, 2 for meeting, and 3 for exceeding.  Remember a 3 doesn’t mean they answered every item on an assessment correctly – USE YOUR RUBRIC.  When it’s time to enter information in SMS I have my spreadsheet pulled up and I look at the progression of that child’s work within each standard.  If you want to do more than 3 bodies of evidence you can, just add another column for that standard.  For some students 3 may not be enough!

I will start working on the 2nd quarter document soon and post it on the blog before the start of the 2nd quarter.  Please post some feedback about whether this document is helpful or not.  Also if you have suggestions for changes please let me know.  Good luck!

3rd Grade Standards – 1st-Quarter

Feeling overwhelmed?  Not sure what to do next?  Wondering how you’re going to manage all this?  Don’t worry!  The first and second grade teachers in your building and your circle of teacher friends have been in your shoes!  You have a wonderful resource in those colleagues to help you navigate what might seem like a very bumpy road ahead!

For your students and their families this is nothing new if they have been a student at MCS for the past two or three years!  The Report to Family with ES, MS, and NMS is all they know!  So smile, take a deep breath and know that there is plenty of help out there!

A few important things to keep in mind:

1. Attend the Grading Protocol meetings each quarter – collaboration is one of the best tools we have to help make our work life better!
2. Standards based grading is not about averages or number grades.  So the first thing you need to do is throw out your easy grader!
3. Standards based grading is about a student’s growth on specific skills or grade level expectations within a content area.
4. The most important document in standards based grading is the rubric.  You MUST use this rubric as you assess student work.  If a student answers every question correctly on a quiz or a test that does not mean they have exceeded the standard.  You MUST read the rubric.
5. Pay attention to key words in the rubric, for example, you will see the word “consistently” mentioned in the rubric on several standards.
6. If a student begins the quarter not meeting a standard but by the end of the quarter the student is consistently meeting the standard, then the score for that student on the Report to Family will more than likely be MS or Meeting the Standard.

Another area that causes teachers’ a lot of concern is using a number score and there are occasions where you might need to have a cut score or percentage to determine whether a student has met the standard or not. You might need to decide as a grade level a cut-off score for Meeting the Standard.  For example, a student takes a math quiz with 10 questions.  The students gets 8 out of 10 correct.  Is that meeting the standard?  Two years ago when Standards Based Grading was introduced in first grade, we decided as a grade level that 80% represented a level of mastery or consistency.  That percentage is used on many different assessments as a “passing” score, so that’s why we went with it.  However, you do not put this score on a students graded papers.  This is another area of confusion for teachers.  As a team we decided that a check mark with an MS next to it meant they met the standard, a check with a minus and NMS meant they didn’t meet the standard, and a check with a plus and ES meant they exceeded the standard.  Talk to your second grade teachers and see what they did and then as a team decide what you should do.

In the past I have created spreadsheets with the standards across the top going in the same order as they are on SMS.  If you are interested in using a document like this to track your grades, send me a comment and I will create one for third grade.  The tricky part with setting up a record keeping system is keeping your assessment information together by standard because you will need to look at that data and determine whether or not a student has made progress across the semester to meet or exceed the standard, or if they have struggled and have not met the standard.

This is enough information for now.  I’m sure if you’ve read this your head might be spinning!  Best wishes for a great school year!

Karen Vogelsang, NBCT                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Keystone Elementary

It’s that time again!  I have created spreadsheets for the third quarter.  Each spreadsheet lists the standards just as they are listed in SMS so they are in order.  If you are using these and they are helpful – please let me know.  If you have suggestions for changing them – let me know that too!

I have loaded all three spreadsheets: Math, Science/Social Studies and Language Arts.

Happy New Year!

2nd Grade-3rd Quarter-Social-Studies and Science Standards

2nd-Grade-3rd-Quarter-Math-Standards

2nd-Grade-3rd-Quarter-Language-Arts-Standards

I was working from home today and tried to enter some grades using the remote access instructions that William White gave us last year.  I was pleasantly surprised that the system was moving as quickly as it was.  A colleague taught me how to enter grades for all students in a particular category when it was time to do progress reports.  I wondered whether that would work with standards based grading.  It does!!  Maybe I’m telling you something you already know.  BUT if you have any ideas or more efficient ways to get this done – share!!  We need more time to teach and prepare meaningful lessons!  Not have a battle with time entering all of this information!  In less than an hour I was able to enter all of the data for conduct, process and social skills, as well as science and social studies.

On a separate note I have prepared the spreadsheets for the 2nd quarter.  Not much changed.  This year I like the fact that instead of having a list of standards that seemed to change every quarter last year the standards are remaining the same.  It’s the detail in the rubric that’s changing.  For example in language arts the first standard is about understanding nouns, verbs, adjectives and pronouns.  In the first quarter students had to identify nouns and verbs to meet the standard.  In the 2nd quarter to meet the standard they have to identify possessive nouns and verb tense.  With that said you may notice that the terminology on the spreadsheets have not changed that much.  So remember you have to use the rubric when scoring your students.

Here are the spreadsheets for the 2nd quarter, I hope they help make your work life a little easier.  If you have suggestions for making them more useful please leave a comment!

2nd-Grade-2nd-Quarter-Language-Arts-Standards

2nd-Grade-2nd-Quarter-Math-Standards

2nd-Grade-2nd-Quarter-Social-Studies-and-Science-Standards

Our first meeting with second grade teachers in the Northwest Region was held at Frayser Elementary this afternoon.  A lot of great discussion with great ideas, but also a lot of concerns too.  It is an overwhelming process, but take a deep breath you have some first grade teachers in your school that adjusted to using new tools and new ideas for assessing our students.  I’m sure they have some great ideas for record keeping, using the rubrics appropriately, and differentiating student work.

Please share the address of the blog with your peers.  If we can use this forum to share our successes and our frustrations we can learn from one another and minimize the frustration and I’m sure learn some new things in the process.

WOW!  It’s been a long time since I made a post to the blog.  It’s been a very busy summer and now that I’m a second grade teacher I feel, in some way, I am starting all over again: new standards, new plans, but a lot of the same students.

I am attaching the spreadsheets I created last year.  I am not a paper and pencil gal – I LOVE technology!!  I had several requests for the spreadsheets so I’m posting them for your use.  I hope they help!  I was trying to wait until the standards were listed in SMS so they were in the same order, but that hasn’t happened yet.  In the meantime I have used the grading protocol draft to set up the standards in the spreadsheet.

I simply list my students down the left side column.  Across the top are the standards.  I created a numerical rubric for each standard: 1 – not meeting the standard; 2 – meeting the standard; 3 – exceeding the standard.  BE sure you use the rubric in the grading protocol packet to determine whether the student is meeting, not meeting or exceeding the standard.  At the bottom of each column you can list the assignment.  I also added the date the assessment was given.  When it comes time to add another assessment for a standard simply add another column, list the assignment at the bottom, date it and enter your scores.  When it comes time to enter the data into SMS you will have the student information by standard, which is what you’re going to need!

If you have any questions, let me know.

Karen Vogelsang

2nd Grade – 1st Quarter Language Arts Standards

2nd Grade – 1st Quarter Math Standards

2nd Grade – 1st Quarter Social Studies and Science Standards

It’s always nice to have the opportunity to see what other activities and instructional materials first grade teachers are using with their students.  One teacher incorporated the standard about time lines with black history and the student work was exemplary!   Another teacher integrated math and writing with subtraction story problems.  I know I left there with some great ideas.  As the group discussed what’s working and what’s not in their classrooms a lot of interesting discussion points were brought up that leaves more questions than answers, but that’s okay.  First grade teachers are fabulous so we’ll figure it out!

Here are a few of the things we discussed:

• Honor Roll – does your school have an honors program for first graders?  If so, what criteria do you use?
• Student Transfers – does the assessment match the student performance? is the rubric really being used by all teachers?
• Record Keeping – everyone seems to be doing something different!  Some are using paper and pencil, others are creating word or excel documents to keep track of assessments.  What are you using and how well is it working?
• Instructional Maps vs. Nine Week Standards – there was a lot of discussion about the instructional maps and the standards that are included in a grading period.  For example – in the 3rd nine weeks the map references chapters 19, 20, 21, 22 and 14.  However, the standards include telling time, counting money, creating and reading graphs, figures from memory and many, many more.  These skills are not included in the map.  How are you teaching to all of these standards?  One teacher was not using the maps, instead she was focusing on the standards and sequencing her instruction to the standards, not the math book.  I have focused on the sequence in the map, and I’m trying to integrate the other standards as warm-up activities.  However, there are so many I don’t feel that I will have the time to teach to all of these standards in a meaningful way.  Share what your struggles/successes are!
• Skills within a standard – many teachers discussed the difficulty of adequately assessing a student when many of the skills are tied into one standard.  Two examples were give – in math the ability to add and subtract are in one standard.  Many students are successful at adding, but struggle with subtracting.  In grammar – students can identify and use nouns, but struggle with verbs.  With the key word of consistency in the rubric, many students will not meet the standard.  What are your thoughts?

Okay, that’s A LOT of info to discuss, but we would really like to hear your thoughts.  Please spread the word about the blog.  This can be a great discussion tool as well as a documentation tool for the challenges we’re facing.

We found out a week ago that honor roll for first grade students’ could be determined by each school.  As a team we weren’t sure what to do.  After some discussion we decided to adopt the same plan as Kindergarten – we would award students with perfect attendance and good citizenship.  That however brought up the next question – what defines good citizenship?  Is it only those students exceeding the standard or consistently meeting the standard?  Some students that “met the standard” might have had some days where they really needed to improve their conduct – should they get good citizenship?  We decided it would only be those students that were exceeding the standard.

Now let’s hear from you?  What is your school doing to honor hard working students in the first grade?  Post a comment and let us know!