This article is a very comprehensive and mostly very helpful explanation of how to develop and write standards. I think it is not helpful to use "I can" statements as many students can't (especially initially). A better way to frame these statements is "I am learning to . . ." I would also like to know where I can find an explanation of the very dubious third pillar - "marks for progress."
This article is a very comprehensive and mostly very helpful explanation of how to develop and write standards. I think it is not helpful to use "I can" statements as many students can't (especially initially). A better way to frame these statements is "I am learning to . . ." I would also like to know where I can find an explanation of the very dubious third pillar - "marks for progress."
Hi Kenoc - thanks for your comments! However, I disagree about "I can" statements: We want to describe what it means for a student to successfully meet the standard. Progress or "I am learning to" is what students do along the way, which is good. But the standard describes what happens after students have learned at the appropriate level.
The point of the 3rd pillar is to avoid points and partial credit, and instead, if using any marks at all, to use ones that are clear statements about progress and feedback.
Kenoc, please note it doesn't say "marks *for* progress" but "marks *indicate* progress". That is, if you are giving grades at all, they can't just be disembodied numbers but the marks should communicate to the learner what kind of progress they are making on the concept being assessed. Again not "marks *for* progress" which sounds like we give credit merely for progress.
If you still find that "dubious", can you elaborate?
I agree about "I can" statements or "I learned" at the end but not at the beginning when "I can't; that is why I suggested the initial statement should be "I am learning to."
My problem with "marks for progress" is that it is very difficult to have useful symbols/marks for progress; for progress we need words, not symbols (except maybe on a true "Progress Report," i.e., no grades.
Again, it doesn't say "marks for progress" but "marks *indicate* progress" -- IMO a subtle but important distinction. And to echo below, marks can be words or abbreviations of words.
I agree it is important distinction but I stand by the idea that "marks" are symbols and words are feedback (about achievement growth, and/or progress that are all related but different.)
Generally marks for progress are exactly you want, e.g. "Needs revision" or "New attempt required". But the detailed feedback is the point of "feedback" as a key pillar -- in addition to marks that act as a form of feedback.
Yes, marks are words that indicate progress towards a goal. That's how we defined them in the "four pillars", and there are quite a few examples in the blog, especially in these case studies. Many instructors use words ("Meets expectations"), while others use abbreviations that are explicitly short hand for the same words (e.g. "M" for "Meets Expectations").
These are my definitions of marks and grades from the new edition of "A Repair Kit for Grading: 15 Fixes for Broken Grades" that will be published this spring - Mark/Score/Grade
Mark/Score: the number or letter placed on any single student as- sessment (test or performance) to indicate the quality of achieve- ment demonstrated.
Grade: the symbol (number or letter) reported at the end of a period of time as a summary statement of student performance.
(N.B., this is different from the definition provided by Brookhart (2016) in which she states, тАЬGrading refers to the symbols assigned to individual pieces of student тАЬworkтАЭ OR to composite measures of student performance on student report cardsтАЭ [Emphasis added]). As these are completely different processes, I think we communi- cate more clearly if we distinguish between them with my defini- tions above.)
This article is a very comprehensive and mostly very helpful explanation of how to develop and write standards. I think it is not helpful to use "I can" statements as many students can't (especially initially). A better way to frame these statements is "I am learning to . . ." I would also like to know where I can find an explanation of the very dubious third pillar - "marks for progress."
Hi Kenoc - thanks for your comments! However, I disagree about "I can" statements: We want to describe what it means for a student to successfully meet the standard. Progress or "I am learning to" is what students do along the way, which is good. But the standard describes what happens after students have learned at the appropriate level.
You can find more about the pillars right here on the blog, for example: https://gradingforgrowth.substack.com/p/finding-common-ground-with-grading
The point of the 3rd pillar is to avoid points and partial credit, and instead, if using any marks at all, to use ones that are clear statements about progress and feedback.
Kenoc, please note it doesn't say "marks *for* progress" but "marks *indicate* progress". That is, if you are giving grades at all, they can't just be disembodied numbers but the marks should communicate to the learner what kind of progress they are making on the concept being assessed. Again not "marks *for* progress" which sounds like we give credit merely for progress.
If you still find that "dubious", can you elaborate?
I agree about "I can" statements or "I learned" at the end but not at the beginning when "I can't; that is why I suggested the initial statement should be "I am learning to."
My problem with "marks for progress" is that it is very difficult to have useful symbols/marks for progress; for progress we need words, not symbols (except maybe on a true "Progress Report," i.e., no grades.
Again, it doesn't say "marks for progress" but "marks *indicate* progress" -- IMO a subtle but important distinction. And to echo below, marks can be words or abbreviations of words.
I agree it is important distinction but I stand by the idea that "marks" are symbols and words are feedback (about achievement growth, and/or progress that are all related but different.)
Generally marks for progress are exactly you want, e.g. "Needs revision" or "New attempt required". But the detailed feedback is the point of "feedback" as a key pillar -- in addition to marks that act as a form of feedback.
Are you interpreting "marks" as words, not symbols?
Yes, marks are words that indicate progress towards a goal. That's how we defined them in the "four pillars", and there are quite a few examples in the blog, especially in these case studies. Many instructors use words ("Meets expectations"), while others use abbreviations that are explicitly short hand for the same words (e.g. "M" for "Meets Expectations").
These are my definitions of marks and grades from the new edition of "A Repair Kit for Grading: 15 Fixes for Broken Grades" that will be published this spring - Mark/Score/Grade
Mark/Score: the number or letter placed on any single student as- sessment (test or performance) to indicate the quality of achieve- ment demonstrated.
Grade: the symbol (number or letter) reported at the end of a period of time as a summary statement of student performance.
(N.B., this is different from the definition provided by Brookhart (2016) in which she states, тАЬGrading refers to the symbols assigned to individual pieces of student тАЬworkтАЭ OR to composite measures of student performance on student report cardsтАЭ [Emphasis added]). As these are completely different processes, I think we communi- cate more clearly if we distinguish between them with my defini- tions above.)