Monday, November 17, 2014

First Thoughts on Rick Wormeli

Last week I was able to go and see Rick Wormeli at CVU with the VAMLE board. He was giving a presentation about standards based grading. I have really been thinking about the whole idea of teaching with "GRIT" which yes I know is a four letter word, but I think it really addresses the issue of teaching students to be independent, critically thinking, hard working people.

If you are unfamiliar with Wormeli, he has put out numerous books and articles from around current trends in education and school transformations. Here are his thoughts on standards based grading:




I am still reading about his ideas for standards based grading, but I know as a teacher I really struggle with the whole grading thing, how do I assess students and give them a number on a scale of 0-100 for an assessment and put it in grade book and then have that accurately tell the student and their families where they are in connection with the standard and enduring understanding that we are working on. I am feeling like as a teacher that only shows such a narrow perspective on how the student is doing and that I need a better way to communicate with families about the growth of their learner. I am excited by all of the work that is currently being done around the state on standards based grading and have great hopes for where this work is going.

One thing that made me go "woo hoo" inside was that he said the best way to show student growth is through the use of a portfolio. It made me smile on the inside knowing that the work that we are doing is on the right track.


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