I like this. It also adds some score-keeping meaning to the stamp, whereas before it was just a [meaningless?] piece of praise to validate what was already written down (I wonder what Alfie Kohn’s thoughts on that would be). Here, if there’s no stamp, there’s still one more to go.

This is great! I actually use something similar to this with my 4th graders, but you’ve gone up and improved it.

Going to borrow. Thanks!

Ok, that’s funny. I used this for my practicum last fall and assumed it was supposed to be a fill-in-the-boxes template to begin with.

(Of course, being a practicum, the students were mostly confused by what I was doing anyway as I was changing things up two weeks into the class.)

Jacob, I would guess the stamp is supposed to be the “perfection” mark (note how the third row doesn’t have a stamp yet, so the student only scored a 4 once).

Do you still track past scores in your own records? I waffled on that question when I started using this. “More data -> more analysis” is good; but “less data -> less administrative hassle and tidier mark book” is also good. Plus if I really don’t care about past scores then tracking past scores is kind of … weird? Hypocritical? Except not really so whatever.

(I tried setting up a spreadsheet to get the best of both worlds; got something close enough to use but still felt like I needed to hunt down a few more spreadsheet tricks to make it really click. Or just build a database to do it, maybe.)

I don’t get this at all. Why don’t they just write down the dates when they get a 4. If we don’t care about past lower scores, why write them down?

*heh* I’d interpreted it to mean the shading/date thing from the very beginning. In fact, I’m trying to torture this into one of my Inquiries for BTSA. I *love* the idea of this assessment, and think it’s really something my kids will adore.

(On a related note… do you ever allow local-ish teachers to observe you for a class or two? And/or do you have any conferences coming up that you’re presenting at? I’m teaching in Northern Monterey County, and would LOVE a chance to see you in action!)

I’m intrigued by this and am going to try adapting it to college-level human anatomy labs. One thing I am thinking of doing is once a student has earned a master stamp I will let that student test others and pass on their own stamp of approval. I think testing others will help reinforce what the masters have learned.

I use a bar graph system. They graph their scores along the x-axis on a 0-4 scale.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/25519003/Tracking-Forces

The big black square is the graph, it didn’t really come out well on scribd.

On the back they just traffic light the specific standards (check/plus/minus).

I think “what you used to know” is valuable especially for the students who are behind and only compare themselves to their peers. I spend a lot of time pointing out the first few scores to the students to point out how far they’ve come. Also I think it helps to have to point out that everyone started low, the “smart kids” didn’t start out with 4s.

I’m curious about your reasoning for overwriting that record.

Yes, can we have another post on how to decide concepts and design assessments? I’ve read the comprehensive resource a hundred times but I still need more.

I get what you’re saying about confusing them. The topic scales I use are for everything they do, including projects, so we get pretty used to them. In the beginning of the year though it’s just crazy.

Your checklist just screams sparklines to me. A little mini line graph running to the side.

Or you could drop a couple extra grid lines across where the score would go for series of bar graphs. Then they could just shade them in.

I’ve found the added value of seeing visual growth is worth the extra hassle.

Feel I owe you some royalties. Been using the comprehensive assessment all year, the kids like it and it’s helped me a ton. A friend/fellow teacher in my district is also using it, and she shared it at the district level. The bigwigs liked it, and I’ve received complements as a result. So, my friend, complements forwarded to you.

Thank you for posting this idea. I revamped my entire assessment strategy with my students. They love it and I love it. I have students motivated to take tests. In fact I have had several students that normally would not have come in for extra help come in. It has also completely organized my curriculum. There is no more guessing on what you need to study to do well in my class. About the only change I made was making the rubric a five point rubric instead of four to match my style of grading. Again thanks for the ideas. This site is a gold mine.

This is an interesting thread that matches an issue that my school has just been discussing. I’m not sure if anyone is following the thread anymore since it’s been several months since the last comment, but I’ll post a comment anyway.

At the start of a unit I provide to students the rubrics for whatever learning goals are in the unit. The rubric for a learning goal easily fits on the front of a sheet of paper and on the back of that sheet is a form for graphing scores. Actually, there’s more on the form than this. There is a spot to record the first score and a spot to record what the student’s goal is by whatever date. There is a large area to write out an action plan of what the student will do to increase performance (e.g., complete more practice, study with a friend, whatever). Below this is an area to graph the scores: the x-axis is the # of the assessment and the y-axis is the score from 0 to 4. The actual graphing could be a bar graph or line graph (I use a line graph because it better fits my Algebra 1 topic of scatterplots and regression).

Now, this seems to be the opposite of what folks are discussing here, but the reason I like it is because the student can graphically see a trend, whether there’s steady improvement, or stagnant scores, or even if a score dips down. Following each assessment the student plots the next score on this graph and adjusts the action plan accordingly (or maybe finally commits to their first action plan). To me a process such as this is what makes an assessment truly formative for a student–he uses the feedback from an assessment to make and change what he’s doing to understand the material.

Nothing about a system that maintains a record of only the highest score achieved precludes the response to feedback procedure that I’ve described, but the visual depiction of a trend would seem to have more power to influence a student’s habits.

But, perhaps I’m totally wrong on this and your system is superior. Certainly, your system has a compactness to it of putting all learning goals on one sheet of paper. In my system each goal’s rubric/graph is on its own sheet of paper. My gradebook software does print a report of all of the learning goals; I’m only talking here of the manual monitoring of learning that the students themselves are doing on paper.

Anyone using PowerSchool with this? Any advise? If I give 3 points out of 5 that’s a 60%. Doesn’t sound like what we’re going for. Also, is partial credit out the window? Finally, I can’t help but wonder if maintaining records and logging a bunch a scores for each test/assessment doesn’t take an insane amount of time. May sound selfish, but I’m attempting to be realistic.

@Kris: You have to redefine what letter grade your percentages represent. If a 4 is perfect and two 4’s locks in a 5, then the score of a 3 should not be a 60% F. The 60% would represent a C+ or B.

@Kris: I was just using Power School at the school I was at last year. You have the ability to change your grade book percentages under the class options. My AP Calculus class had different percentages than my Algebra 2 class as far as the letter grade went. (Not by much. the AP class could earn an A- if their overall score was at least 89.1%. It was not so in the Algebra 2 class.) But possibly I don’t understand the full scope your constrictions. Also, there should be a Power School contact person or tech person that can help you switch it. I’m using something called Zangle now. Super easy to change the grading scale.

@Kris… I’m struggling with the same thing. But I’ve decided that 3 out of 5 is just going to be a 60%. 4 out of 5 will be 80% and I think that’s what Dan’s intentions were. If they get a 4 out of 5 (because the second question is harder), then a B is reasonable. I think it will be strong motivation for most of the kids to get those 3’s up to 4’s.