What goes in the gradebook....

I have seen a lot of questions about setting up a gradebook lately on social media.  So, here's my response.

First, I have some flexibility in how I set up my gradebook.  Most teachers at my middle school use categories like Tests, assignments, projects, and citizenship.  All teachers have a citizenship category, but we have flexibility to define it.

After working with a great administrator for a couple of years, our language department moved to the following: Assessments: reading and listening, Assessments: Speaking and writing, Language Participation, and citizenship.  We all have different weights depending on the level and grade for each category, but we pretty much agree on what the categories mean.  This is as close to proficiency based grades as we can get within the system that we have at our school.  It is not perfect, but it is a good compromise, and student grades now tend to reflect their language abilities at their level.

Language Participation 
First, it's important to know that we define participation as engagement- NOT as speaking. Students can get 100% in this category and never produce an original, spoken sentence.  They are, however, expected to respond to questions, respond chorally, and be engaged.  "Work" also goes in this category, which in Spanish mostly means whatever they do in their Interactive-ish notebook.  Any (rare)  homework assigned and anything that is not an assessment goes here too.  Truth be told, there aren't too many assignments in this category outside of the interactive-ish notebook and our weekly daily engagement grade.  For more information about how I assess their interactive-ish notebooks, check this out. 

What we actually expect from the kids in class is this: listening to understand, one person speaking at a time, signaling when the teacher is not clear, doing their 50%- defined as responding enthusiastically and all the time (chorally, or to individual questions at their level), getting as much comprehensible input as they can, and supporting the flow of class and language.  We modify this based on individual students (i.e. eye contact is tricky for some students, etc.).  We use a slightly modified version of this rubric.   (Click here for my version)  We call it daily engagement.

Adapted from MagisterP 

Depending on the age/grade/level, students self assess daily or weekly, write down their score, and at the end of the week, come up with an average.  (I tell them to eyeball average it.  And that a .5 is fine.)  Then, the teacher goes through those scores, agrees or disagrees as appropriate, and puts them in the gradebook.  Weekly engagement grade complete.    Our version has 8 weeks on one double sided page, so it is easy to keep track of and we don't use a ton of paper.

Citizenship
This is a required category, so we decided that it has to do with two things: being prepared for class with their notebook and something to write with, and getting tests and quizzes signed by parents. (Another school expectation).   To keep it simple, we start by giving kids 100 points per trimester.  As they forget something, they sign a Citizenship log, and we periodically go through the log and deduct points from their 100.

Assessments: Reading and listening

This is what my gradebook looks like- or at least a few things!  

We use the reading and listening assessments included in the unit plans for SOMOS in Spanish 1, 1A, 1B, and 2.  We tend to give some kind of interpretive quiz for each unit, sometimes more than one. For my units that don't have included reading assessments, I have started using a text from the unit (or one that I write) and one of these forms to grade it.  For more info about how I grade these, see this post.  

Assessments: Writing and Speaking
The title of this category is a bit of a misnomer as well as we only assess speaking once, during their 8th grade year.  (They are novices! They need input, not "practice speaking" or presentations. But it looks good.)  

Most of the SOMOS units include writing assessments; for the ones that don't, either we do a timed freewrite or a focused freewrite based on the target structures or content of the unit.
For more information about how I actually grade these, see this post.  In 7th and 8th grade (Spanish 1, 1A, 1B, and 2- we have honors classes) we also do timed freewrites weekly, and grade them about every 4-5 weeks per class.

The weight of each category changes depending on the level of class.
Span 1A (7th grade):   Writing/speaking: 20%, Listening/reading: 40%, Language Participation: 25%, Citizenship, 15%
Span 1B (8th grade):  Writing/speaking: 30%, Listening/reading: 45%, Language Participation: 15%, Citizenship, 10%
Span 1 (7th grade honors): Writing/speaking: 25%,  Listening/reading: 50%, Language Participation: 15%, Citizenship, 10%
Span 2 (8th grade honors): Writing/speaking: 40%,  Listening/reading: 35%, Language Participation: 15%, Citizenship, 10%

Note that the highest class level has more weight on what they can actually do.  This is an experiment for me this year- previously it has been more in line with the other classes, but I feel like I want their grades to reflect what they can actually produce at that level (but only that level!). 

Quick update: I will be teaching a whole TeacherLab Series on assessment and grading in February 2021. Click on our page for more information! 

February  2021

Transitioning a department to TPRS/CI ...my first thoughts

So, at the end of last year, I saw a need.  I'm the kind of person who, for better or for worse, tries to solve problems.  One problem I saw was that our language department was not working as well as it could.  I knew that TPRS/CI was one solution that had the power to a) bring the overall level of the students up in the long run, b) make teachers happier, c) make our program better.

There were two Spanish positions opened and my administrators were on-board for interviewing TPRS-Friendly (or already trained) teachers, if possible. I presented a budget and plan, along with a letter to educate them about what TPRS/CI is and why it is in alignment with our school.   I budgeted for training 2 full time teachers and the purchase of K-5 curriculum to supplement our 6-8 curriculum that we already own.

 (Aside: our school is increasing its focus on project based learning, student centered classrooms, integrated projects, and other initiatives.  This is a whole other post, however, making TPRS seem like a 21st century pedagogy (student centered, highly personalized, and not your parent's grammar class) was a really easy sell.)

 We ended up having a rough time filling one of the positions (hired in late July or August) and, due to enrollment, hiring two more part-time teachers.  (Yay! Enrollment!)   So, with four new hires, it is now my task to help them along: using the curriculum, understanding TPRS, etc.  And wow, this is a tougher job than I thought!

First, we started the year with no training of 3 of the four new teachers.  (The other middle school teacher attended NTPRS16 and completed the beginner track- it was awesome to find an open minded colleague who was ready to learn!) I gave a 30 minute "What is TPRS" explanation and showed them the curriculum.  And that's all they got, until last week.  We brought Von Ray and TPRS Publishing in for a one-day workshop in-house for all the language teachers (and a couple of other local teachers).

Now, experienced TPRS teachers know that a one-day training is barely dipping in your toes.  It's barely long enough to develop a common vocabulary, and not nearly long enough to start to shift a traditional teacher's mindset to a more CI approach.  But, it's a start.

So, for all those who are trying to do the same thing, here is my letter/proposal to my admin team.  Feel free to share and distribute.


And, as this journey continues and I keep learning (because I keep saying to myself and others: 3-5 year process), I will keep reflecting.