Giving the Students Freedom - Saving Your Sanity and Getting Results!

Today, I decided to really try out giving my student's a complete list of what I am looking for in an assignment before they begin the assignment. Here's a copy of the page I gave them:

 

As was mentioned, true, this might not be a true rubric, but that is what I called it here (it is more of a checklist only). The concept was that, if the student's knew what they needed to do without marks involved in the discussion as the reward for the work, they would simply do it. Here's how I did it in total: I placed this on their desk. I explained to them that today they were going to create a drawing of the bottom of the ocean and that the drawing had to have these parts in it. I also explained that they needed to define each term (they could do that on a separate piece of paper) and then attach that to the drawing, along with this rubric. I didn't explain any of these terms beforehand to them either, but simply told them they had to find the definitions on their own (textbook, internet, etc.).

 

The concept is that the drawing would show me that they understood what each thing was as they had to draw it correctly (placement wise).

 

I have to admit that it was one of the classes where the majority of the students were consistently on task! I was also very amazed at the work they were able to do on this assignment; everyone that handed the assignment in nailed it! Therefore, everyone got perfect marks on this assignment (how could I give anything else?).  They knew what they needed to show and could keep track of it themselves.

 

As I said before, the rubric concept is front heavy, but sure makes the marking easier at the end.

Teaching for Mastery - A Look at David Langford's Philosophy

Masters Academy and College (http://www.masters.ab.ca/) in Alberta is a fascinating school with a very interesting philosophy. One of the strategic partners in the school is David Langford. His view of assessment and education is one of the key cornerstones to how Masters teaches their students, from what I have been able to glean. I have included his article below. I have personally enjoyed trying to figure out how to incorporate this into my classroom teaching, though there are some challenges. As I look deeper into this, I'll post more on the pros and challenges to incorporating this into the classroom setting here in BC.

BACKGROUND:
Teaching for Mastery in the classroom is a concept based on the business-world work of W.Edward Deming. This concept took shape when junior high school teacher David Langford joined with Deming to develop principles of educational reform that could raise the quality of school and classroom practice to a higher level. What they came up with was a system that adapts quality practices used in the industrial and technological world to the public schools. Their aim was to develop a system in which students could learn to develop quality products in the classroom, in the same sense that businesses create quality products in the competitive free market.

RATIONALE:
Teaching for Mastery is based upon the following assumptions:
• Grading is not a motivator
• Grading and ranking people only serves to defeat the majority
• Students can take responsibility for their own learning
• Students can and should help plan their learning process
• Students can and will track their own progress if given the chance.
• Students are colleagues

THE APPROACH:
The Mastery approach to evaluation and assessment allows each student to develop skills and knowledge to his/her maximum potential. Student work is considered Mastery when the product submitted exhibits the highest quality of which the student is capable. It is important to remember that students work at differing speeds, and achieve at different levels of quality. When a student masters an assignment, he/she is rewarded with an A on the report card and, more importantly, the knowledge that achieving Mastery exceeds any letter grade. This achievement instills an intrinsic realization of self-worth and a higher sense of self-esteem.
Mastery can replace traditional grading systems that cater to high-achieving students who set the scale. A rigid traditional scale fails to motivate the greater number of students in the classroom, leaving them with a sense of futility and failure. In short, it defeats the majority. Mastery reflects the real world practice of quality production whereas traditional practice emphasizes rote memory and testing based on rigid scales. Mastery provides for individual excellence while traditional systems emphasize a “herd mentality.”

MASTERY TEACHING PRACTICE:
• Eliminate worksheets, quizzes, and tests – work with students towards the creation of quality documents and products.
• Eliminate the letter grades B, C, D - Offer As or Incompletes only.
• Emphasize critical thinking - eliminate rote memory or ‘mindless transfer of information’ assignments.
• Allow students to work in teams to create products, share ideas, and stimulate each other’s thinking - alternate between team products, and individual work that results from team analysis. Allow students to work in teams on difficult units of study.• Allow students unlimited opportunity to bring work to a Mastery level.
• Replace due dates with target dates - do not hold to a rigid schedule - producing a quality product is more important than on-time behavior.
• Teach students to graph all academic and conduct behaviors that are important to success
- this practice creates a “graphic reflection” that stimulates intrinsic motivation.
• Constantly circulate and engage students during work periods – be a colleague.
• Supplement student research with mini lectures (five to ten minutes), whole-class discussions, film spots, and guest speakers.
• Use rubrics to guide and evaluate all student work.
• Democratize the classroom as much as possible - seek student input about assignments, evaluation, and rubrics. Later in the year, you will enjoy working with them to create new units of study.
• Understand that you cannot be the teacher in the traditional sense - become a coach or facilitator.
• The teacher’s role is to make quality possible - the student’s job is to create quality - learning is the student’s responsibility.
• Write a large, circled M at the top of the student’s or team’s product when Mastery has been achieved - this will become a coveted symbol of achievement.

RUBRICS:
Provide rubrics for all student work, work with students to create rubrics for each assignment, or allow students to create their own rubrics. At the beginning of each unit of study, provide for two rubrics. A guideline rubric should lay down specific instructions and steps for what students or teams are expected to know or do. The second rubric is for assessment - it should list every quality upon which the project or product will be evaluated. At times, the guidelines rubric will be the same as the evaluation rubric. If students are working together in teams, provide a process or participation rubric. Go over the rubrics with all students at the beginning of the unit - provide them a copy that they can reference from time to time during the work period.

GRAPHIC REFLECTION:
Maintaining a graph of their academic or conduct behavior provides students with a graphic “look in the mirror.” When we look in a mirror, we want to see something that pleases our eye. When it is not pleasing, we fix it. It is the same with graphs that reflect something about us. When we look at the graph and see something that is not pleasing, we naturally want to improve it or, again, fix it. Graphing also facilitates the Mastery principle of turning the responsibility for learning over to students. Academic or conduct behaviors that can be graphed include:
• On-time behavior - the tardy bell becomes an on-time bell - line graph
• On-time assignment behavior - remember, it is a target date! - bar graph
• Number of errors in first submission of product - line graph
• Learning behavior - self-evaluation weekly or monthly - bar graph with space for comment
• Enthusiasm - self-evaluation - bar graph with space for comment
• Mastery record - record of submission on which Mastery was achieved - line graph (or included in On-Time Assignment Graph)

A COMPARISON:

Mastery:

1. All students can make an A

2. Students are intrinsically motivated

3. Students create products and documents

4. All students can achieve excellence

5. Students have multiple chances to create a quality product

6. Reflects the real world

7. In depth examination of important issues

8. Provides for profound knowledge and enduring understanding

9. The student is responsible for learning

10. Focus on primary sources

Traditional:

1. A small number of students can make an A

2. Students are extrinsically motivated

3. Students fill out worksheets - take quizzes and tests

4. Most students are relegated to mediocrity

5. Students have one chance to make the grade

6. Only in schools are students held to a fixed scale with no recourse

7. Skims the surface of a wide range of topics

8. Up to 99% of information is forgotten within six months

9. The teacher is responsible for learning

10. Focus on secondary (textbook) sources (according to one of my students, “textbooks are

vague and shamefully boring”)

IMPLEMENTATION:

In getting started, it might do well to consider having students master one thing only. Since writing lends itself so well to the principles of Mastery, anything from paragraphs to essays could be a logical place to begin. Start with simple assignments, conduct whole-class examinations of their work, and build levels of difficulty throughout the year as student performance improves.

 

Progress to team projects rising to higher levels of quality throughout the school year. Before you begin to Teach for Mastery, consult with your principal and let him/her know what you  intend to do. He/she may want you to ask for a waiver from your school board allowing you to  depart from the county grading scale. A waiver, however, would not be necessary if you allow students to choose between the Mastery and traditional scales. Either way, your principal will be knowledgeable and prepared to deal with questions from the public.