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Sunday, June 30, 2013

Fair Assessments - Process, Product, Formative and Summative & Psssss Follow Me on Bloglovin

Ok here is a post that I did not post from April.  I am not sure why but if has been sitting in my list of posts waiting....... I had a few teacher friends that I told about this workshop and they wanted to see the handouts but of course I threw them out.  Duh!  Then I remembered this unposted (not a real word but don't know what to call it) post. Also as EVERYONE knows Google Reader is gone so follow my link on Blog Lovin,

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Here is my unposted post.....
This week I went to a workshop on assessments, Diverse Learning: Assessing and Grading Fairly, with my partner teacher.  It was a free workshop and who can resist free CEU's?  I know the title may be boring but I had one of those Ah Ha Oprah moments right in the middle of the workshop. 

The entire workshop was about changing your idea of assessments from comparing students to others to  standards base grading.  OK I was listening at this point but was still skeptical.  Then we did an activity where we used a rubric that assessed the process or how the project was completed and then did a rubric to grade the actual product. 
Here is the rubric that we used to grade the process of our pretend student.  Don't mind the math scribble, my mind was shot by then and I could not even do basic math.  Ugh!!!  This student struggled with the process of writing his paper and that was evident in the grade.


Then we looked at the completed rubric of our pretend student that assessed his actual project.  The project was not as bad as the process and that was evident in the grade he received.  He was able to do the project even though his process was weak.  Think of all those students you have that struggle with organization, deadlines and retrieving the info needed to do the project but the actual project was pretty good.  It showed an actual assessment of that student.  He struggled with the process but he did ok on the project itself.

The presenter said you could either average the two rubrics or keep them separate.  This was the Ah Ha moment!  I always struggle with how to portray that the student really was not independent with the process but the actual project wasn't too bad or the student was totally independent on both process and project and did awesome.  In my previous rubrics I always had a statement or two on the process such as using the internet, use of graphic organizers, rough draft you get the idea but two separate rubrics.....GENIUS!

Then the presenter talked about formative and summative assessments.  I do use both of these in my math class so I can see how my class is doing and if I can move on but I had another Ah Ha moment even after I was so pooped after a long day at school I thought I was imagining things.   Hmmmm could be both. 

We also had to look at a standard - "Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources demonstrating ability to locate an answer to a questions."  So our formative assessment we came up with; an Exit Ticket to look for a teacher created question, Webquest to practicing locating answers, graphic organizer to organize the info for the project / paper and the deadlines for each step of the project.  The summative assessment would be the project or paper.  Ok here was moment......the formative assessments would be assessing the process and the summative would be the final product.  Love it!  Well I hope you enjoyed my rambling on assessments.  How do you grade projects?


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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Science Blog Hop & Goodbye Google Reader - Boo!

I am so proud of myself for posting once a week for 2 weeks.  Maybe I am getting back up on that horse blog!  This has to be a quickie since I have to get back to school work.  I was chosen to be on the science curriculum team that is writing the k - 8 science curriculum for the entire Cleveland Catholic Diocese!  Tonight I am in charge of writing the 5th grade science curriculum by looking at Ohio's Common Core and the old Diocese's curriculum and merging the two. It has been a huge undertaking but it is so cool at the same time.  I can't wait until it is rolled out next March.

Well on to the Science Blog Hop that I stumbled on Bloglovin (pssss Google Reader is going away in July so if you like to read all your blogs you follow on Google Reader, you need to find a new way....Bloglovin.  It was the easiest to convert to.  Trust me I tried a few others....Ugh!   So hurry up and move everything over.).  I love science blogs because it is my favorite subject that I teach.  Yep, I am a science geek! Jump over to the science blog hop over at  Mrs. Harris Teaches and link up your blog.  Don't forget to take a look around and leave some comments.  Ok I am not a tech geek and have no patience to figure out the link thingy so that is missing on my post.  If I have energy after the curriculum writing tonight maybe I will fight with it. 




Have a great evening,


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Sunday, June 16, 2013

Alive & Kicking & Made It Monday

Well how do I start this post out????????  I am so embarrassed I have TOTALLY slacked at blogging and have not posted since April! UGH!!! How did I let that happen?   I even lost 2 followers but the only fault for that is my own. I even have a post I started back in May about an assessment workshop I attended but never posted ( I promise I will revisit the post & post it soon).  I think I just felt like why would anyone want to read anything from me?  Plus I just have been so tired.  I know no whinning!  So here I go as I  get back on the horse blog.

I thought I would try Tara's Made It Monday over at 4th Grade Frolics Linky since I made some super duper cute Father's Day gifts for my dad & hubby.  I know it is not school stuff but I need to get my confidence up.


First I saw this awesome printable on Pinterest but of course the link is not working now.  If I find a working one I will add it to the post.  If you have the link could you leave it in the comments so I can add it? 

My littlest one and myself went to the Dollar Store and found the glass jar and she picked out Daddy's "favorite"  candy.  I think she had more fun picking out the stuff then her dad did opening it.  I did catch her at one point Sunday with a mouthful of chocolate.  I think the secret it out!  LOL  Then I printed out the printable and mounted it to some cute scrapbooking paper, punched a hole and used some yarn to attached it to the jar.  Easy Peasy! 

I have seen this next Father's Day project all over Pinterest.....  First I took cute pictures of the kids holding a dry erase board showing one word. 



Then I uploaded them to Target Photo and had them printed in black & white & bought a 3 hole frame. Here is the finished product.

Cheap & easy and my hubby loved it!  Not too sure how Grandpa felt.  He is not the warm & fuzzy Grandpa but we would not trade him for the world.  Hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day!

Please stay tuned for more,
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