How should students be graded in mathematics:
We use UCSMP, and we follow their percentages they feel should be used for grading.
70% Tests
20% Quizzes
10% Homework
This is a lot of pressure on the students to perform well on the tests. Which I believe is good, because I feel that students need this to be prepared for when they leave school. I have also inserted projects as tests to help students that may have difficulty with test anxiety. The homework is graded on effort, not correctness. I feel it is important for students to held accountable for their own work. If they are choosing not to check them homework and to not to it, then in the end it will only affect themselves.
I think there could be validity in lowering test percentages to 50 or 60% and make it mandatory to do projects or even a paper to cover the additional 10-20%.
I feel like I've been removed from secondary education for too long, and then I take secondary ed. classes, like curriculum development, and I assume what we do in class is what is done in the real world (I'm too naive). We rarely talked in my education classes about "tests." It was always "assessments," or "performance tasks" (which is a way for students to perform a task--like do a project, or act something out...)
ReplyDeleteI guess it just makes me think twice (again) about administration and the control they have over what teachers do in their own classrooms. The reason I left the public schools is because I felt that what I was doing as a teacher was productive, but heaven-forbid, it was not the way my principal taught, so I was doing something wrong (hence the "again" up above).
What would your principal, department head, or math colleagues in general, say if you were to have a performance task as an assessment, rather than a test? Is it too touchy of a topic to try?? Or do you think you'd get support from some or all??
"I feel it is important for students to held accountable for their own work. If they are choosing not to check them homework and to not to it, then in the end it will only affect themselves."
ReplyDeletei really like this statement, and it is the same way that i feel about my classes and grading. i really need to try and make the points at least a 30/70 split as i am reworking things for middle school anyways next year!
Wow, 90% of thier grades are based on assessments. I thought our 70% was high in Grand Rapids. It seems like some kids would just skip all thier assignments since they hardly count towards their grades. Of course, they need to do the work to understand the material but some kids like to learn thier lessons the hard way.
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