The essential toolkit for a first time SBG implementer?

This question, “What do you think is the essential toolkit for a first time SBG implementer?” was posted in the comments on my last post.

So after rambling a bit myself, I threw it over to Twitter to see what other people had to say.

https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/148900609670651904

Here’s what I got.

https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/148901212434083841

@kellyoshea theory first...stick to your guns. Communicate and communicate and communicate.
— Matt Townsley (@mctownsley) December 19, 2011

@kellyoshea 1. administrator support 2. spouse/family support 3. A great PLN 4. a good sales pitch for student/parent buy-in
— Fran Double Poodry (@fpoodry) December 19, 2011

@kellyoshea 1) Commitment! 2) Sales pitch! 3) Dan's starter kit: http://t.co/MFaIX4ks
— eddi vulić 🌈🌹🏳️‍🌈🌅 (@zidaya) December 20, 2011

@kellyoshea checklist of philosoph principles to ensure its right for u. samples of standards, syllabi, grade tracking systems.
— Frank Lee (@TheyCalMeMister) December 20, 2011

A lot of good advice! Know your philosophy, commit, and communicate. From a more day-to-day view, you also of course need your list of standards (not too many or you’ll go crazy… I limited myself to 5 per unit this year, and many units have fewer than 5), a way to keep track of everything (like ActiveGrade or some such), and people to bounce your ideas off of and commiserate with as you go. I think you also need to have a good vision of your endgame when you start (assuming you’re going to have to translate this all back into a letter or number grade in the end— how does that happen?).

3 thoughts on “The essential toolkit for a first time SBG implementer?”

Matt Townsley

December 20, 2011 at 8:35 AM Reply

Hey Kelly,
Here’s a list of ‘scholarly’ resources for the first time SBGer. These aren’t necessarily geared towards implementation, but they might provide a theoretical framework for why the shift towards standards-based grading is needed.

http://mctownsley.blogspot.com/2011/09/scholarly-resources-for-standards-based.html
Tom Pfeiffer

January 3, 2012 at 8:55 PM Reply

Hi Kelly, I’m interested in getting to know more about SB grading. I’m curious about how and when you know a student has achieved the standard. Students can demonstrate their knowledge about a particular standard while whiteboarding during class, in a quiz, lab report, journal entry or unit test. What if they get it right on the quiz but not the test, etc? I’m familiar with wordpress a little but I’m not sure how I’d get your response (short of checking your blog daily). Could you email me your response at

tpfeiffer@fwsu.org

Also if you know of any others who know how to implement this or resources I could find, could you please let me know? Thanks.

Tom Pfeiffer
Tom Pfeiffer

January 3, 2012 at 9:06 PM Reply

Hi Kelly,

I’m interested in learning more about SB grading. I have an idea of how it works….. the students prove that they know, understand or are able to do what is required to meet a particular standard.

As any teacher, I assess students in several ways; whiteboard presentations, homework assignments, quizzes, lab reports, journal entries and unit tests. My question is this, if a student gets the standard in a quiz or a whiteboard presentation, does that constitute meeting the standard? What about a student who answers a homework question correctly but when quizzed or tested on that standard, gets it wrong? Do they have to get it right “across the board” in order to meet the standard, or is that where letter grades come in (A for all correct, B or 4/5 correct, etc.)

If you know of anyone who might be able to help, please let me know who they are so I can contact them. I’m not sure about how I’ll get your response because I’m just barely familiar with WordPress. If you wouldn’t mind, could you send me your reasponse as an email?

Thanks.

Tom