Found in the physics classroom this spring: one standards-based grading focused cootie catcher (aka fortune teller, aka a lot of other names, I’m sure—check out the Wikipedia article about these things if you haven’t seen them before).

The outside choices: Meet with Ms. O’Shea, Do nothing, Study, Retest on Sunday.

The middle layer was blank (I think the author ran out time to think of what to put as the second round of options).

The inside results: You will get a 0, You will get a 1, You will get a 2, No data will be taken.

I’ve had this inside my planner for a while now. I really enjoyed it. Based on the work ethic of the student who created it (I asked around until I found the student who very eagerly and happily admitted it was hers), I don’t think this was a statement on the nature of the results of “the physics grading.” She worked too hard (and saw the good results of that work) to think of it as a random process. I think she was connecting the different options of what you put in with the different results that you get out. Or, stated more eloquently on a course evaluation from that same section of Physics (in response to a question asking what advice they would give next year’s students about the class), “You get out what you put in. So don’t put in crap.”