This week’s post contains a potpourri of ideas and resources that have been happened- upon or dropped into my inbox this week. There is no real connection or theme shared by each of these ideas, but I thought they were worth sharing now instead of letting them get lost in the stack. My goal is to keep the info here short and sweet. If you’re interested in more info on any of these topics, want to brainstorm some ideas of how these might look in your classroom, or just chat, please let me know!
Choice Reading Tips– Check out this post from Pernille Ripp to help students self-select their choice reading books. It is a great reminder that our students need us to display books in our rooms, talk about them, and put them to use each day. In our building, students are encouraged to read books of choice during CONNECT, which was formerly 30 minutes of silent-sustained reading, that has now evolved into time for test make-ups, interventions, study, and finally… reading. Don’t forget to slow down and allow time for your students, and yourself, to read.
Smart Classroom Management– If you have not yet signed up for the weekly e-mails from SmartClassroomManagement.com, I highly recommend it. Each week you’ll have a quick blurb relating to classroom management sitting in your inbox. Whether you are a veteran teacher or someone just starting out, these posts really can be helpful. This week’s feature is titled, I Stopped Holding My Students Accountable And Here Is What Happened. It is a great reminder of why we need to be consistent with our expectations and follow-through all year long.
Proficiency Scale vs Rubric– Our district is now in the middle of year two in our journey of identifying essential learnings and creating proficiency scales in content areas K-12. Groups are at various points along the road, but we are all working on building our common understanding of a guaranteed and viable curriculum. In a workday with E/LA “curriculum collaborators” this week, the following information comparing and contrasting proficiency scales and rubrics was shared by our Asst. Director for Secondary Teaching and Learning from Tammy Heflebower (https://twitter.com/tammymrl) at Marzano Research. I thought it was worth passing along for anyone who’s been trying to wrap their heads around this shift.
Both rubrics and scales are tools that offer feedback, performance levels, and expectations of performance. Here’s how they differ–
Proficiency Scales—
- Developed for a broader conceptual understanding (priority learning goal)
- Used for evaluating progress on a priority learning goal
- Used as a framework for instruction to a priority learning goal
- Used as a framework for assessment
Rubrics—
- Developed for a specific product, project, or task
- Used for evaluating performance on a specific product, project, or task
- Used to communicate critical components of a specific product, project, or task
- May be used as the assessment tool itself
To me, this made a lot of sense. A scale is not necessarily replacing a rubric, it is a “big picture” tool. A scale can be used to evaluate progress on an essential learning or learning goal whereas a rubric can be used to evaluate performance on a specific product, project, or task. Keep in mind that the rubric could provide feedback as to where a student is performing on that essential learning or scale at a given time. Food for thought!
Enjoy!
Instructional Inspiration 