How I'm Changing Grading in My Middle School English Classroom
Embracing Change in Grading (Especially for Online Learning)
“All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns” --Bruce Lee
I know not everyone is excited about planning for the upcoming school year. I completely understand. When I first sat down to start planning, (after only hearing the sort of plan in early August) I was completely overwhelmed. That being said, I tried to gather my resources and challenge my mindset in that moment of feeling like I was underwater. For resources, I collected planning materials, teacher books that I was reading over the summer, and my favorite cup of coffee. My mindset on the other hand? I had to consistently tell myself that there is positivity in this change. Some people are struggling with those being positive. I am trying to find a balance between protecting my peace and being a good listener to colleagues. I am not saying that this will be my most outstanding year as a teacher, but I think this year has the capacity to be the biggest year of my own individual growth. What I mean by this is that the systems that run my classroom down to the core are being changed. I have to change with it. Growth always comes from change.
One of those systems of change is grading. In the spring when we did emergency learning, (I like this phrase better because that’s what it was) I was convinced that nobody should be grading anything. I stand by that observation. There is even a big piece of me that still thinks that this should be the case as I continue to look at the number of students I teach that are included in vulnerable populations. My students who are homeless, hungry, watching other siblings, lack internet access, speak another language, and more. I am particularly aware of my students of color as they move into a school year where conversations about George Floyd and Breonna Taylor are left as ellipsis and not periods. However, I wanted to find a way to make my grading system in my classroom fair and equitable for and to all parties. So, if you are making progress in my class, the end result is shown in the grade book and in the conversations about that progress. This isn’t about points. It’s about people. This post outlines my understanding of Zerwin’s text, and it applies her theories to my classroom model. Hang tight! You will see my grading categories, how I plan on entering things into my grade book, and my new learning goals.
Beginning the Work
The book that gave me the most guidance out of many that I have looked at over the years was Pointless: An English Teacher’s Guide to More Meaningful Grading by Sarah M. Zerwin. Sarah answers all of the questions you would receive from your administrators, parents, and your students about a change in philosophy about grading. Chris Tovani in the foreword states, “Learning lives in the process.” For years, all of my students have just been trying to make it to the end finish line of a grade. My habits, their habits, and the institution of education in and of itself are plagued with the point syndrome. We crave the need to evaluate students. Sarah opens with this problem: “The points gave me power rather than helping my students see the power they had themselves as readers and writers” (4).
She goes on throughout pages 5-8 in her book to outline the issues with the conventional grading system:
Grading system rewards compliance over learning
Grading system asks us to measure the immeasurable
Grading system suggests objectivity, but is it not objective
Grading system doesn’t provide the information we need
I was nodding through many of these pages. It is so simple to see the obvious on paper and make sense in my mind, yet not so easy to apply it to a classroom and to an educational system that demands you do the opposite. We are all asked to do the opposite. Points are the ultimate decision-makers. However, Sarah goes on to remind us that our educational system deserves more. Our children deserve more because “...we teach students, not content, but yet we build our classrooms around products to be graded-research papers, exams, presentations, and so on. What if we thought of our students and the readers and writers they need to become as the product instead?” (13). She is completely right.
Therefore, something has to change in how I do grading in my middle school English classroom. Now, with online learning, is a perfect time to propose a change.
It All Starts with Learning Goals
I love Zerwin’s philosophy of learning goals that helps educators figure out what matters. All of us are given standards, and figuring out matters starts there, but it does not end there. What kind of people do we want our students to be? What parts of our subject matter do we want them to use later on in life? This kind of work requires reflection into the why of teaching and into the how of “how we do business” in the form of weekly routines. Zerwin’s mantra is: “Read the world to write your future.”
I have adapted her mantra into a new class motto for my sixth-grade English class:
EXPLORE BOOKS. WRITE YOUR VOICE. REPEAT.
These learning goals will guide our work in class and the grades that are collected throughout each unit. Learning goal reflections will be collected at the beginning of the year, at the end of each six-week marking period, and at the end of the year. I also want students to write a letter to next year’s students in the form of a digital notebook. All of these reflections will go back to the learning goals. Students will choose 1-2 learning goals to focus on each marking period, reflect on those goals in conferences with me, and then write a narrative of their thinking in the form of a reflection assignment.
List of Zerwin’s Learning Goals pp. 27-32
The student is a reader with a vibrant, self-directed reading practice that will continue beyond the classroom.
The student writes to think through life, to pull ideas together, to say something important to a targeted audience and for a specific purpose. The student is intentional about form and flexible to meet the changing needs of audience and purpose.
The student revises extensively to improve a piece of writing.
The student asks complex questions and persists to research answers to them.
The student seeks out mentor texts-for writing, for text form, for thinking, for reading-and uses those mentor texts to grow.
The student maintains a writer’s notebook as an important thinking and reflecting space.
The student is a positive community member: provides high-quality feedback to peers on their writing, participates earnestly in small-group and whole-group conversations, moves through our classroom spaces (physically or digitally) with kindness.
The student demonstrates successful student habits: meeting deadlines, reading and following instructions, asking questions, seeking help and support, and managing digital tools and digital spaces effectively to keep track of work.
The student practices effective self-reflection, self-evaluation, and meta-cognition. Students know what they already know, what they want and need to know, what they’ve learned, and how well they’ve learned it.
I want to add something about the growth mindset and getting discouraged. Students learn to work through problems or challenges.
My Sixth-Grade Student-Friendly Learning Goals:
The student is a reader who can choose books, explore books outside of what they normally choose, and practice reading every day.
The student writes every day to think about life and uses their voice to say something important to an audience for a purpose.
The student routinely revises to improve their writing.
The student is curious about the world around them, asks questions, and researches the answers to those questions.
The student uses mentor texts as examples to help guide their writing.
The student keeps a writer’s notebook as a place to write down their thinking and try new skills.
The student reflects on their own learning. They reflect on what they know, what they want to know, and what they want to learn in the future.
The student is kind to others in the learning community (physically or digitally) even when it is not easy.
The student wants to be a better learner through student habits: turning things in on time, following directions, asking questions, asking for help when needed, and keeping track of work.
The student sees challenges and setbacks as opportunities to grow.
How I Will Run My Gradebook
Datapoints vs. Actual Grades
Let’s get to the issue that I know everybody is wondering about: the grade book. Everyone can’t get past the grade book because it is a requirement. It is the third point in third point conversations with parents. It is the focus, and perhaps something we don’t want to be attached to, but we inherently are. Zerwin proposes, “Because I can’t refuse to put number data in my grade book, I quantify the only thing that’s really quantifiable: whether or not students are keeping up with their work” (101). With this in mind, the grade will then really look more like standards grading or learning goals in the grade book, and students will receive grades on their progress in class. With assignments like common growth assessments and district-provided resources, these entries become data points. In other words, the grade is shown as a number for reflection, but it does not impact the student. There will be three statuses of assignments: complete, partially complete, and missing. I will try to give as much feedback as possible on written work and through my Google Classroom. The emphasis will be on feedback during small group conferencing as well.
Categories
My old categories look like standard grade book entries. For the past few years, you might hear teachers using “all points” or “categories.” All points is a one-category grade book where different assignments are entered and are weighted based on the number of points assigned to the task. Categories make certain areas of the grade book percentages. For example, if you look at my categories below, you can see those daily activities are 50% of the total grade. Therefore, the points assigned to a particular task only have weight within that given category. The categories percentage rules all.
Old categories
Homework 10%
Drafts/Quizzes (Formal Assessment) 10%
Writing Process 20%
Binder/Notebook 10%
Daily Activities 50%
I do not want to shift to “all points” completely to do my new tracking, but rather simplify my grading down to the two things or categories that I am going to track in my grade book: progress toward goals in class and reflections. Because I am limited as to what I am allowed to call these categories, I am going to use the names I have available to me in the grade book
New Categories:
Class Activities=Assignments/Activities 50%
Student Reflections=Formal Assessments 50%
The first category is all about assignments and activities in class. It includes both the whole group reading and writing sessions and the small group reading and writing sessions. The second category is for each marking period’s grade reflections. Based on the 10 learning goals, students will reflect on their own progress in each marking period. Examples will be given before the assignment is due.
Learning Routines
All of these decisions will impact the learning routines that I have in my classroom. Zerwin goes on to give examples of what she is assessing for each of her learning goals. I am going to offer some examples of what I am going to look for below. Again, the entries in the grade book will be these activities that connect to teach learning goals.
Examples
Quick Writes and Notebooks
Digital notebook check-ins
Checks of writer’s notebook tasks/Assigned writing assignments
Writing Conferences and Marking Period Writing Piece
Weekly beginning of the week motivation writing piece
Writing conference check-ins
Student participation in whole group weekly meets
Student participation in small group weekly meets
Reflection Journal and Choosing Learning Goals
Beginning of the year reflection journal entry (Marking period 1)
Six-week marking period reflection journal entry (Marking periods 2, 3, 4, and 5)
End-of-the-year reflection journal entry (Marking period 6)
Weekly Reading Check-ins and Reading Conferences
Reading conference check-ins
Assigned reading tasks or assignments
Student participation in whole group weekly meets
Student participation in small group weekly meets
What Isn’t Graded, But Is Still Important
While the above work addresses learning goals #1-7, goals #8-10 are still important to consider in the weekly teaching routine and weekly student conversations. Here is a reminder about learning goals #8-10.
The student is kind to others in the learning community (physically or digitally) even when it is not easy.
The student wants to be a better learner through student habits: turning things in on time, following directions, asking questions, asking for help when needed, and keeping track of work.
The student sees challenges and setbacks as opportunities to grow.
It is not possible to grade or quantify whether or not a student is being kind or facing challenges in a positive way, therefore, I want to make sure that my daily and weekly activities are addressing these goals, and these goals are also included in the marking period reflections. I can make observations about all three of these goals and have my own qualitative data; however, the power in these goals will be based on student reflection and point of view.
