On Tuesday evening I had the opportunity to attend a professional development seminar on Skills Based Grading at SUNY Geneseo as part of the NYS Master Teacher Program. Below are some of my musings / quick notes as I participated in the seminar. I very much enjoyed hearing about how others have utilized SBG and comparing to my program.
Goal for the session is for the presenters, George Reuter and Amy to provide a snippet of what Standards Based Grading is and how it can be implemented, coupled with a work session in which a structure is implemented with a SBG philosophy.
Use SBG as a communication tool — highlight strengths as well as opportunities for improvement.
SBG as a process. Learn a new skill, practice that skill, test that skill, receive feedback, practice needed skills, etc.
Analogy — just like runners have multiple opportunities to practice and show their skill, so will students have multiple opportunities to demonstrate their learning.
Work on progressions toward mastery — set up rubric to support your end-goal.
Ways of determining scores — average all scores, decaying average, most recent, other? (I keep the two most recent).
Presenter spends hours and hours grading assessments — I mentioned Remark OMR and opportunities to automate that work, specifically how I’ve significantly reduced my workload using SBG. Presenter also spent many hours in parent presentations about the grading system. I side-stepped that by creating a flipped classroom video explaining my grading system.
After a bit more discussion, we split into various groups to talk about various ramifications, issues, concerns, and successes using SBG. Overall, a valuable evening!