Assessment seems like it is the elephant in the room that rarely gets addressed in classes, and yet I know that it is going to be a huge piece of the job. One of the reasons I am so excited to start student teaching is the opportunity to gets reps assessing student work. Out of all of the areas of the profession, this is the one that I feel I have the least amount of exposure to, and it is pretty intimidating, if I'm being honest. Having said that, the readings this week provided some peace of mind.
Gallagher took what I believe my instinctual approach to assessment is and put it down in words. The major takeaways for me were that I need to make the time to meet with students one-on-one, focusing less on full class writing instruction, where students who are struggling can fall through the class, as well as providing essential feedback more during conferences and less in the comments I make on papers. This approach makes a lot of sense to me, and it appeals a great deal to me as I want to make as much time for one-one-one instruction as possible. However, it is in the balancing of time and the management of the classroom during these conferences that I know will be the challenge. The level of trust that I develop with students to work on their own and maintain focus while I am working with someone else is going to me a huge determinant in whether or not I can pull this individual approach off.
Christensen also pulled a ton of weight off my shoulders, specifically in the "Letting Go of the Grades" chapter. It seems so taboo to say that "I don't grade student papers," but in reality it doesn't actually mean that we aren't evaluating and commenting on them. In double reality, Christensen's approach actually takes more time and effort than just chopping up a paper and handing it back, and yet for some reason it reduces my stress levels when I consider adopting her more laborious approach. Assigning number grades never appealed to me, especially when I consider how much it could ruin student motivation and self-efficacy. I want every student to KNOW that an A is possible for anyone who is willing to do the work, even if they aren't great writers walking into my classroom. I want their goal in my classroom not to be "getting an A," but rather "to become a better writer." My only concern in adopting this approach is how administrators and parents will respond to this type of grading system, and what kind of potential obstacles I could face in trying to implement it in my own classroom. I obviously won't be telling everyone "I don't grade papers," but word is bound to get around when students compare my grading to other teachers' and recognize the imbalance. Either way, I have basically accepted that I am going to be receiving pushback from multiple directions in how I will teach, so I can just add this to the list. :-P
Dustin,
ReplyDeleteI can definitely relate to how you're feeling about getting pushback from exterior forces in how you teach. As we've gone through this program, more and more I feel like I'm gonna be "that teacher" that everyone is talking about (I just hope that it's in the good way we intend).
In terms of the readings this week, Gallagher’s comments were insightful and conflicting at the same time. His words about intimate feedback with students resonated with me, however this neglect of writing instruction goes against almost every way I’ve been taught how to write. I mean, it’s not necessarily a bad thing because we are waking up to what really works in the classroom, however, it feels funny to know that the way you were taught was wrong. Which makes me wonder how I ended up a good writer now when I’m certain that I was subjected to things he writes about (I can’t speak for you though.
As for Christensen, I was shocked to hear about her “dirty little secret” with not grading papers. I did one of those “oooooo”s during my reading, like when someone gets called to the principal’s office. Anyways, it made me think of how else we could better make our philosophies about teaching match our actual practice. That, and I would love to see how a parent-teacher conference goes when the teacher is Linda Christensen!