Books you Should Read Part 4: Reading the Forested Landscape

 Reading the forested landscape is one of the most mind altering books that you can read.

If you haven't ever experienced a new way about thinking about looking at the environment than this book will blow your mind.

It shows you how to look at the old features of New England and know if the trees were there3 200 years ago or if they have just grown up in the last 110.

Combined with the book Changes in the Land you can start to learn that in the early 1900s NH was 10% forest and now it is near 85 or 90%.

Reading the Forested Landscape allows you to look for where trees might have burned, where lightning strikes may have happened, and where logging operations may have scraped into trees.

Student Questions

1. Do you understand why we are taking this approach in class?
2. Do you understand that you are only being compared to yourself?
3. Do you understand that effort and behavior are important even though it is not part of your grade?
4. Do you understand that you still need to do homework even though you do not receive a grade for it? Do you understand how homework counts?
5. When we answer questions on notecards, do you understand what that is for?
6. When you receivea grade of 3 on something to you know what that means?
7. Do you understand why there is a 5,4,3,2,1 scale?
8. Do you know why our class is trying to use the 5,4,3,2,1 scale?
9. If you have a grade of two on something what should you do?
10. If you have a grade of three on something what should you do?
11. If you have a five does that mean that you never need to think about it again?
12.

Ideas

One important thing that has come up in our work with competencies and graduation expectations is that the process weeds out things that do not fit within the goals of the district and school.

Just like a bulls eye on a dartboard the idea of focusing on goals

Recommendation from Leading Folks on Assessment and Grading

List of Recommendations:

Feedback and Assessment from Bob Marzano and Tom Guskey
1. Classroom Assessment Feedback should provide students with a clear picture of their progress on learning goals and how they might improve.
2. Feedback on Classroom Assessments Should Encourage Students to Improve
3. Classroom Assessments should be Formative
4. Formative Classroom Assessments should be frequent.

Grading Scale--From Bob Marzano
5. A grading scale should measure learning over time.
6. Rewrite the standards (competencies) according to this scale

Grading--From Ken O'Connor
7. Grading is not essential for learning
8. Grading is complicated
9. Grading is subjective

Base grades on intended learning goals
10. Use criterion referenced performance standards as reference points to determine grades
11. Limit the student attributes included in grades to individual achievement—not on effort, participation, etc.
12. Sample student performance—do not include all scores in grades.
13, Keep records that can be updated easily—meaning they can change if a student shows you new evidence.
14. Crunch numbers carefully if at all. Consider the median, mean or Olympic (throw out high and low.)
15. Use quality assessments and properly record evidence of achievement.
16. Discuss and involve students in assessment throughout the teaching and learning process.

A Good Friend

I have always hoped that they will put the title of this post on my tombstone.

I have always worked hard on my friendships. I have tried hard to keep in touch

Thinking about grading and feedback

 I was thinking about grading and feedback after a meeting I had this week.

I wandered around the house this weekend looking for books that spoke to this very thing. I wound up scanning several pages from great works by Wormeli, Guskey, O'Connor, Wiggins, McTighe, Vander Els, Stack, and several more.

Here are the clips I took.

On Feedback and Grading

I think it is the science teacher in me but I really like things like the Marzano complete scale.

Movies to play if I'm at the end of life

 Not a fun subject -- maybe -- but if I'm in a coma or in a place where I'm still alive but will pass away soon....I don't want music. I would like you to play movies.

• The Original Superman with Christopher Reeve
• Lonesome Dove -- Especially anything with Augustus McRae
• Any Spiderman movie
• She Said
• All the President's Men
• Spotlight
• Any of the Lord of the Rings
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• You could do the whole MCL from Iron Man to Endgame
• North by Northwest
• Rear Window
• Devil Wears Prada
• If the girls are there watch something we used to like together like Father of the Bride or the Parent Trap
• Crazy Stupid Love
• Star Wars 3,4,5,6,7,8,9 NOT 1 or 2.

Books you should read Part 3: The Souls of Black Folk

 The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Dubois

    I knew of this book but I was encouraged to read it after listening to Yale Professor David Blight's lecture series on the Civil War. He said that reading the book should be required for citizenship.

    I can only say that I agree -- read it.

Books you should read part II: Fredrick Douglass

 Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass an American Slave

    No matter when you read this book your eyes will be opened.

    We all know the Fredrick Douglass that is celebrated in February. But what he went through from birth through about age 20 is incredible. Slavery of course is an evil condition to be in. But Douglass was tormented by his masters. Tormented -- all slaves were tormented. His masters tried to break him and then he was sent to a slave breaker. He survived it all.

    There is a heart wrenching story where he is worked to exhaustion by his slave breaker master Covey to the where he collapses in the fields. Covey beats him and Douglass runs away to his former masters the Aulds. They convince him to go back because there is no choice. He hides all day on Sunday and on Monday Covey tries to tie him up and kill him. In a two hour fight Douglass finally bests Covey and is never touched by him again.

Books you should read Part 1: Wormeli Fair Isn't Always Equal

     Rick Wormeli's Fair Isn't Always Equal is a fantastic book. The second edition builds on the first and has so much more useful information that it could have been its own edition.

    When teachers and educators ask me for advice on what to read to learn about fairness, feedback, and grading this is one of the first books I think of. I also remember that the second edition is the orange one and the first edition was blue.

    Chapter 19 is particularly useful it includes 13 recommendations for what to look for in a grading system.

• "Discern between formative and summative,"
• "Set up according to standards,"
• "Report behavior, effort, attendance and work habits separately,"

    These concepts have become commonplace in how teachers work but grading and reporting systems have been slow to catch up. The second edition of this book came out around 2018 and many of the suggestions are still not available in gradebooks.