This is a post I started a while back but never finished. I’ve rewritten portions to post it today. One Tuesday afternoon in February, I read Anne Ursu’s post on the Nerdy Book Club blog about her new book, The Lost Girl. There were a lot of interesting ideas in there, but what really… Read More Gender and Book Choice
This week, I’ve been thinking back to previous years when a teacher from a nearby district would complain about how early their grades had to be in at the end of the year. Final grades were due before the year was over, and kids new this. I used to think this would be bad too.… Read More Thoughts on Using Grades to Keep Kids Motivated at the End of the Year
I’ve never been a teacher who started a countdown on his board to the last day of school. Now don’t get me wrong, I love summer. The chance to recharge, reflect, read and plan for the next year, and to spend time with my family without any work that is pressing is something I cherish.… Read More Celebrating May
Earlier this week as I was reshelving books in my classroom library, I found a photo inside one of them. It was a picture of one of my students as a young boy, probably two or three years old, being held by his mom. For some reason, looking at that picture really struck me. This… Read More Working with Students Who Challenge Me
I have not written a blog post in quite a while. Well, actually, I haven’t finished a blog post in a while. The end of basketball season, which finished with a loss in our conference championship game and us narrowly missing out on an NCAA Tournament berth, was quite busy, and once I got out… Read More Summer Reading
Goal-setting has been a part of my class for many years, long before my decision to stop grading individual assignments and begin meeting with students to decide their grades at the end of each quarter. In the past, they were a part of the grade students would receive, but with all the other grades that… Read More Goal Setting in Our Writing-Reading Workshop
Conferring with students has always been a central part of my class. Mostly, though, these conferences focus on what is going on at the moment, the book the student is reading or the piece the student is writing. One of my goals this year, though, has been to spend more time looking at the big… Read More What I’ve Learned from a Recent Round of Conferences
The week before Christmas break, I finished up my second round of assessment conferences. This time was a little different than the first round because, we were focusing on the progress students had made towards their individual writing and reading goals for the quarter. We have several different categories in which students have goals, so… Read More Lessons Learned from Assessment Conferences
When I made the decision to move to feedback only, with a grade determined in collaboration with students at the end of each quarter, I had to figure out the best way to keep parents informed and updated on the progress of their kids. In our reading workshop, this has proven to be fairly simple.… Read More Communicating Feedback to Parents: One of My Challenges with Eliminating Grades
The change I’ve made this year from grading individual assignments to only giving feedback has led to an increased workload. But the extra work will always be worth it when I can see the work pay off in students’ work. One of the areas in which I’ve seen feedback make a huge difference is in… Read More The Benefits of Providing Feedback
