Sunday, December 7th, 2008...2:15 pm
Blog Project Facelift
Over the last two years my class blog has received multiple facelifts. A great example of this is the evolution of my blog header as the blog became less teacher-centered and more student-centered. The current blog header was actually designed by one of my students.
To continue the evolutionary trend I am updating the grading method I use for the blog project. Inspired by Tara Richardson’s grading method I have decided to change my current method of students earning points for posts & comments. Now, the students will be graded on whether or not they have met the goals of the project.
Here is the table they will need to fill in on their individual wiki page.
Here is an ideal table a student could create. Note that since I have not used this method before the examples listed are from a mix of students rather than just one student.
I’m handing this out to the students tomorrow. What do you think? What did I leave out? Any suggestions?
6 Comments
December 8th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
I have been trying to figure out how to assess students using technology to learn science. I’d be interested in learning more about Tara Richardson’s take on it. I think it is a good idea (the table) and am curious as to how it works out.
Jeremy
http://whyedify.blogspot.com/
December 8th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
It took me about 5 hours to make both tables. This method of grading requires a lot of time to set up. But, I’m hopeful it will be fruitful.
I handed out the table today and some of the students immediately liked it, but some of the others think it will be too hard. But, those students relaxed quite a bit when I told them we would use class time every seven days to work on it (we’re on a seven day rotation) and that I would help them.
As far as Tara Richardson’s view, head over to her blog (I linked to in the post) and look at some of her posts about grading. I’ll definitely blog about how it works out in my classes!
December 9th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Ohhhh…. I like this, Stacy. What I like most is not so much the idea, but the detail of your model. That is what I see so few teachers doing. A detailed model like that usually goes a very long way with students.
It is also usually really good PD for colleagues as well.
There was a very brief conversation on Ryan Bretag’s blog a ways back on blogging rubrics. These are all generic… and mine as well was used for a “book study” project in my marine bio class.
However, I got some good ideas and tip in looking at these: http://www.ryanbretag.com/blog/?p=462
This is a super model of what content-embedded blogging looks like. As always, thanks for sharing. I will be sure others see this too.
Sean
December 10th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
I looked at your book study rubric. I’m going to bring up the uncomfortable topic of grading and ask you how you determine what students end up receiving for each category and how that translates into a grade.
Placement into each category is somewhat subjective. For example, in your communication category advanced is “show strong evidence”, proficient is “show some evidence”, and developing is “showing little evidence”. Do you look at the strength of that student’s communication compared with other students or do you look at improvement over time? What is strong vs. some vs. little evidence to you?
Do you just add up the points earned and divide by points possible to get the final grade?
December 17th, 2008 at 9:22 am
Stacy – this is outstanding! At last, someone has made and shared a very concrete and applicable example of technology integration. Lots of people talk about doing these things, but it looks like you have figured out a good plan.
The rubric is great – I assume that you’re going to be giving students examples – it might not even hurt to have them review each others’ “how will I…” ideas.
We’ll all be interested to hear the outcomes of this. Bravo!
December 17th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Thanks! All of the students are working on their table on the class wiki. They can see each others’ tables as well as the example I provided them with. You can view what they’ve done so far by clicking on each student’s name here.
We’ve only been doing this for two weeks now and their final project isn’t due until March 2nd. So, they will slowly complete it.
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