In this article, the author describes how he uses student misconceptions that are mentioned in the Chief Reader Report as a guide to help him design and write multiple-choice items for AP Chemistry.
The idea of a “curriculum emphasis” is that how we teach, including the ways that text books are written and how we write assessments, sends hidden messages to students about what the purposes of science are and are not, and what are the roles of teachers and students in learning science, and who should or should not be included in science.
One of the hurdles that holds teachers back from implementing standards-based grading is the gradebook. Most schools use an electronic learning management system. Some of these platforms have added customizations to support recording learning targets rather than point values. Even with the upgrades, teachers can benefit from some 'hacks' to assist in recording student achievement.
The ability to anticipate the errors that students tend to make should serve as a guiding principle when designing assessment items. In addition, a well-written question can uncover student misconceptions.
A lot of time is spent assessing students but how much time is spent assessing ourselves and our peers? Some faculty take departmental evaluations seriously and professionally while others prefer not to for a variety of reasons. What happens when a faculty member introduces evaluation guidelines into a department that had none previously? Read and find out.
Ungrading has long been associated with the idea of purposefully eliminating or minimizing the use of points or letters to assess student work. The focus of ungrading is to provide extensive feedback to students and then jointly (students and instructors) come to a consensus as to what the grade should be. This post addresses what ungrading is and why do it.
As a chemistry teacher considering the switch to standards-based grading, you might be wondering how lab reports work in a system that is not based on points. With lab reports, you just need to decide whether you are grading chemistry content skills, scientific communication skills, or both.
A few months ago I reported that I was involved in a pilot standards based grading (SBG) program. My experiment in SBG started well but required some “tweeks” along the way.
Teacher burnout - it is real. How can teacher's adopt more sustainable grading practices to improve their work-life balance?
As teachers, we know how important it is for students to practice what they are learning and we are ever aware of the limited class time we have to provide those opportunities. We also know that our students have a full schedule of classes, are involved in extracurricular activities, work after-school jobs and may not have a strong support system and structure at home. That leaves us with the difficult question of “what do we do about homework?”
