Grade book by Standard

Keep your gradebook by standard(objective) might show you how much time you are dedicating to each standard and which ones you may be missing altogether.Testsoften covermany standards. This is fine for state tests or final exam, it is not too good for formative assessment as it tells you nothing about the areas you need to focus on. Reporting categories that subsume so many different concepts and skills are of little value in helping you understand where students need to improve.

A gradebook can be set up by standards, instead of having columns for classwork, tests, participation, and the like. One activity might yield scores on different standards. This type of grade book set up allows a view of a student on understanding of specific standard, so remediation becomes more focused. An additional advantage is that a quick look shows how often different standards are being covered. If all students have mastered a standard, other standards can become the focus. Your summative report may report progress on each standards and be reported on a per standard basis, although most parents will want a single summary grade. The primary disadvantages of keeping grades by standards are keeping tracking and scoring for particular standards.

As you can see this information is best kept electronically. Below a sample format.

Standard
# 1 / Standard
# 2 / Standard
# 3 (inquiry skills) / Etc.
Activity / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 2 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8
Date / 1/5 / 1/5 / 1/6 / 1/10 / 1/12 / 1/5 / 1/12 / 1/15 / 2/1 / 2/4
Jack / 95 / 95 / 80 / 90 / 25 / 75 / 20 / 55 / 100 / 70
Jill / 30 / 50 / 90 / 100 / 30 / 75 / 40 / 60 / 100 / 70

Note from this information you can determine:

Jack picked up on standard 1 quickly.

Jill started slowly, but may now be proficient or even about average. (note: averaging formative scores may not give you the real picture as in Jill's case)

Standard 2 has been covered by a single assignment and it appears the students were not successful at least for these two students.

Standard 3 has been addressed with many activities, including activities 2 and 5 which covered other standards. (note: the score for the skill and content standard did not have the same scores even though the activities are the same.).

The scores for Standard 3 are rather random. This standard may cover too many diverse skills to provide meaningful scores. Standard 3 may need to be broken into its component parts, which would entail adding additional columns.

Steps to planning for teaching to the standards by topic.

Select a topic with which you are familiar, have enough materials, and are interested in.

Set up a matrix with the standard number, a brief summary of the standard and what might be covered or what activities seem appropriate.

The first example is the outline for a unit on leaf cutter ants and the TX standards we might cover in the unit. (you will notice that this is an integrated unit with biology and physical science) After a few units I found that I can do this with most anything students find interesting. I no longer teach, but I do use the same technique to give me ideas for test items that must cover a wide variety of state standards. I write tests for a living.

The following is a bit about leaf cutter ants just in case you are not familiar with them.

Leafcutter ants are hunter-gatherers and farmers. They hunt for plants to make their fungus-food medium. The they grow the fungus in their nests. The larger ants cut an arc out of a leaf, then carry the piece of leaf to the nest. Once in the nest, smaller ants cut the leaf into smaller bits. The small bits are then cut into smaller ones by even smaller ants that plant a fungus strand on the fresh leaf bits. The leaf bits become covered with a fungus which is high in proteins and minerals. Tiny workers sterilize the growing chambers with chemical secretions and remove any unwanted molds.

The larger foraging ants in the colony are greatly affected by changes in temperature and humidity, while the colony as a whole is not. The colony is able to move to different soil depths to accommodate changes in the environment.

These ants are very common in South America’s rainforests, but they also find a home in different areas of Texas including Hondo, where I live.

Leaf Cutter Ants

Standard
Code / Summary of Objective / Potential questions or ideas to lead students
5.1A / Safe practice during field investigations / Field work safety practice.
5.2A / Simple experimental investigations equipment / Set up experiment what is wrong
Have student design investigations.
5.4A / Collect information by using tools / Compare mass of leaf to mass of ant
5.3B / Draw inference based on promotional materials / Ant bait advertisement
5.10A / Inheritatance / What traits are inherited? what might be causing the differences in the ant sizes? Is this due to inheritance, conditions or a combination of both. Could add genome project info if available. Set up Punnent squares
5.9 A / Adaptive characteristics that improve survival / Mouth parts, need some close up photos, which student can provide this?
5.6C / Compare life cycles of plants and animals / Life cycle of ant to life cycle of the plants it forages it on. What will happen if the plant reproduced as fast as the ant? How can the plant survive the leaf cutter?
3.8A / Describe habitats of organisms / Habitat description,
3.8B / Competition between organisms / Other ants, grasshoppers, how do they avoid competition
3.8C / Environmental changes that would affect organisms / Climate changes or floods or droughts
3.8D / Organisms modify their physical environment / Ant trails and homes
2.9B / Living organisms depend on each other / Ant parasites or commensals
4.6B / Patterns of change such as metamorphosis / Metamorphosis built into ants
5.8D / Vibrating object can produce sound / Ants produce a sound when they are cutting the leaves. Why are the sounds of slightly different pitch? What causes pitch and loudness?
3.6A / Changes in position and direction due to a force / Ant movement or carrying leaves forces and motion
5.11A / Time for changes including erosion / Effects of ants on soil erosion
5.11B / Draw conclusions about what happened before / Changes in plant due to grazing
5.6B / Significance of water, carbon and nitrogen cycle / Significance of cycles in ant life and significance of the ant on the local nitrogen cycle, carbon dioxide/oxygen cycle, or mineral cycles.
4.11A / Test properties of soils capacity to retain water / Before and after ant invasion. The mound on M street is almost 6 feet in diameter.
4.11C / Identify sun as major energy source / Major source of energy for the fungus. trace back to that energy source
5.5A / Describe some structures and process in a simple system / Home of ant. The ant as a system. The ecosystem and interactions, see 5.5B
5.5B / Describe some interactions in a simple system
DNA structure and function / Ant and plant,
How might ant be same or different from theinformation found in our book.

This one is on the devil’s claw plant, an interesting semidesert plant. The standards are AZ, from a friend who is just starting to use this type of integrated teaching unit.I do not recall the grade, maybe 8.

# / Standard summary / Possible questions or assignments to lead students
Inq
PO4 / measuring / How long from tip to tip? Averaging
What is the mass…?
St 3
PO3 / environmental risks in biological systems. / Effects of home building on desert plants.
LS
PO1 / Food web / Draw a food web including the devil's claw. Give sources of your information.
LS
PO6 / Adaptations / Adaptations question
What is the value of the hook?
What other desert plants have this type of "hook" Is the use the same or different?
PS
PO1 / Properties / What are properties that help…
Identify a physical properties of the pod. Identify the chemical properties.
Inq / Analyze data / Data on seed transportation
LS
PO6 / Survival / Advantage of sexual reproduction
LS
PO3 / Nitrogen cycle / Role of decay in N-cycle

After doing a few of these units, students can help you choose the topics covered during the year.

NOTE: none of this is for the faint of heart. It is difficult and time consuming. Prek through grade 2 often use this type of grade book and unit development. These teachers have lots of tips.