In today’s standards based report card design session, I shared a story from the road. It featured a devoted and tireless leader from another district that I supported in the same capacity a long, long time ago: I was doing a bit of norm-setting and establishing expectations relevant to transparency when it became clear that something was off. I wondered aloud if my friend was having second thoughts. Did he still want to move forward?…
What does revision look like beyond your writing workshop? Have you thought you about this? I don’t think that I ever did when I still had a classroom of my very own, but I’ve been wondering about it often, lately. Who expects writers to revise other than their writing teachers? And what does that experience entail? How do other teachers expect writers to approach revision, and how do their practices influence the way writers treat…
Nearly ten years into my career as an independent education consultant, I can say with confidence that a large portion of my time has been devoted to supporting teachers with assessment design. If you’ve walked a similar path, then you know how hard and humbling this work is. Perhaps, like me, you stand on the shoulders of assessment giants like Douglas Reeves, Rick Stiggins, Dylan Wiliam, Susan Brookhart, or James Popham. Perhaps you still define yourself as…
Jessica Gentner, Fifth Grade Teacher at Lindbergh Elementary School in Kenmore, New York Parent-teacher conferences were different for our family this year, thanks to our school district’s recent decision to move toward standards-based grading and report cards at the elementary level and this very talented teacher’s thoughtful use of formative assessment processes. Jessica Gentner is our daughter Nina’s fifth grade teacher. Quite a few parents are more than impressed by the fact that she knows…