One of the main issues that I am noticing in my middle school (7th and 8th Grade Social Studies) classroom is that my students are unaware of their current grade in their classes. Even though I post grades weekly in the same spot and students are aware of this, I rarely see students check them. The problem with this is that students do not notice if they have missing work (perhaps they forgot to put their name on an assignment) or do not notice a low grade. This is a problem because usually as the end of the quarter approaches, students finally become aware of their grade and then try to bring their grade up at the last minute. This results in more stress for me as I have to scramble to re-explain assignments that should have been completed weeks ago. I often become frustrated with my students lack of awareness and responsibility when it comes to their grades.
My plan to address this issue is to use our school’s newly implemented student email accounts. As of now, parents can set up notifications when their student’s grade falls below a certain mark in our grade system (Pinnacle). I am going to see about setting this up for students as well. I am also going to set up a time in my classroom, once a week, to have students check their grades online using our mini laptops. Because we use these at least once a week in my classroom, it will not be an issue to work this into our regular schedule. My students also have a Social Studies binder that I check periodically. I am going to create a grade record sheet and require my students to write down their grade and any missing work on this sheet every time we check them on the computer.
Plan “B” if the email and online gradebook checks don’t work is to post grades on my classroom website. I will get the same pdf file that I use to post grades in my room (by student number) and upload it to a “grades” page on my website. Then, I will have students use the same Grade Record sheet in their binders.
I will continue the successful method after CEP 812 is completed. However, I also hope to take this process to the next level by using Moodle next year. This way, students can use our online class to see their grades and I can even email my students from this forum. I am looking forward to this!
To judge effectiveness, I will create an online survey for students to fill out with question about the new grade posting format as compared to the “old way”. Also, I will judge effectiveness by the amount of students that come to me at the end of the quarter to improve their grade. The idea is that I will have much less students coming to see me at that point and have more students seeing me weekly to fix their grade. If this is the case, I will consider the experiment a success. In addition, I would also like to see an improvement in my class averages. If more students are aware of their grades and are taking steps to improve them, the class averages will be higher.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to locate many resources on this topic. However, I did find information on how to email students using Moodle. Here is the link for that. If anyone else has any ideas or resources, I would greatly appreciate it!
Having students take ownership of their education is key. By setting up the system you describe, you are empowering students to take things into their own hands. You may also consider setting up clear deadlines for late work. You are creating a system that communicates clearly with students what is expected of them...so they need to step up. Creating opportunities in class to walk through the procedure of checking their grades will definitely reinforce what they need to do when they are at home (if they have Internet access).
ReplyDeleteI used Pinnacle last year...and I think there may be a way to have students set up email alerts for every assignment that is posted (regardless of the grade). I'm not totally sure (because I did not do this), but it is worth looking into.
Good luck. I hope you find that this empowers your students...
Wow, I would love some more information on how this works! We have the same problem at our school, and I'd love to be able to have it automatically email the parents if their grade is below a minimum. IT seems like the parents do not keep track just as much as the student don't. Plus, being responsible for 150 individual students is hard enough, let alone having to call many of those parents due to bad grades!
ReplyDeleteI look forward to seeing what you come up with!
This is a well thought out plan! I am excited to see how you gauge your success. I implement a class website last year and posted it on the overhead at the end of every day for students to fill out their planners. I also gave the parents the website at conferences and had many of them comment through the forum online asking questions about their students missing assignments. It was user-friendly and affective in my classroom setting. Now the only problem is students access to technology outside of class. I know the area I am in now many families do not even have computers. But I really like that idea of having class emails. This definitely gets teaches them about a tool that has a lifetime of use!
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