How do I help my students take ownership of the record-keeping process? Before I answer that, I must decide if I want to. I do want my children to take ownership of their learning, so I do want them to have access to their records, and to be aware of their personal progress or lack thereof. The best thing about an electronic gradebook is that students and their parents have access to grades and completed versus missing work. I do like to conference with every student, and for that the data notebook and graphing are very helpful. It's also rewarding for most students to see a consistently good graph, or to see a graph go up. The students whose graphs don't look so great tend to avoid doing the graphing. May be we could graph just the vocabulary questions, or just the open response, or the fill-in-the-blank are that would most benefit the student.

Week of 11/14; “Final Thoughts” (pages 97-106)

Choose one of the strategies from the Appendix to implement. What are some of the techniques you learned in this book that you could use in conjunction with the strategy? What would it look like in your classroom? How would you measure student success?

Week of 11/14 Chapter 14; “Grading in a Differentiated Classroom” (pages 93-96)

Choose one question to answer and respond to at least one other person’s answer.

1. Generate a list of descriptors for how you feel grades should be used. How can you get closer to that in your classroom? What do you feel the effects would be if you were able to achieve your ideal?
2. How can you help students take ownership in the record keeping process?

Working on that Jane Goodall Project:

Product: Create a newspaper section

Choice: which may include letters to the editor, editorial cartoons, feature article related to the text e.g. a news story about what students do to save wildlife, an article about Jane Goodall. Perhaps there could be comics ala' Mark Trail? Advertising?

Students will work in mixed ability groups, with each student responsible for their own content.

All content should include details from the text, and at least one fact and one opinion.

Each student could present their piece to the class and tell the class which statements are fact and which are opinion.

Audience: first our class, the n the final product could be shared with the grade that studies endangered animals (2nd?)

Grading: Includes fact(s)
Includes opinion(s)
Includes detail(s) from text
Edited for correct spelling and punctuation

That leaves out the public service announcement, unless perhaps it could go in as advertising? It would also be cool to put this together as a web page but that is beyond me.

Ideas for Inclusionary Classrooms

Below are you tube videos with excellent ideas for lessons. I actually found quite a few good videos as I was surfing the site. You never know where your next inspiration will come from!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCn4qDyuZVE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek951kXTBzo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDR68Ty_Sic&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=DkY2D-f3JNo

How do I decide which strategy to use in my classroom. Vic used to complain that i did it by the seat of my pants, to which I replied that they were very educated pants. I have noticed that I need to differentiate my differentiation this year. I love to use math games to address weaknesses and challenge advanced students in math. This year I joined a group of boys who'd decided they'd rather play poker than Division Top-it, and Go Fish instead of First to One Hundred. So I think I need to use exit slips! Last year I had students invent a game to practice rounding and that worked well. Maybe those students can create a GO Fish that involves fractions!
I have noticed that this year I have students who excel at talking but are not so good at listening. So I also think I need to make use of the dance routine from our PD day. Well, we didn't call it that but since they dance in the hall I'm sure the walk around until the music stops will become dance around. The hard part will be getting the discussion topics prepared. My energy is sapped from dealing with the daily paperwork. That and not sleeping.

Next week we will read "Jane Goodall's 10 Ways to Save"
I believe it is wildlife, and thinking about how to differentiate. My students read the text in circles. The skill is fact and opinion, so I think this would be a good place for a letter to the editor or a public service announcement. Either product would allow the student to demonstrate an understanding of Jane Goodall's ideas by applying it to everyday life in the letter or announcement. I want students to have a choice of product because I know that I have some very good writers, but others are much better at telling what they know. Now I need to go figure out when to fit this in...
I am glad that this chart is included. I had a list of 100 possible products from WOW training that I misplaced. I need a list because "make a poster' is my go-to product and I definitely tend to over-use it. I was also glad that making the implicit explicit was include. Having FCA's for a project is a good idea.