First, I attended a Social Studies textbook adoption meeting. Originally our county was not going to buy social studies books, but enough of us voiced a concern that our administrators decided to give us the opportunity to check out some options. They brought us 2 options - one that is the traditional text, and a second one that has a student consumable book as well as all the teacher resources online. This second choice (from Pearson) allows for any upgrades that could happen over the next several years. It is also more compatible to the common core. We had proponents for both series, but ended up going with the second choice - Yeah!!!!
I don't foresee myself using it as a text I will be dependent on, but rather a resource that we use throughout the year. One great advantage of the books we chose is being able to add any resources we have or can find to the online portion. It is so interactive.
Once that was over, many of us in grades 1 - 4 (as K has already completed theirs) had a meeting to discuss developing standards-based report cards. Many of us have discussed this for a while now. It is so exciting to finally see it actually happening. We began our discussion, and then we actually started looking at resources - many examples from other school systems - and started working on what we wanted in our report cards. Much of the time was spent looking at how we could combine similar standards into one cohesive element on the report card.
I think these report cards will allow for such a richer conversation between teachers and parents. They will allow parents and students to see just what needs to be worked on and what is mastered. After all, what does an A, B, C, D, or F really mean? A standards-based report card just makes more sense to me!
How many of you are using standards-based report cards? Do you find that they are better than the traditional report cards?
We are still doing traditional, but I wish we were doing standards based like our elementary.
ReplyDeleteWe are working to become standards based. This year will the the trial run with the rubrics we are currently creating...that way next year we can move toward standards based report cards.
ReplyDeleteI'm a new follower.
Hunter's Tales from Teaching