Professional Documents
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Observation Conversation
Observation Conversation
them to show me their skills, and then Ill rate them on my index cards. I try to check students work twice a week, once on Monday or Tuesday and
once on Thursday or Friday and note their proficiency on my index cards. This is at least how I planned to implement the system.
EVALUATOR: What actually happens?
Teacher: I just seem to run into a number of problems. First of all, most weeks I dont get to review all of my students work twice. Sometimes, I
dont even get to assess students once. It takes me a lot more time to implement then Id thought it would. Plus by the time Ive managed to gather
data on where all my students are, and I really get a chance to sit down with my cards, Ive usually already moved onto the next unit. Im worried
about what happens to students who havent reached proficient by that time, because it feels too late to go back and re-teach that skill. Were just too
far past it. Also, I think Im still struggling with how to translate this stack of cards into my excel spreadsheet that tracks students progress on each
objective in a meaningful or efficient way.
EVALUATOR: How are students getting feedback on their performance?
Teacher: I give them immediate feedback when I work with them during the week, so they always know their assessment scores. However, Im not
sure if my students have more of a big picture idea of how theyre doing in my class. Several of them seemed pretty surprised by their mid-marking
period grades when I sent reports home, especially my lower-performing students. I dont think that they always are able to infer their grades from
my weekly feedback on their work. But I do tell them at the time whether or not theyre achieving proficiency on our objectives.
EVALUATOR: How do you determine their grades for the quarter?
Teacher: Basically, I have 100 objectives that Im teaching for the yearso 25 in each quarter. On my tracking sheet, each objective for the quarter
is worth four points. I enter in the highest proficiency scores they achieve for each objective, from my 4-point proficiency scale, add up the total, and
give them a letter grade based on what that adds up to. If students are proficient on all objectives, they get 100 or A+. Otherwise, they get whatever it
adds up to out of 100.
EVALUATOR: I know you said that you give them their highest proficiency scores. Do they have a chance to re-test on their proficiency past the
week when you assess it?
Teacher: I had thought about implementing a re-teaching, re-assessment system, but Ive found that I just cant work it into my long-term plan. Right
now, they just get the highest proficiency score of the two assessments that week.