A Teachers Dream!

Since implementing Standards Based Grading in August,  I have been looking forward to the day that my green marker runs dry.  It finally happened!  One of the numerous green markers I use to grade has run out!   Not only do that  mean that students are excelling but it also meant that I got to contribute to the ColorCycle initiative that some students and I started at he middle school this year.  Double win for me today!

I guess I should explain now the significance of the green marker.  Annie (my fabulous curriculum partner) came up wing he idea to grade quizzes in three different colors.  Red, Yellow and. Green, like a stop light.  If a problem has a green check/mark next to it, that means that the student did a great job on the problem and showed understanding of the concept.  If a student started the problem correctly but could not complete the problem, they get an orange mark (yellow did not show up, so orange was substituted)  with some hints written in orange.  Orange signals that understanding is developing.  If a student showed no work, wrote an erroneous answer or left a problem blank, they receive a red mark of some sort.  So when a student receives a quiz back, there is no score on top of the paper, just a color coded guide to their understanding.  The poster below hangs in the classrooms to help students track their progress.

Before I enter grades,  I look at the questions that address each learning target.  I decide what level of understanding is demonstrated based on which questions students have answered correctly.  When I go to enter grades for the learning targets in my grade book,  I use the color codes as my guide and can quickly assign/record grades.

It has been interesting to see the progression of students thoughts as they receive quizzes back.  It started off as students counting the total number of green marks verse orange/red marks and figuring out their "percentage".  Now I can say that students look at the green but concentrate on the orange and what they did wrong and how they can fix their mistakes.

I am quite happy with this system.  At first, it was a little tedious to grade papers with three different colors but now it is much easier.  With anything, change takes a little time getting used to it.