No Grades--Say it Ain't So!

For Food for Thought Dr. Smirnova had us read an article entitled Teaching Without Grades: A Year of Lessons from A No Grades Classroom.(Priscila, & Tiffanee Warner. (2019, June 7). Teaching without grades: A year of lessons from a no grades classroom. Retrieved from https://www.gerarddawson.org/teaching-without-grades).  I like the idea of giving feedback rather than grades on assignments.  This still allows students to know how they are doing and also lets them know what they need to work on.  

This system reminded me of the art classes I took as an undergraduate student.  For the most part, we did not receive grades on individual assignments, but we did receive feedback to let us know if an assignment was up to standards.  In the garment construction courses I took this was even more true.  If the stitches were uneven or sloppy, the instructor would let you know.  Sometimes I would submit work thinking it was terrible, but then receive good feedback, which was always a nice surprise.  

We had to keep a portfolio of our work over the 4 years that we were in the program.  It was very beneficial to go back and look at previous work to see how far we were growing and transforming during the course of the program.  

Of course, in the end, we still all received letter grades.  The college mandated letter grades be recorded for the transcripts.  However, for the most part, as long as the professors saw you were working hard, making improvements, and turning in assignments on time, there was little to worry about.  

I do not know if I would use a completely gradeless system myself.  However, some sort of hybrid system I think would be very beneficial.  

Assess, assess, assess

Assessments

Back in the 80's we called them tests.  Now they are referred to as assessments.  No matter what they are called, they accomplish the same thing--giving the teacher an idea of where a student is in learning a subject or concept.   Has it been mastered or is there still some work to do? 

Rubric

We were given the task to design a rubric.  I think the rubrics are a bit more complicated than the old fashioned letter grades we used to receive.  However, I do like them since they do provide a more detailed picture of how a student is doing grasping a concept or how he/she is performing. 

Here is the rubric I designed:

Scoring Rubric and Prompt

Prompt:  Upon studying the following image of a food web diagram, please explain what would likely happen if the mouse was removed.

Level of Achievement	Answer to Prompt	Presentation
Master (3)	Learner uses higher level vocabulary         Evidence to support answer         Grammar and spelling are correct	·       Project is presented neatly ·       Zero errors in labeling ·       Image or drawing of food web included
Apprentice (2)	Vocabulary is more basic          Critical thinking is evident        Evidence to support answer         1-2 Spelling or Grammatical errors	Project is presented in clear and concise manner         1—3 errors in labeling         Image or drawing of food web included
Amateur (1)	Vocabulary is incorrect        Little or no evidence        3 or more Spelling or Grammatical errors	Presentation could use more detail        3 or more errors in labeling          Image or drawing of food web included
Back to the drawing board (0)	No response	Image is not included

 I hope it's alright.  

Types of Inquiry

Here is a slideshow about different types of Inquiry based learning practices.  Inquiry based learning 

allows learners to:

• Ask questions
• Explore their environment
• Obtain evidence to support claims
• Design a convincing argument

Scientific Method Piktochart

Here is a Piktochart I made about the Scientific Method.

This investigation into the Scientific Method has been a trip down memory lane for me.  I have not reflected or even used the Scientific Method since I was in high school.  I had to take 1 science course to fulfill the core requirement when I was an undergraduate student.  I took Earth Science and I really do not recall doing experiments in which we utilized the Scientific Method.  We mostly studied rocks and weather patterns, again answering questions based on material we had read in the textbook.  It is no wonder I never decided to pursue a career in the sciences since my whole experience with science classes has been reading material and then regurgitating whatever I read!  I never had the opportunity to explore the material in a hands-on fashion.   Real scientists must make their observations in person.  How could they make scientific discoveries just reading about them in books?  Now, as an adult, I would imagine studying marine biology or even biology would be fascinating.  I wish I would have been given that opportunity in elementary school.

A Visit to the DECOMPOSITION Lab

I absolutely LOVED watching this video!  While watching the fruit and vegetables decompose was disgusting, the fact that the students were so engaged in learning science over the two and a half weeks was just wonderful!  They were really engrossed in the project.  They had to behave like real scientists since they had to wear gloves and some students made face masks so they would not have breathe in the smells.  They also had to record data everyday and draw conclusions from that data as to what was happening with their specimens.  Again, I said it before, it does not take very much expense to keep students engaged.  It just takes some creativity on the part of the teacher.

What is Inquiry?

The next article I read was "What is Inquiry?" written by Kayoe Stewart.  This article delves into the definition of inquiry.  Like the author, I believe we are all born with inquiry.  This is what propels babies to explore the world in which they live.  Young children possess an inordinate amount of wonder.  They love to poke and prod and explore!  I went through more than one video player when my children were young thanks to their explorations!

When students get to school this sense of inquiry may be encouraged during the early elementary years.  However, by the time children reach the 4th or 5th grade science becomes a set of rules, formulas, and standards and is no longer considered "fun." 

When my sons were young I, as a parent, loathed science fair time.  It was not fun in my opinion.  Getting them to set up the project and come up with a project were very tedious affairs.  There was also little inquiry involved, since they usually just found a project on the internet and followed the instructions. 

Last year, I was a graduate intern at Little Britain Elementary school in New Windsor.  One of the 4th grade teachers was able to really engage her students by purchasing some science kits from Lego.  The students worked in groups to assemble robots.  They then conducted experiments with the robots.  I really found this to be "fun."  The students enjoyed the activity and were excited to participate.  I hope when I have my own students, I will be able to make science fun and engaging for them in the same way.  I do not believe we need to spend a lot of money to engage students.  In fact the 5th graders at Little Britain last year were able to observe bald eagles right outside their classroom! 

I hope those students will continue to build on the experiences they had last school year and remain engaged and inquisitive.  This is what inquiry is to me.

Myths of Scientific Inquiry Instruction

In this article, entitled Busting the Myths Surrounding the Inquiry-Based Science Classroom, the author dispels several myths surrounding Inquiry-Based Science instruction.  One claim he refutes is that the Inquiry-based classroom is chaotic.  

I agree with the author, Kayoe Stewart, that Inquiry-based classrooms do not have to be chaotic.  This falls back on the teacher to have excellent classroom management and very explicit standards of what is and not acceptable.  However, I will say from my own experience this is not always the case!  

I am a substitute teacher.  One of my very first assignment was in a special education middle school class.  The students were to make their way around the classroom and conduct 5 separate science experiments and then answer questions/observations on a worksheet.  That sounds pretty simple enough.  However, one of the girls accused several boys of eating a substance included in one of the experiments.  I believe it was baking soda, however that really doesn't matter.  They were not supposed to eat the experiments!  The accuser also welcomed the hostilities of the boys she accused and an argument ensued.  They were all eventually sent to the office.  

Another myth he dispels is that inquiry based science is only achieved through hands-on experiments or learning.  Stewart argues this is indeed included.  However, minds-on learning should also be occurring.  I agree with this.  The students could be following experiments based more or less on a recipe where they follow directions.  However, there should be questions that go along with the experiments that force the students to think about what they are witnessing.  Also, when working in groups, all students need to be involved.  It should never be passive.

I am excited to use inquiry-based learning in the science classroom.   I believe it will keep students engaged and hope it will peak their interest in science to encourage them to stick with it and go further.  

Geckos Save Lives

The TED talk about the gecko feet was fascinating.  The result of studying gecko feet and how they cling to  walls is an adhesive car seat!  This made me think about the technology we have in hospitals now to save lives which did not exist only 20 years ago.

My father had a heart attack the same year I graduated from college in 1993.  The surgeon had to perform cardiac bypass surgery in order to restore blood flow to his heart.  He fully recovered.  He lived happily for the next 20 years.

Then in 2013 he had another heart attack.  This time, however, the surgeons were able to insert a stint by going through an artery in his leg.  His recovery time and time spent in the hospital were much shorter.  Again, he made a full recovery.

To me, the advances we have made in medicine are truly astounding.  People live longer now than they ever have.  I wonder if some of these advances were the result of studying animals and their characteristics such as the gecko?

This would have been me in science class back in the day!

Science is NOT Simple

I remember being in the 7th grade and the teacher had bulletin board cut outs over the coat closet.  There were six of them, one for each step of the Scientific Method.  They had simply one word on each cut out with a picture: observe, hypothesis, experimentation, analysis, conclusion.  We had to know the steps, in that order, and what they meant, for the test.

I can remember reading the text book and studying for the tests.  This is completely different from the way students learn science today.  Today students are expected to engage in activities and learning is more hands-on.  If I had learned science that way in school, I am sure I would have found it far more interesting than I did. 

The only time I was able to experience science as something engaging and fun was when my parents took me to the Museum of Science in Boston.  School science was not at all like science at the museum.  I went to a small Catholic school and I am sure the resources were not plentiful.  We definitely did not have Smartboards back in the 80s!  However, I am sure there could have been a way to make it more interesting than just reading about science.  So, my take away from this study on the Scientific Method is that it is much more complex than I had previously thought, and that we need to find creative ways to engage students from the very beginning.  Otherwise they may be turned off from science for the long term.

Exploring the Scientific Method!

Today I watched the Brain Pop video about fig plants and took the accompanying quiz.  I scored 9/10 on the quiz.  I got question #3 wrong.  I need to study the steps of the Scientific Method a bit more!  I obviously am not clear what occurs in what order!

Getting to know you, getting to know all about you...

September 9, 2019

Tonight's class focused on everyone presenting their slideshows and flipgrids.  It was very interesting-- and somewhat entertaining-- learning more about everyone in class and the special talents we all possess!

The rubric for the blogs was discussed.  I am posting it here.

My Scientific Self

I have never seen myself as scientific.  Artistic--yes, scientific--no!   However, the earliest memory I have of being interested in something scientific was in elementary school.  Yet, it was not school-related.  

I grew up in Providence, RI.  We had bugs and pigeons in the city.  We also lived close to the Roger Williams Zoo and my parents took us there quite often to visit the animals.  My parents joined the Boston Science Museum and would take us there very often to see the exhibits.  I enjoyed our trips to the science museum very much.  I was fascinated by the exhibits about the human anatomy and the cycle of life.  The exhibits about dinosaurs and tides also appealed to me.  

I remember learning about the respiratory and digestive systems in school around the 5th grade.  In 7th grade we learned about reproduction.  

When I was in the 8th grade my family moved to CA.  That year was spent learning about the Pacific Ocean and the aquatic creatures native to the central coast of CA.  We took a field trip at the end of the year to the beach, so we could study the tidal pools.  Some people were climbing on rocks and the tide came in and they had to wade back to shore!  

Comparing Why Scientists Do Science

The main difference between myself and Jennifer DeMichele, the author of Why Scientists Do Science, is as a child she used scissors to dissect animals.  I used scissors to make paper dolls and outfits for the dolls.  It would never have even occurred to me to take a pair of scissors and start cutting into a dead animal!  In fact I find the very thought revolting.  

Yet, I cannot say I do not possess a curiosity of what lies beneath the skin.  My mother was a nurse and she had medical books in the house.  One of the books had a picture of a skeleton on a page, then you overlaid a cellophane page with the organs, then one with the muscles, and then the skin.  I used to like looking at the medical books and learning about the different parts of the body.   

However, I was never drawn to wanting to know more than that.  I do not do well with the sight of blood, so I am sure that had a lot to do with it!  Why are people drawn to the occupations they are drawn to?  It has much to do with personality and temperament I am sure!  I like painting and drawing and designing, whereas someone else would find it utterly tedious.  Is one right and the other wrong?  Of course not!  I would submit there is a need and a want in the world for both!  It is just like having a preference for a certain color.  Some people like red and others like green and still others like purple.  There is no right or wrong, other than whatever you like is RIGHT for YOU!  So whatever occupations our students and children feel drawn to, they should be encouraged to pursue it!