My Biggest Take-Aways:
- Students should be graded against the standards/targets rather than against each other.
- Quality formative and summative assessments are essential.
- Grades should be a clear and accurate indicator of what a student knows and is able to do. They guide teachers in making instructional decisions and provide feedback to students and their parents. Their purpose should NOT be to motivate, punish or sort students.
- Frequent feedback is essential for learning, but grades are not the best form of feedback.
- K-12 students are not adults and shouldn't be held to theoretical adult work habit standards.
- Always keep in mind that our goal is to move learning forward.
- Mastery should be graded on a trend over time.
- Late work is worthwhile and should be treated as such.
- In general, students should be allowed to redo work and assessments for full credit. Also some students will need alternate formats to demonstrate content mastery.
- No evidence or incomplete rather than scores of zero.
My Biggest Take-Aways:
- The human brain is a learning organ; learning is what it does.
- The brain likes: choice, actions, emotions, reflection, meaning, & stories.
- Begin with what the learner brings. New ideas must build on existing ideas.
- Our emotions influence our thinking more than our thinking influences our emotions
- Give assignments that require reflections and induce learners to reflect on the right things.
- Create meaning first
- We use different parts of the brain when we estimate than when we calculate
- Make math more reflective
- Information without understanding is the enemy of unity
- Emotions help make meaning
- The more things we are holding in our working memory, the harder it is to focus on what's important
- Manipulating information makes it ours
- Good questions take time and so do good answers
- A teacher is most successful when students can say "We did this ourselves"