That statement crushed me. But it also told me exactly what I had to do this year in order to help students see what mastery is (or, in my classroom lingo this year, how to "know & own" the understanding).
But there's not just one way to show students what mastery looks like. I've found that helping students see the difference between a 1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4 and a 5 is an ongoing process in a standards-based classroom; it's something you must constantly and consistently do, and do in a variety of ways. If not, what my students do is start viewing the levels in the more traditional view of numbers and letters and accumulating points instead of understanding, and start focusing on everything about grading that has nothing to do with their actual knowledge and learning of concepts. (I'm actually thinking about switching to a system with just three levels--get it and use it, get it, don't get it--but I haven't worked out the details concerning how to make this mesh with how I report scores in the conventional gradebook I am made to use. More on that in a future post after I work out the kinks.)
Below are some activities that I have students do in order to gauge their level of mastery. Basically these are basic metacognitive strategies, designed to get students to think about their thinking--and their learning.
- Write your multiple choice answer choices on assessments (either formative or summative) at different levels, and have students discuss the answer choices in order to determine at which level of mastery each answer is. During the first semester, I used Edmodo quizzes extensively to administer formative assessments (I call them "progress checks") after every few I can statements studied. When I write the multiple choice for these progress checks, I assess each I can statement with a separate question, and write that I can statement number at the end of the question. I then write the four answer choices at 4 different levels--one for each level of mastery in my scoring scale. Whatever answer choice students select, that reveals at what level of mastery they currently are for that I can statement. After students take the progress check, they are allowed to see their answers right away. However, in Edmodo, it only tells them what the level 4 answer is (the "correct" one). So, what I had them do after the first bazillion progress checks we took was have them discuss with each other what level of understanding the other choices were at, and then we went over them together. This was an eye-opening experience for me; just to hear what some of their reasons for what choices were at what level told me that a) I had a heck of a lot more metacognitive work to do with them, and b) "gaming" the system was an inherent part of what they thought learning was. However, after doing this constantly and consistently, students are (I think) starting to think about answering these questions in terms of understanding rather than things like "this answer is the longest so it must be the right one."
- For short answer questions on formative assessments, have students compare what they answered to what an answer that demonstrates mastery looks like, and then do some reflection. I let students see what a level 4 answer looks like by revealing the answers to them as soon after an assessment as possible (if it's formative, they will always immediately get to see their answers). Then, I have them compare their answer with a level 4 answer I wrote out ahead of time in the answer key. When they do this comparison, they basically score themselves--they write out what level they think their answer is, and list the reasons (citing evidence from their answer and from the answer that demonstrates full mastery). They are also required to state what they will do to fix their answer in order to show mastery on the final progress check (where I score answers to put in my gradebook, unfortunately). This is somewhat hard for students who are used to slapping down one-word or one-sentence answers hoping to scrape up a point or two; they're used to the system letting them skate through with how little they have learned undetected. It's also hard for my traditionally "high achieving" students, who come to the slow realization that memorizing what I put as the mastery answer--instead of owning the knowledge by putting it in terms their brains understand--will earn them a rating of "no evidence of understanding" (this happened a LOT at the start of the year). I do like having students do this type of "answer analysis" activity, however, because it exposes the holes in the system through which some kids jump to avoid learning, and helps me plan for ways to seal up those holes.
- Have students keep track their learning progress. I stole this idea outright from Marzano, but I have set it up in a different way that works better for my students and myself (in my humble opinion). I have students keep track of their learning in a Google spreadsheet that I have named a "How Am I Doing Spreadsheet." (I've talked about this before in this post.) You can see the one they are currently using for molecular and Mendelian genetics here, or check it out below. But the key to using this is having students use it frequently (again, metacognition must be constant and consistent), which means they are instructed to go back and reevaluate their learning and where they're at every few days, re-rating themselves on my scoring system frequently. The advantage in doing this is that students can see that they are making progress (or not) towards mastery. You see, some students aren't aware that they are actually learning; it's usually those students with those fixed-mindset attitudes of "I'm dumb" or "I'm bad at science and I always will be" or "School sucks and so do you." Once these students see that, yes, they are moving up along the learning scale and can actually master material, a new motivation kicks in that's wonderful to see. Conversely, it also helps students who are used to getting A's for keeping their binders organized, being polite, and not causing trouble see that they still have more work to do towards learning the course concepts. No matter what student is using it, this spreadsheet becomes an invaluable tool when they start reviewing for their final progress checks; since they have kept track of their learning throughout the unit, they can see where the focus of their studying should be, and then they must generate ways to fix their knowledge and reach mastery.
But I have to believe that it's the experience of doing these activities that matters with those younger humans who fight my metacognitive efforts, even if they're not reaping the benefits of them. My teacher-self hangs on to the belief that there will come a day when they'll look back on my class and think, "Oh, so that's what she was trying to make me do--learn what learning looks like."