Bragging time

        I don't grade at home much any more. When I do, it feels weird...but sometimes it seems necessary. This year I figured out how to score the Need2Know quizzes (assessments of learning from the video lessons) during class, by designing relevant and accessible activities for students to perform right after taking the quiz. That gives me 15-20 minutes to zip through the quiz sheets and give almost immediate feedback.
         However, that's not possible for summative assessments. Students took their 2nd of the year last Friday. I was able to read about 15 during the school day, while they typed their pieces about "How did tensions rise from 1763-1773?" and "Did Parliament and colonial protesters act fairly in that time period?" Everyone had a brief outline to structure what to say (from previous class activities), and a laptop with which to enter responses. I score each response on a simple A-B-C-D rubric, and this afternoon I finished scoring nearly all of them. I'll gladly accept an average of 91.5%!

I have 17 cherubs (almost 25%!) who aced both responses. I pasted a couple kids' answers below because they are phenomenal. The largest number (27) comprises students who got "A" for one answer and "B" for the other. 12 got "B" on both, which is still better than most of you dear readers could achieve (with all due respect, of course). That's about 74% total proficiency. The other 20 had varying levels of discrepancy. The 1 kid with a pair of D's just totally tanked it. He rushed to finish in about 15 minutes, and then sat there despite my encouraging prompts to expand and revise the pieces. No diagnosed disability. That will be a fun email to write home....