Friday, March 8, 2013

A school issue and a second opinion

Aidan's big 3rd grade project for this quarter was a report on a famous African-American inventor. He chose Lonnie Johnson, and using the template provided by his teacher, he created a mock Facebook page with lots of information, after lots of research on Aidan's part. He spent a lot of time googling and reading and then (with some guidance and prompting from me, but not a ton) came up with various pieces of information to put into the template. It's actually a really cool project idea, although at first glance it seemed a little advanced for 3rd grade--what happened to a simple poster?! Here's what he came up with.

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I was really proud of the work he did--summarizing what he read, paraphrasing, figuring out what he could put where, choosing images all on his own, doing the vast majority of cutting/pasting/re-sizing/formatting (he's now well-versed in the right-click/copy/paste special, ctrl-c, ctrl-v and ctrl-z!). I did help with some of the more complicated formatting issues and I helped some by typing the words he dictated to me. But in large, the work is his.

Maybe I'm biased (ok, I am, but still...), maybe I'm out of touch with expectations of freaking 3rd graders, but I'm PISSED that he got a 75 on this project. Please, someone give me a second opinion.

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"...but little information on Lonnie himself" What?!?!?

Does this project look like it:
  • Shows very few details about the inventor or his/her discovery. Does not go beyond basic information. (2 out of 4 on the rubric)
  • Shows little organization. Very little time was spent on the project. Very few details are mentioned. Some difficulty interpreting information. (also 2 out of 4)

He also got a 1 out of 4 on his Oral presentation. I don't know otherwise because I wasn't there, but the criteria for a 1 on the rubric says "No understanding of written information. Unable to hear or understand information."

Aidan prepared notecards and practiced several times over the weekend before his presentation so I have a hard time swallowing that 1. Maybe he did mumble or read a bit too much from his slides, but I know he had a good grasp on who Lonnie Johnson is and what he's famous for. He did way too much research for that not to show at all. For this one, I'm mostly just sad that none of the practice Aidan did at home translated to his actual presentation. Maybe he got nervous, I don't know. He thought he did well, but his teacher said he couldn't answer many of the questions she asked without looking at his presentation. Is it really realistic to expect an 8-year-old to recite an entire presentation of facts from memory? That's a real question. Are most 3rd graders capable of that?

My momma bear instinct is raging right now, and I cried along with him when he came home today with this grade. Granted, I'm an overachiever by nature and rarely got bad grades myself (nerd alert!) so I cringe when I see grades like this. But if I thought Aidan truly did subpar work and deserved this grade, I wouldn't be nearly as worked up. Well I would, but for a different reason. I'd be more disappointed in myself that I didn't provide enough oversight or guidance to make sure he did well. But I did this time. And he really tried. And learned. And it looks good, damnit!

I really do welcome any and all opinions. If my mom-bias has clouded my judgement, please let me know. I want to go into the conference with his teacher next week with a clear head and realistic expectations.

15 comments:

  1. I'm confused. Looking at the FB page that was created, along with the rubric, what exactly was the teacher looking for? It seems all criteria was met!

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    1. Yes! Thank you! I hoping she has an example project that shows exactly what she was looking for. Otherwise, I just don't see how she can tell me the criteria wasn't met.

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  2. That is nuts! I would be pissed at that grade too.

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    1. Thanks, Krystle! Your Logan is the same age as Aidan; does he have projects and presentations like this? Apparently I know nothing about 3rd grade anymore because the expectations are certainly much different than when I was there :)

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  3. Well, here's the opinion of a teacher (not a mother myself). First of all, I think that's a fun idea for a project. It's probably more interesting (and "cooler") to the kids to make a Facebook page rather than a poster (everything has to be about 21st century learning these days).

    From what I can tell looking at the Facebook page, I think it's a great visual. It seems to have a lot of information to me. I mean you can't expect a book to be written on a Facebook page. If I had given this project I would have been looking for students to summarize what they researched and learned. That seems to be what your son did. In my opinion, if the teacher wanted more detailed information to be given, she should have had them write a report also or instead of just displaying the information on a fake Facebook profile. I don't understand the "not organized" and "very little time spent" parts of the rubric. It looks very well put together to me.

    Unfortunately, we are being required to put more and more pressure on these kids at a younger and younger age in order to have them "college and career ready" which could explain the difficulty of the project and the very strict grading.

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment, Megan. I really appreciate another teacher's perspective. I agree--the format of the project doesn't lend itself to copious amounts of detail. But in the space allowed, I do believe he filled it with relevant details in interesting organized ways.

      It's unfortunate that there's not much of a learning curve factored into projects like these--it's "do or die." To grade so strictly, especially on things like the oral report without being given the opportunity to actually learn how to present seems so wrong. He's never had to do a presentation in that class or any others where he had to rely strictly on memory. That's not even easy for high school and college students who've presented many times. Let alone a 3rd grader who's completely new to the concept. UGH.

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  4. I'm not a teacher but a mom of a 6th and 9th grader. I am often frustrated by subjective grading, but it sounds like you have a perfect opportunity to speak with the teacher at your conference. Her feedback was all about the presentation, but it doesn't explain the scores he received for facts, organization, etc. I would ask for more feedback about why Aidan did not meet her expectations in these areas. I would also be curious to know what the class average was - is this teacher a tough grader across the board? Lastly, I would share with the teacher how disappointed Aidan was that his hard work resulted in a grade that he did not feel he deserved.

    Good luck at the conference!

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    1. Thanks so much for the comment, Dana! It really helps to get feedback and reassures me that my concerns are valid.

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  5. Mama Bear, grab your self a giant jar of honey and make that teacher eat it! Ok, that's the Cubana in me coming out, but I would DEFINITELY be arguing the case on this one. What did the others look like- PBS Documentaries? They're expecting too much too soon and then wonder why our youth zone out in video games!!

    Here from the weekend Showcase- BB2U.

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    1. LOL, I love this comment! Thanks SO much for your kind words of support. Glad to know not everyone thinks I'm crazy for being upset :)

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  6. Wow, my oldest is 4, so I can't really relate in that sense, but I'm thinking an 8 year old putting this together with just a little bit of guidance from his mom on how to use the computer is amazing. I am certain kids are way more technically advanced these days than I was as a child, I remember apple computers and the wagon wheel's game during computer hour, but we never generated reports or worked on computers until 5th or 6th grade and even then it was just to type. Things are a lot different now and I think her grading is very subjective. Of coures being a fly on the wall as a mama bear would have been great. I'm thinking you'll want to talk to the teacher and ask her how his presentation went, since you weren't there and tell her how much he researched and practiced at home. Don't know if that will help in anyway, but I think its always best to talk those things out, maybe there was something missed, maybe not. Maybe her grading is too harsh. I'm still very impressed! Stopping by from the weekend showcase!

    Heather from Mommy Only Has 2 Hands

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    1. Thanks so much, Heather! We have a conference on Thursday, so we'll see how it goes! I most definitely have a LOT of questions I hope she can answer...

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  7. As a teacher, I like rubrics because they are so specific....easy for me to grade because I have already specified what I'm looking for......and easy for students and parents to see why they earned the score they did. When I use rubrics, I feel like if there is ever a question about how something was graded, it is easy for me to look back at the rubric and explain.

    That said, I teach 8th grade and don't really know what high quality 3rd grade work looks like.....but his project sure impressed me!

    Also, I'm the type of teacher that doesn't give two craps about grades. I grade because I have to.....but if kids show me they are learning.....then they get a good grade.

    Definitely ask at the conference to see examples of 100% work, 90% work, and so on. Try not to be defensive, as the teacher likely does have reasoning behind it.....I doubt she arbitrarily assigned the grade. I would also ask about how Aidan can increase his score--because after all the score is supposed to reflect what he's learned. Isn't the most important thing that he's learning? And if he didn't demonstrate that on 2/26/13....but he can demonstrate tomorrow/Thursday/next week that he's learned all about this guy and all about organization, etc.....then shouldn't he get 100%? (That's the type of reasoning we use at my school anyway).

    Good luck!! (and new follower :))

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    1. Sally, thanks so much for the comment (and follow)! That's an excellent point about the point being learning. I certainly don't expect an automatic "A for effort" and I know it sounds like I'm harping on the grade itself a lot, but I think the bigger issue is that the effort wasn't recognized in the way it should have been. He's never put together a report like this, so as much as he learned about Lonnie Johnson, he also learned about computer stuff, research tactics, etc. which I believe is reflected in his written report.

      I will definitely bring up whether there is a way he can further prove to her that he learned, and I will also try my best to not be defensive. I loathe confrontation, so situations like this are hard for me.

      Thanks so much for another teacher's perspective! Curious--do you have thoughts on translating rubrics like this to a 100-point scale? Clearly a score of a 3 on a 4-point rubric is much different than a 75%/D on a 100-pt/letter grade scale, which is probably where much of my issue comes into play.

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  8. I am not looking forward to these days of school projects, grading criteria, and having different opinions on my child's work than that of the teacher's! My little ones aren't in school yet, so I can't relate! But *hugs* of comfort being sent your way! I thought it appeared quite impressive, personally!

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