Curriculum, instruction, and technology seem to change constantly to meet the needs of students, but grading practices have largely remained the same for the last 50 years. Standards-based grading is not a new idea, but over the past few years, it has come out of the shadows and has taken center stage under the spotlight. Ultimately, standards-based grading ensures that thoughtful practices are in place that allow student achievement, connected to content standards, to be accurately calculated and reported, so teachers can target their instruction and interventions. Most districts want an accurate and effective grading system, but the task to move towards standards-based grading is quite daunting.
 
The purpose of this post is to offer you some suggestions on where to begin if you are interested in adopting standards-based grading practices. When it comes to standards-based grading, two roads diverge, as Robert Frost once said. Some educators are more interested in developing standards-based report cards, while others are more interested in updating their grading practices. Therefore, you will need to choose your own adventure as you continue reading this post. Whichever road is less traveled for you, it’s important to know, though, that standards-based grading is most effective when grading practices and report cards both adopt current best practices.
 

• If you want to know where to begin with developing standards-based report cards, read Section A: Standards-Based Report Cards.
• If you want to know where to begin with revising grading practices, read Section B: Standards-Based Grading Practices.
• If you want to know where to begin with both, read Sections A and B.

 
Section A: Standards-Based Report Cards

1. Create a report card committee: There is a lot of work required to revise report cards. Assembling a team of various stakeholders (administrators, teachers, parents, students, etc…) is a must and a great way to learn from different perspectives.
2. Define your purpose: What is the ultimate purpose of your report card? Is it to report student achievement to parents or to students? Is it to provide information for students to self-evaluate their progress? Determining your purpose will keep you focused.
3. Determine your audience: Who is the report card meant for? Parents/guardians? Students? Colleges? The district?
4. Do your research: Two texts that are especially helpful are Formative Assessment and Standards-Based Grading by Robert Marzano (2010) and Developing Standards-Based Report Cards by Thomas Guskey and Jane Bailey (2010).
5. Find models: The texts listed previously offer great advice, but it’s also beneficial to seek out area districts’ report cards and/or search on the internet to find models to analyze to help you determine what you like and what you don’t like.
6. Determine which standards will be reported on: Determine which standards need to be prioritized within a curriculum and decide how you will report student progress on those standards.

 
Section B: Standards-Based Grading Practices

1. Create a grading committee: A team of various stakeholders (administrators, teachers, parents, students, etc…) should work together to determine which grading practices need to be revised within a school and ultimately make a grading policy that reflects the committee’s recommendations based on research.
2. Review curriculum: A curriculum audit is beneficial in determining which standards need to be prioritized and reported on. In addition, developing learning targets for each lesson is a crucial part of any curriculum because the grading practices need to accurately report on student achievement related to the learning targets.
3. Survey your staff: Before one can make a cultural shift by changing grading policies, it’s important to find out what grading practices are occurring in classrooms and why are those grading practices being implemented.
4. Determine which aspects of grading need to be examined: Grading has many components. Some areas you may want to explore are:
   1. Late work
   2. Homework
   3. Percentages vs. proficiency scales
   4. Teacher grade books
   5. Retakes
   6. Habits of Work (effort, participation, attendance, etc…)
   7. Extra Credit
   8. Giving zeroes
   9. Formative assessment practices
5. Research the current best practices regarding the topics above: Rick Wormeli, Robert Marzano, Myron Dueck, Thomas Guskey, Ken O’Connor, and Cathy Vatterott are all leading experts and proponents of standards-based grading.

 
Developing a standards-based grading system does not occur over night, but with thoughtful implementation and a commitment to best practice, students can be a part of a fair grading system that accurately reports on their ability and achievement.
 
Note: On March 9th, we will be having another workshop on standards-based grading. This would be a great opportunity to connect with other districts who are currently exploring and/or implementing standards-based grading practices. Click here for more information: http://register.caboces.org/seminar/view/324?workshop_id=100

By: Brenden Keiser, CA BOCES Professional Development

This past November was an exciting month where teachers from Cuba-Rushford and CABOCES, Linda Botens and Justine Lombardi respectively, alongside Betsy Hardy, Staff Specialist for Distance Learning at CABOCES and this year’s presenter at iNACOL, delivered a gripping presentation about developing digital portfolios in the classroom. The room was filled to capacity and the audience was spilling out into the hallway to hear about the possibilities for using digital portfolios in the classroom. 
 
In their presentation, “The Paper Extinction and the Rise of the ePortfolio,” Linda, Justine, and Betsy showed multiple examples of students’ work throughout the years that allowed students to show off their talents to prospective colleges and employers and explore new talents that some students might have otherwise been too shy to share.
 
Linda Botens shared one of her public speaking student’s forays into product endorsement and advertising.  Normally, this student is shy, but when given the option to express herself on video, her dramatic personality had the opportunity to be shared with her teacher and peers.
 
Justine shared her uses of e-portfolios in her online Mythology and Folklore class and World Religions class that she teaches every year as elective options. In her classes, students share papers and projects, alongside art and presentations and have a way to group them all together and share with both teachers and peers.  Justine also shared the uses of e-portfolios in the CTE classroom where students working on welding projects can photograph their talents and share them along with pictures of their earned certifications and share with their future employers. 

By:  Christina McGee, CA BOCES Learning Resources

Advancing STEM Challenges are designed to bring engineering and design to your classroom in a simple, easy-to-implement, challenge-based way.  Modify our Advancing STEM Challenges for your classroom. 

Challenge
Did you know snowflakes generally are hexagonal structures because of the chemical bonding that occurs within the water as it freezes? or that each snowflake is unique? Do you know what kind of snowflake falls the fastest or slowest through the air? Your job is to find out this last question! The task is to design a prototype snowflake using paper and scissors. Once you've built your snowflake prototype, you can test it out by dropping it from different heights and using a stopwatch to time which design falls the fastest or slowest.

Your snowflake design does have some criteria and constraints. Every snowflake created has to be from the same origami template (see step-by-step instructions with pictures here: http://www.origamiway.com/how-to-make-paper-snowflakes.shtml). There has to be a 1cm border on the top and bottom that cannot be cut. At least three areas have to be cut out from the template. The snowflake should be dropped from the same height every time, held open with two hands, and held horizontal (flat) to the floor for fair trials. You and your group should try to design a snowflake following these guidelines that falls the fastest or slowest.

Materials

• square pieces of paper
• scissors
• stopwatches

​
Hints and Tips for Success

1. Allow students planning and discussion time by having them experiment with a sample to see how cuts shape and design the outcome.
2. After experimenting, allow student groups to plan their final design. Warn students that the final template will be the only one given for their design.
3. For differentiation, adjust the size of the paper squares, type of paper, size of the borders, height of the drop, number of areas cut out, or only focus on one challenge (fastest or slowest). Adjustments could be made to make it more challenging or simpler.
4. Have an origami template ready for each group with borders already marked.
5. Connect to mathematics by having students identifying shapes, graph their snowflake drop trials, practice reading and writing decimal numbers, adding/subtracting decimals, and ordering decimals.
6. Connect to ELA by using the text, Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin, to introduce and provide background knowledge on the structure and uniqueness of snowflakes. Students could also practice sequencing with the book or create a timeline of Wilson “Snowflake” Bentley’s life.

Working on a team of about 15 people, students work to find clues and solve puzzles in an effort to “breakout” of a locked box during the 45-minute challenge. The clues came in many forms: digitally with QR codes and email, entangled in art, knotted ropes, videos, and some even hidden under black light. One clue leads to another and the excitement in the room is tangible as participants try to make sense of what information they uncover. And then, they beak out.  Along the way, students learn about the history of communication.

Inspired by this though-provoking approach to teaching and learning, regional educators were introduced to the game-based learning approach at the second session of New Teacher Academy on December 1st. 

Considering the application of BreakoutEDU in the classroom, teachers were excited about how well it promotes cooperative learning and students working together towards a common goal. Within the challenges, students can take roles that suit their learning styles. The most exciting part is that through the studying of clues and trying to figure out the puzzle, learning happens organically, without teacher led discussion.

BreakoutEDU is an excellent way to generate student interest and knowledge about a topic or to demonstrate and apply skills they’ve just learned in the classroom. There are hundreds of game options available across every content area.

Video on BreakoutEDU

For more information about BreakoutEDU, please visit their website.  Want to see if your students can breakout? Contact Learning Resources today! CA BOCES has 5 BreakoutEDU kits available.

​By: Sarah Wittmeyer and Shannon Dodson, CA BOCES Professional Development

Cattaraugus and Allegany County classrooms have reached an all-time high traveling virtually across the globe.  Since the start of school 2,592 students have experienced opportunities to gain real world knowledge of various cultures from around the world.  Historically, December Virtual Field Trips average 20 connections, but this year, Santa came to our region and brought our total to 103 trips in 3 weeks!

​CA BOCES sends monthly trip highlights out to your Curriculum Coordinators, Tech Integrators, and Principals, so keep an eye out for these exciting opportunities. Some of these opportunities included National Distance Learning Week that was held November 7-11 in conjunction with the NYS Distance Learning Consortium. National DL Week allowed districts across the region to experience fee-based trips for free so that districts who had never seen a virtual field trip before could take part in this event. We expanded on these meaningful experiences at the NYS Middle School Association by showing districts how easy it was to connect to Ghana, Africa. 

What better way to develop communication skills with students helping them to express their ideas culturally and academically through media sources.  Students have opportunities to engage in collaborative discussions on curriculum topics, contrast cultural differences, and build language and logic to address details in directions. Below are some examples of content based trips:

• Global Connections:  Africa, Alaska, England, Jerusalem
• Themed Classroom Collaborations:  Monster Match, Brown Bear, Turkey Disguises, The Mitten Project
• Zoos, Museums, Aquariums:  Buffalo Zoo, Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, Aquarium of the Pacific, Cleveland Museum of Natural Science/History
• Curriculum-based Connections:  Discovery Center of Springfield, Center for Puppetry Arts, LearnCo, Football Hall of Fame,
• Authors and Experts in the Field:  Author Brad Tassell, Cleveland Clinic, Career Connections for Nursing, Pilots, Culinary Arts, and more

Let CABOCES help you and your students take your next field trip virtually.  All you need to do is click on the link below to see what’s on the calendar for upcoming trips: 
http://www.caboces.org/iss/distance-learning/virtual-field-trips
Or to search for your own classroom topic, you can do a keyword search and see the hundreds of trips available by clicking on this link:
https://projects.twice.cc/vcpd/searchprogram.php
 
Or, to let us search for a trip for you!  All you have to do is click on this link, and we will take of the rest.  You will just need to fill out the request form and we will arrange to take your students around the world, into space, or even back in time! 
 
http://www.caboces.org/iss/distance-learning/virtual-field-tripcollaboration-request-form
           
If you would like to learn more about virtual learning experiences, please contact Carrie Oliver at 716-376-8270 or Betsy Hardy at 716-376-8281 for more information.  The opportunities are endless.  

By:  Betsy Hardy, CA BOCES Learning Resources

3,853 Overdrive eBooks checked out
 
1657 resources shared through interlibrary loan
 
22 workshops to support professional development for school librarians
 
405 Library System deliveries each month
 
229 databases purchased managed
 
Filled 33 requests for 1 Foundation (American Museum of Natural History), 1 State Library (New Jersey), 2 major academic research libraries, 6 academic libraries, and 15 public libraries
 
Requests from 16 states to borrow library resources
 
2,592 miles of postal service to lend 1 book

Whether a student is suspended, sent to the office, or disrupting a lesson, valuable class time is missed by the student and those affected by their actions. Research shows traditional ways of discipline are proving to be ineffective and even pushing students into the prison pipeline. Restorative Practice supports school districts by creating healthy, equitable, caring school communities by preventing and addressing behavioral disruption in a non-punitive way that supports accountability and healing.
 
In June of 2016, both Deb Golly and Melanie Kerns CA BOCES Special Education Supervisors attended the Restorative Practice Summit facilitated by the WNY Restorative Practices Team. This training provided an understanding of the power of using restorative practice in the educational setting. Guest speakers included Dr. Tom Cavanagh, researcher for Restorative Practice in Education, Ian Grugan, Criminal Justice Program Representative, Office of Juvenile Justice, Brian McLaughlin, Commissioner, Erie County Department of Probation, and Lori DeCarlo, Superintendent for Randolph Academy. Throughout this workshop participants had an opportunity to expand their knowledge in regards to building a culture of community in schools, participate in circle experiences, and gain a better understanding of restorative practice conferencing.
 
As the school year began, both Deb Golly and Melanie Kerns decided that it would be best practice to utilize this approach in both the Olean and Pioneer CA BOCES special education classrooms. On August 31st CA BOCES Special Education staff from both locations participated in a full day training to learn more about utilizing restorative practices in their settings. This training opportunity provided staff with an approach to proactively build positive school communities, an in depth understanding of the research behind restorative practice, and gaining an understanding of the spectrum behind restorative practices by providing a starting place for classroom level implementation. Staff had the opportunity to participate in experiential activities and break-out sessions that provided in depth discussion of the practice and opportunities for leadership practices through role play scenarios.
 
In order to dig deeper into Restorative Practice implementation with the CA BOCES Special Education staff both Deb and Melanie have established additional training and support for teachers throughout the 2016-17 school year. 

By:  Jillian Putnam, CA BOCES Professional Development