Today’s ASCD Express featured a link to a “new voice,” Ken O’Connor, on grading for learning.
Ken is not exactly a new voice. He wrote his first grading piece for the NASSP Journal (National Association of Secondary School Principals) in 1995, and I had the great fortune to take a two-day ASCD Institute on “grading for learning” from Ken in Albuquerque, NM, in 2000.
Here is Ken’s summary of grading concepts that will help more students succeed in school.
Ken’s new 3rd edition of his comprehensive book on grading for learning is pictured above. It’s available from Assessment Training Institute (ETS) in Portland, Oregon, or Amazon.com.
Ken’s grading and assessment concepts should be part of every teacher’s toolkit.
BTW, if you’d like to see how I melded my philosophy with Ken’s principles, click here and scroll down to my grading guidelines that I wrote in 2000.
I really enjoyed meeting Ken in Hawaii a couple of springs ago. I was there for the AFL conference and I decided to really zero in on Ken and his sessions. He was very helpful and spent time with us before and after sessions. I learned a lot and I highly recommend the book.
It has changed the way I look at assessment, but what’s more it has changed the way I interact with my students. It is no longer about me “grading” them as much as it is me, as a teacher, assisting and helping them learn. A world of difference.
By: David Duez on November 23, 2009
at 8:35 pm
It has changed the way I look at assessment, but what’s more it has changed the way I interact with my students. It is no longer about me “grading” them as much as it is me, as a teacher, assisting and helping them learn. A world of difference.
By: Hugh ODonnell on November 23, 2009
at 8:56 pm
I finished reading this recommended book and published a short entry about the book on my blog:
http://wetlandstom.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/how-to-grade-for-learning-k-12-o%E2%80%99connor/
By: wetlandstom on December 13, 2009
at 10:53 pm
Tom, I would be tickled pink if every school district patron did what you did and read that book.
If you would like more background on some of the most urgent grading issues, select “grading” in the Topics frame, and go for it.
Do the same on The Science Goddess’s blog, What It’s Like On the Inside. She’s about to get a doctorate in how motivation and grading are connected.
By: Hugh ODonnell on December 13, 2009
at 11:31 pm