In the beginning, this is where I am housing much of my public materials for my advanced classes. As time goes on, I will add more materials for more classes.
There are folders for each of the different classes that I teach. Each class also has folders with documents that people can download.
Links to student public repositories are on this page.
Here is a brief explanation of competency grading. (At least how I implement it.)
The table below shows the skill levels that a student can have in various skills (also called competencies). In the beginning, students may have had some exposure to these skills or none at all, but the goal is to develop those skills to the mastery level. The level where the student can teach somebody else the skill.
| Level | |||||
| Element | 0-No Exposure - no experience or knowledge in this area |
1-Limited Skill - requires instruction and close supervision |
2-Moderately Skilled - can complete the job with limited supervision |
3-Skilled - can work independently with no supervision |
4-Highly Skilled - can teach others the skill and/or content |
Skill development comes through repetition regardless of the endeavor. Which means writing computer programs or creating digital and even physical models in the classes I teach. The more programs the student writes, the more skilled that student becomes in computer programming. The more models a student makes, the more skilled that student becomes at engineering graphics.
When we grade a student skill level based on the rubric description above, we are not saying that a student has failed when he or she has a 0 in that skill. We are merely saying that the student has not had any exposure to that skill. Or maybe that the student has not had any practice at it yet. More practice will get the student to the next skill levels. The question is how much time and practice it will take. For indeed, each individual student takes a different amount of time to acquire skills.
Unfortunately, we have a limited time to teach and assess those skills in a school environment. We must evaluate each student's progress at the end of that time, and give him or her a grade.
The competency chart is repeated below but with a twist. The twist is that the competency descriptions have been given a percentage.
| Level | |||||
| Element | 0-No Exposure - no experience or knowledge in this area |
1-Limited Skill - requires instruction and close supervision |
2-Moderately Skilled - can complete the job with limited supervision |
3-Skilled - can work independently with no supervision |
4-Highly Skilled - can teach others the skill and/or content |
| Grading Criterion | 50% | 62.5% | 75% | 87.5% | 100% |
The percentages you see are what I use in my grading. Rather, I use the points associated with the assignment/project multiplied by that percentage. And with larger projects, there are multiple elements or grading criteria that get multiplied by the percentages and those numbers get added up to form the final grade.
I have five categories for my classes. They are weighted according to the following chart:
| Class | Professionalism | Leadership | Assignments | Competency | Projects |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AP Comp Sci | 10% | 15% | 0% | 20% | 55% |
| Game & App Dev | 10% | 15% | 0% | 20% | 55% |
| Intro Comp Prog | 10% | 15% | 20% | 20% | 35% |
| Adv Arch & Engr Des (II, III, IV, V) | 10% | 15% | 0% | 20% | 55% |
| Arch & Engr Des I | 10% | 15% | 20% | 20% | 35% |
These percentages are designed to give my students the freedom to explore different ways to increase their skills, create more advanced projects, and be more creative. The percentages are also designed to be more equitable in my grading. (Read the book Grading for Equity: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms by Joe Feldman.) I have an additional requirement that Joe Feldman does not have for minimum scores. Students will get the minimum score of 50% in the competency and projects if they have done either assignments (competency) or projects (competency and project). Students who have not shown specific competence through either of these avenues will receive a 0 for that particular skill until the skill has at least been attempted.
Another note is that grades in my class are not static. In other words, students may take competency tests multiple times and will receive highest grades they achieve. I allow one edit per project grade unless the project is turned in during the lass week of the grading period.
One other note on the percentages. The competency grades for Game & App Dev and Adv Arch & Engr Des are not really 0%. They are evaluated with a portfolio. And when I implement the portfolio for my programming students, they and the advanced architectural and engineering design students will write a reflection on their competencies/skill based on the appropriate rubric and reflection document.
If you are an educator, feel free to use any of the materials that I have here. It would be great if you documented your source. (Which is why I license the repository with the MIT license.) I have surely not just created my stuff completely from my own brain, but I do not know exactly where everything come from. I do have a resources for educators section that tries to at least document some important resources that have shaped my thinking about education and learning. Or that I use in my classroom. (I repeated that below, but I may create a separate page if the section gets too long.)
I hope to have more references here in the future, but here are a few. I am not including links because I am not listing the books to advertise or promote anybody (including myself). I just want people to be aware of some of the resources I use. Either to edify myself as a teacher or that I use in my classroom.
- Grading for Equity: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms by Joe Feldman
- Building Java Programs: A Back to Basics Approach by Stuart Reges and Marty Stepp
- C# with Miyoshi by Michael T. Miyoshi