I've never been one to be satisfied. But I'm not really one of those 'grass is always greener' people either. The truth is I've just always known that I could do better. Be better. Try harder. Be more.
My time at All Saints Catholic School has given me the opportunity to pursue so many professional development goals. I've been allowed to be creative with my teaching, to be a risk-taker, to fail, to reflect, and to try again. But nothing changed the way I teach more than being part of a leadership team that focused on Competency Based Education based on this book.
To move towards a more competency based classroom, we took a hard look at the Iowa Common Core and began to focus on prioritizing our standards. As a first and second grade team, we decided on the standards that we thought were most important to us and to our students. This doesn't mean that we don't teach all the standards, it only means that we have chosen standards that we think require the most of our time and effort. These standards became the driving force for our instruction for the school year. The remainder of the standards still received our attention but with less emphasis.
The next step was to create a proficiency scale for each of these prioritized standards. A proficiency scale shows the steps, describers, and student behaviors observed on the road to proficiency based on a scoring scale of 1-4. A score of one refers to students who still need assistance ranging to a score of four--exceeding expectations. The proficiency scales that we created are unique to our team and to our teaching needs. Other proficiency scales you find might look different and have different score ranges.
As we started to use the scales, we realized how relevant they were to our teaching. The scales described exactly where the students were without second guessing ourselves or allowing our emotions to get in the way, for example, "But Johnny works so hard and is so on task, I'm going to give him a B instead of a C." A proficiency scale gave us a defined expectation that our team agreed upon and was the same, regardless of which classroom the student was in. Our expectations were the same. Every minute of our instruction was focused and purposeful (Using this amazing website as a resource.). Our formative and summative assessments were written to ask questions that got to the meat of the proficiency. (Check out these brilliant folks for first and second grade assessments and 'I can' statements.) I also started to share the proficiency scales with parents. They were able to see where the student was and what they needed to do to achieve proficiency.
But, not being satisfied, we realized that even our non-priority standards needed to have a proficiency scale. So we created those as well. Oh, wait and checklists to help keep track of the 'I can' statements.
But even then, there's more to explain.
As we looked at the standards, we realized that the big picture for our first and second graders was really about place value and problem solving. We started to group proficiencies together because with one we had to have the other. You will notice that these scales are grouped by a competency, or 'umbrella,' and have more than one standard attached. Some of these standards were used as 'building blocks' at the beginning of the year and lead to, what we felt, was the goal by the end of the year. What you see below is the final product.
I can't take all the credit for this work. Our principal and school board supported this work and gave us time to complete the task. Our Grant Wood AEA consultant, Jeremiah, helped us understand math so much more, did all of the recording and creating of this data while we spun 'round and 'round, and made us laugh while we did it. And the other part of the 'we' is one of my teammates and fellow bloggers, Lynn, who has been at my side, in the trenches, the whole way. We are so very proud of this work and hope it helps you get started on something we believe is great. Better. MORE.
First Grade Math
Second Grade Math
Be the change,
Mindy
#leadwithtaillights
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