I enjoyed the two day conference in Sturbridge a great deal. Thanks Rick, and NELMS! I wonder if this is the forum for asking for a digital copy of the Power Point presentation. There are several teachers interested in the information at Bow Memorial School. Thanks! I hope to hear from you soon.
Donna

Hi Everyone! Welcome to the discussion. If you want the PowerPoint slides, contact NELMS directly. They said they would send them out to anyone who'd like them. Steve, is there a contact person for this? If you have any trouble getting these, I can send them out as well. The problem in using me, however, is that I'm often on the road and may be working with a fickle ISP that doesn't allow me access or to send attachments.

In the meantime, how's it going with implementing the ideas? Maybe you've only thought about the principles while in shower or driving to and from school, but have you drawn any conclusions yet? Have you changed anything in your planning process? Explained any of the ideas to colleagues? Come up with more specific questions? I'm up for the conversation when you are.

Thanks for giving it some thought. -- Rick

Thanks so much, Rick, for being here. We've been on long weekend, with a diversity in-service today (plus I had NELMS Tech Committee on Saturday), so not a lot of implementation yet. But I think my first step at a personal level needs to be improving my ability to pre-assess and truly *use* the information I gather. At a school level, we are already in a discussion about changing our report card, with all the attendant issues around assessment. I need to think about how best to share more of Rick's ideas with our faculty, to keep us on our toes and focused on students.
Take care,
Bill

That's a good point, Bill -- report card revision. If everyone recalls, we talked about the fact that schools may have to implement differentiated instruction strategies at the same time as they revise their report card. Not every DI thinker/author agrees with me on this, but I've worked in multiple school settings where it's a much greater struggle to implement DI when the gradebook and report card do not allow teachers to report what's happening in their classrooms accurately. Remember that the foremost reason for grades and grading is to communicate clearly. Many teachers' response to new DI strategies with, "'Nice idea, but what happens when it comes to grading students?" because they feel that the gradebook and report card formats denies (prevents?) differentiation, especially when accountability is such a high-pressure issue these days. As we explore this concern, we're really talking about cultural change.

-- Rick

I agree that report card revision is closely linked to the Differentiation process, but the reality in our district is that DI is being strongly encouraged and supported (which is terrific), but the report card revision, while under discussion, lags behind. Rick made a compelling argument at the conference to switch to a standards based report card- but that may take a year or two to accomplish. This is a little like a chiken-egg dilema, but we are marching forward despite the report card situation. Our teachers are looking at weighting grades as a first step toward addressing the problem. I will encourage them to join the discussion so they can ask their questions firsthand. Thank you for this wonderful resource.

Thanks so much for being a part of this discussion group, Rick. I really enjoyed the conference! Thanks.
As far as revising the report card process along with the DI...I worked in a district that overhauled the report cards for the elementary school (k-6) to the standards based type that you spoke about (which really does work nicely to better inform parents and students of their individual strengths and struggles, by the way), but the biggest argument for not carrying this process to the seventh and eighth grades was sheer numbers of students. The elementary teachers were responsible for anywhere from 18-48 students depending on the grade level. The seventh and eighth grade teachers were responsible for 108 students per grade level. The DI process was implimented within the middle school, and the teachers were definitely discouraged with the inconsistencies between the grade reporting and the good teaching methodologies that the DI offered. Do you have any information/research on implementing a standards based report card with higher numbers of students? Just curious. Thanks again.

Hello everyone.

Regarding the handouts from this conference. You will find three Adobe reader files under the link for this group. This is the handout.

If you have any problems with accessing this handout, please feel free to send me an email (kwilmarth@nelms.org) and I will be happy to send the Adobe files to you as an attachment.

I'm wondering what people are hearing back as they talk to others. I know I caused a jaw to literally drop (one of my friends, a parent of teenagers) when describing ideas on turning assessment into report cards. Her comment was that the new format was *REALLY* comprehensive. (By the way, our proposal, in its current form, uses the sliding scale for different standards format, combined with separate indicators for citizenship, effort, participation, and a written comment explaining about the standards in more detail and indicating progress made.)
Take care!

On my drive home to NH, I had to wrap my mind around some stretch learning that Rick brought me to during the two day experience. Although I have been a student, practitioner, and consultant in DI, use of an anchor activity has now taken on a new meaning for me. Rick's use of the Anchor for an opportunity to conference makes a lot of sense. I know I will expand this piece in my work with schools and teachers in making DI more manageable to the classroom teacher.
For NH folks, high schools will now have to give credit for courses based on mastery of competencies so there is already a lot of talk and work to go to a transcript/report card of standards based competency work. NH middle schools could draft on this new school approval rule at the high school level to begin the discussion of a standards based report card at the middle level.
Another entry point into a standards based approach is to systemically introduce it in the first year of schooling after the anecdotal report switches to regular grading-possible third or fourth grade. It is a great opportunity to introduce parents to a new paradigm and can be introduced to the teachers over time. It will take longer to get there but may garner more understanding and support along the way.
Be well--Rose

Edited by author 02-07-2008 07:17 PM
Hi Rick,
I also attended the conference on DI and thought it was great!!! You have great energy and believe in what you promote in the educational arena. What DI strategies do you recommend for the teachers of special areas. I teach grades 6-8 in the Tech. Ed./IA curriculum. I am doing manufacturing and production with students grades 6-8. I am looking to introduce communications technology with an emphasis on podcasting,video production, and graphic layout. I am mainly focused on a "hands-on" approach to learning. I have found my students successful at this type of instruction. I look forward to hearing from you and anyone else who has any suggestions that attended this conference. This was the best conference that I have attended in the last 10 years!!!!!

Hey Mike -- Thanks for writing. To be honest, there's really no limit to what you can do. You can differentiate informally or formally. For example, you can stop by a student's table and do a quick informal assessment of how he or she is doing, then respond according to what they need -- affirming proficiency, correcting improper technique, providing an additional tool the student needs, asking the student to add another aspect to the product to increase the complexity or challenge, or any of the other ideas we discussed at the seminar. Your question is a really important one because it allows me to remind folks that there is no one set of differentiation ideas for any one subject. They are all universal: we scaffold for students in every subject, we use flexible grouping in every subject, we increase complexity in every subject, we provide additional time, resources, and examples in every subject. So, if you want to get specific with a Tech differentiation question, then give us a specific learning situation and we'll brainstorm some options with you.

Just to get the juices flowing, what are your objectives for students in any one of the topics you list below -- podcasting, graphic communications, and video production? And are you thinking you need to modify content, process, or product, and what can you tell us about your students that makes you think this way? We can only differentiate if we know these aspects.
Thanks again, Mike! We look forward to hearing from you. -- Rick
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Hi Lori -- I agree that at first it seems overwhelming. The thing is, a standards-based report is doable and it's done well in a lot of places. If we don't move that direction, we're declaring that we really don't care about doing what's ethical and supports good pedagogy. The "How?" has overtaken the "Why?" as some might put it, and we don't progress. Ken O'Connor, Robert Marzano, and Tom Guskey have gathered the most research and clear examples of the standards-based report card, with Ken O'Connor being the most user friendly for cautious teachers, I believe. I'd check out their books, listed in the back of the handout. -- Rick Wormeli
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