Standards Based Grading

For about two years now, I have been mulling over the idea of SBG for my special education resource level Algebra 2 classes. I have just really been struggling with implementation. We have classes of varying length (some periods are 48, others are 54) and I often feel like this is not long enough. At the same time, if I did have single skill based quizzes, the assessments would not take as long.

My main issue is when to offer re-takes. I do not have my own classroom. This really puts a damper on having students come in early or stay after school for extra help or to retake assessments.

I am currently deciding if it would be feasible to have a "quiz re-take day" once every two weeks or so, where for 15 minutes during the period, students could re-take a quiz. My issue with that becomes what if they need to retake more than one?

Also, what remediation must they complete in order to be eligible for a re-take? My students do not complete homework, so most of them would never be eligible for a re-take if I required an assignment to be completed.

Hmmm... lots of thinking to do before next school year. I would not want to begin a new grading system partway through the school year anyway.

Any suggestions for a newbie like me?

Formative! (My new favorite tech find!)

Introducing... formative... my new favorite tech resource!

I was looking at different apps or sites I have used in the past (Exit Ticket, Socrative, etc.) and saying "man, I wish these were a tad more user-friendly and math-friendly". Well, folks, enter formative. I have only been playing around with it for a few days, but I am currently in l.o.v.e.

You have two main options: (1) create a new assessment, or (2) upload an existing file.

I'm going to start with option 2, actually. Sometimes you already have a great worksheet made up and want to use it... but want to go green. My district is 1-1. Last year I felt like I was making too many copies but I did not want to recreate EVERYTHING I used all year. Well, you can upload a worksheet and have the students answer questions there. It will look something like this while you are creating it:

You can choose between four different question types/answer options:

Multiple Choice
Text
Drawing
Take Picture

Here I used "text" and "drawing". I can foresee using "take picture" in the future to have students snap a picture of their work for complicated problems that they cannot simply type their answer or equation in. Like I said... more math-friendly than Exit Ticket or Socrative.. at least so far!

When students complete the assignment, you can see live results. Not only can you designate an answer key, but you can grade them right there and then... on a scale. So if the question is worth 10 points, you can award 10 or 7 or 3 or whatever you want! SO EASY! 

Back to the beginning... option 1 is to create a new assessment. Want to create a quick exit ticket? There you go! Want to create a new quiz or assessment from scratch? There you go! You have the same answer options as above, but you get to create the question and/or prompt.

Are you in l.o.v.e. yet with Formative? Go check it out!