The Socratic Seminar | Assessment | Grading | Student Notebooks | Part Three
In my previous two Socratic Seminar in Middle School and Upper Elementary I outlined the how and the why of seminars. I tend to get a lot of questions about the assessment, grading, and notebook aspect of the Socratic Seminar so that’s what this is. Click the post titles to read Part One (The Socratic Seminar for Students Discussions in Middle School and Upper Elementary Classroom) and Part Two
USING THE SOCRATIC SEMINAR WITH NOVELS
In my Socratic Seminar with Novels Blog Post (part two of this series) I showed examples of students reading responses from our reading units. I was careful to point out that I am not spending our novel unit working in reading comprehension. That means that there aren’t any comprehension tests or quizzes throughout the units. That was very intentional on my part because that is not the goal of these reading units. Like I said before, the goal is to use the Socratic Seminar and Interpretive questions to encourage student discussions.
That being said, most schools I’ve been to do require grades. Also, students are writing a lot of reading responses, but those aren’t easy or quick to grade. However, I have been doing this model for about seven years now, and I have learned a lot about grading. I can pretty much get all my students’ responses graded in a single class period.
GRADING ALL STUDENT WORK DURING CLASS
Yes, I’m still talking to you English teachers. It can be done.
Okay, so how do I do this? I promise it’s actually not that hard, and yes I have pretty normal class sizes. My six different classes ELA classes have about 24 students, so in total I have about 150ish students.
I think it’s easiest to just give you like a step-by-step of how it looks when I give an assignment and then grade it right there in class. Kind of like a script, if you will.
USING RUBRICS TO ASSESS STUDENT READING RESPONSES
When I first started grading these reading responses, I was using reading response rubrics. I don’t use these all the time, but I do use them when I want to grade a bunch of responses at once. I also use them when I want to grade specific standards.
When I taught fifth grade, and only had 24 students, and would grade their notebooks about every two weeks. I would simply collect their notebooks and use my generic reading response rubric to grade 6-8 responses at at time.
I made them editable so that I can delete the rows or columns that I don’t want to assess that day. There are multiple rubrics included now because over the years I have made more and more based on what I’ve realized I’ve wanted to assess my students.
Sometimes I want to just grade for text evidence. Other times I am looking for evidence, their ability to write argumentatively, and on spelling. I use the mixture rubric the most (pictured above, but sometimes I am very specific and us on of the other one).
Depending on how many points I want the assignment to be worth, I will assign points for each category. Then I can quickly fill in how many they got on each section and give them a total points grade. I sometimes ask students to go write their strength and goal on the lines, or if I do take extra time to grade a response, I will write what their strengths and goals are.
GRADE LEVEL EDITABLE RUBRICS
- MIDDLE SCHOOL EDITABLE READING RESPONSE RUBRICS
- SIXTH GRADE EDITABLE READING RESPONSE RUBRICS
- FIFTH GRADE EDITABLE READING RESPONSE RUBRICS
- FOURTH GRADE EDITABLE READING RESPONSE RUBRICS
- EIGHTH GRADE EDITABLE LITERATURE RUBRICS
- SEVENTH GRADE EDITABLE LITERATURE RUBRICS
- SIXTH GRADE EDITABLE LITERATURE RUBRICS
HOW TO GIVE FEEDBACK TO ALL OF YOUR STUDENTS IN ONE CLASS PERIOD
- This works with almost any type of reading and reading response. Whether, we have just done a read aloud, a whole class novel, a short story, a poem, an excerpt, books clubs, literature circles… whatever. If they have read something, and you want to assess their writing and their analysis/reading response, this strategy works.
- After we have read or students come to class having read the night before, I am looking to assess them. I am usually focused on a specific type of literature or informational concept we’re learning.
- I also still focus on giving them feedback on their writing and analysis of the text.
- Then I remind them of the interpretive question. Example from Freak the Mighty: “Write 3/4 of a page to one page. What lessons can we learn from Freak and Max in this chapter? How does the author teach us these lessons? I just display the slides while they are writing.
SETTING STUDENTS UP TO COMPLETE THEIR WORK IN CLASS
- This is where you have to set it up so they can get it done and you can get them all graded in class.
- I have a 65 minute class period (but I used to have 55 and still did this).
- In 7th grade I expect them to be able to write 3/4 of a page in 20 minutes. I expect at least one page from my 8th graders in this same amount of time.
- BUT I do give them and myself some cushion time because we read for the last 15-20 minutes of every single one of my ELA class periods.
- I will say, “You have 20-25 minutes to write your response. When you’re done, bring it to me and I will grade it. If it is not acceptable, I will ask that you go back and adjust until it is. When you have been graded by me, then you may read silently.”
- They have 20-25 minutes, but really, they have 35-40 because I am including that reading time. So if they do’t get done in the original time, or I send them back, it gives them that time to write and it also creates more time for me to grade.
ADAPTING GRADING FOR STUDENTS NEEDS AND BEHAVIORS
- Some students finish quality work in 10-15 minutes time. When they’re done, they come up to me and I grade it. The first students done are usually the strongest or the laziest writers (just keeping it real). I can quickly read the strong writers’ responses. Once you get good at it, you know to just look for them restating the question, their actual answer, and proof of evidence.
- My lazier writers tend to be “done” quickly too (or at least think they’re done). These students often don’t have text evidence (because it requires to much effort) so I automatically look for it, then tell them to go back and provide evidence for their answer. (I have modeled how to do this, so they’re not blindly trying to figure it out, but if they still struggle, I ask other students if they’re willing to help them do it correctly).
- Then students just slowly trickle up to me and form short lines to be graded. I can give them immediate feedback verbally:
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- Read more about: Middle School ELA Assessment, Middle School Reading, Middle School Writing, Socratic Seminar
