More important than any grade on a report card is the Learning Skills (Responsibility, Organization, Independent Work, Collaboration, Initiative, Self-Regulation).Unfortunately, these terms are often unclear and very wordy. The language when we talk about these terms is rarely student friendly and often confusing. To start the year, I handed the students a pack of stickies and had the write down all the positive and negative behaviours we might see this year. Then, we proceeded to write the learning skills on the board and sort out all our ideas and misconceptions.
Using my favourite classroom management app, ClassDojo, we have been tracking all our behaviours using positive and negative badges on the online system. Students have learned what it means to show a "Lack of Responsibilty" or be "Unorganized". They can also, show pride when they receive notice how the showed "Initiative" or "Self-Regulation". The goal is for students to be better learners. A grade doesn't tell the full story of a student, but their hard work, approach to learning and responsibility talk ore about where the students are going.
