Grades and percentages have been the mainstay of our school reporting since the industrial revolution. What we received in school as students ourselves is all we know to compare our children’s progress to. What you are not aware of is that there is so much more to seeing into your child’s learning and many different ways to let you know your child’s progress in their journey of learning in the classroom.
During the past 2 months, as a Middle School staff, we have created “Action Teams” to explore better ways of doing various aspects of our Middle School program. One of the areas that we have a team exploring is in the area of assessment and reporting to parents. When teachers write report cards, they reflect on and weigh the assessment collected and make a decision on what percentage would be most suitably reflect a student’s learning. What percentages fail to do is describe how that student got to that point. I know that our current model of reporting does not adequately portrait the good teaching and learning that I see happening in every classroom every school day here at Langley Christian School.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if teachers could give parents frequent portals of viewing into their children’s good learning on a daily basis?
Well, guess what, there is a way!
Our Action Team has been researching a new product called “Fresh Grade”. Fresh Grade is a locally BC created assessment tool which allows teachers and students to upload content (pictures, videos, audio, documents, etc) to a student portfolio. Students are able to set goals and work towards achieving them at their own pace. With more descriptive feedback and communication between the teacher and student, students achieve the required skill or concept more easily. What is even better is that this communication can be passed on to parents as well.
I get inspired when I see glimpses of change on the horizon in education. Here are a couple short clips of what a superintendent and a principal see in Fresh Grade.
A couple of teachers on this Action Team are so inspired that they are starting to use Fresh Grade for the third term this year. If you are a parent with a child in their class you may get a request to load the app. Please check out the website and let me know what you think.
