Is Extra Credit a Viable Teaching Tool?

Does your school require you to give extra credit to students who don’t get the grades they expected?  Do you wonder how to make extra credit a viable teaching tool without creating unnecessary work for yourself?  Then my post on extra credit is for you!

Many schools are moving toward a “no fail” policy for students.  In response, teachers are turning to creative ways to help students learn the material. One such way is extra credit. 

First, I’d like to look at the pros and cons.

Pros

If a student wants to show mastery of the content in a way other than a test, you might want to consider it on a case by case basis, but it would have to be something meaningful.  I talk more about that in the "Things to Consider" section below.

Cons

If you already do the following, it might pad a student's grade too much if you add extra credit on to those activities:
Test corrections for partial credit
Extended time to complete assignments with no penalty

Things to consider before allowing students to use extra credit:

Is it meaningful?  In other words: 
Does it align to the standards you are teaching?
Could it take the place of a classwork grade or a test grade?
Will it help a student master the subject matter?

Is the student missing work that would prepare them for completing the extra credit?
If students haven't completed homework and classwork, how will they know the information well enough to complete the extra credit?  You may want to have them complete the missing assignments and give them credit for those before assigning extra credit.

How much will it count?

10% of the grade?
Replacing a test grade?
Replacing a classwork grade?

How difficult should extra credit be?

More difficult than classwork or homework?
The same level of difficulty as those assignments?

Will it include extra curricular activities that tie into what you are teaching?

For example, if a family goes to a museum, could a student present orally or in writing what they learned?  What about family vacations?
Can students play online games and take screen shots to show they have mastered the information for extra credit?
Can a student use a study guide they created to take or retake a test for extra credit?


What's your stance on extra credit?  I could always use a fresh perspective!

Grading Smarter Not Harder Series: Technology

Are you looking for an easier way to grade that accurately reflects the student’s knowledge?  Would you like to streamline the process with technology?  Then this post is for you!


This is the fifth, and final, post of the series based on the book Grading Smarter Not Harder by Myron Dueck.  If you missed them, make sure you read:
Grading Smarter Not Harder: Overview
Grading Smarter Not Harder: Homework
Grading Smarter Not Harder Series: Retesting and a FREEBIE

Grading Smarter Not Harder Series: Grading Creative Projects

In this post, I am focusing on using technology to engage and assess students.


Reasons to use technology in the classroom:

Reason #1: It speaks students' language.
They are already using their phones to take and share pictures. Why not make that an educational experience?

Reason #2: Students think more critically when they are in their own environment.
They are going to be more willing to learn when they have prior knowledge.  Asking them to go out into their community or home to gather information increases their comfort level. 

What are some ways to use technology for learning and assessments?

Digital Photos

Have students collect photos that demonstrate a certain concept you are teaching and send them to you. 

For example, if we are discussing photosynthesis, students might take pictures of leaves in different stages of photosynthesis in the Fall (green, yellow, brown) and share them via Google Slides with captions. 

Use PowerPoint or Google Slides to Create Thought Bubbles. 

I like to find a picture of a scene we are talking about that day and add blank thought bubbles and have the students fill in what they think is going on in their minds in the picture. It adds some humor to the lesson!

Videos

Edpuzzle
Reasons EdPuzzle is a great tech resource: 

• You can use any YouTube video and build a quiz into it. 
• You can use the cut tool to snip any unwanted parts from the video. 
• You can use multiple choice and free-response type questions.  
• You can connect it to Google Classroom for easy/automatic assessment.
• Multiple choice questions are graded automatically. 
• Depending on your county's internet security measures, putting a YouTube video in EdPuzzle will sometimes circumvent the problem of blocked YouTube videos. 
• If students fail the assessment, they can reset and watch it again.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Students can not edit their responses.
• Students need to watch the video until the end or it will not show up as complete.  
• If you have multiple “correct answers” students must select all to get it “correct”.  A way to fix this is to give any opinion questions a short-answer format.
• Short-Answer questions are not automatically graded.  The teacher must read through those.

WatchKnowLearn

Since these videos are uploaded by educators, they have already been scrutinized for things like educational content and video quality.  You can search through the thousands of videos by subject, grade level, and age.

Apps/Websites

Coach’s Eye

Recommended by Dueck, this website allows students to capture photos and videos and then use slow motion, arrows, lines, and commentary to analyze them, much like a sports caster or meteorologist would.  They can email or share these commentaries with the teacher for immediate feedback or give classroom presentations. 

Hudl

Another website recommended by Dueck, this one allows “users to capture good examples against which students can compare their own work (e.g., speeches by Martin Luther King Jr. for a unit on public speaking).”  This can also be sent electronically for feedback/grading. 

Grading

Grade these photos, videos, and online assignments based on a rubric, which you would hand out before the assignment and/or post online. The rubric assigns point values for finding and representing specific concepts, such as key vocabulary, and can include additional questions to be answered or textbook pages to reference for help. 

Online Document Management Systems

There are several reasons to use these:

They give immediate feedback/grades, which can be used to plan future instruction. No more waiting for days after giving an assessment to grade it and then figure out if you need to reteach information. 

These systems quickly and accurately measure and compare the results. 

Students often have their own devices on which they can take these assessments. 

Google Docs  

Teachers create formative assessments with multiple formats (multiple-choice, essay, true/false, etc.) and students access the assessments when the teacher shares the web link with them. 

Edmodo 

This website allows teachers to create online multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank assessments and grades the test as soon as students finish it. 

Which of these technologies are you currently using or plan to use in your classroom?  I'd love to hear all about it!

Grading Smarter Not Harder Series: Grading Creative Projects

Are you looking for an easier way to grade creative projects?  Do you want to assign a grade to these projects that accurately reflects the student’s knowledge?  Then this post is for you!

This is the fourth post of the series based on the book Grading Smarter Not Harder by Myron Dueck.  If you missed them, make sure you read:
Grading Smarter Not Harder: Overview
Grading Smarter Not Harder: Homework
Grading Smarter Not Harder Series: Retesting and a FREEBIE

Today’s topic is grading creative projects. I used to cringe when I thought of the countless hours I would spend grading the projects, not to mention the fact that I wouldn’t be able to tell if a student truly understood the concepts until after they turned in the final draft. 

The take-away concept from the book is this:  Students learn more when they know what the end expectation is. 

Actionable Tip:  Provide students with the following things at the beginning of a unit, chapter, or project:

• Rubrics
• Study guides
• Unit outlines / syllabi 
• Goal statements

I use Choice Boards like the one below as the goal statement, outline, and grading sheet. Once I started doing this, life became so much easier. 

With this one sheet, the student knows what is expected (how to get an A with the points), can choose how they want to demonstrate their knowledge, and I grade the project as it progresses so that we are both invested in making it the best it can be.

You can learn more about how I use Choice Boards for differentiating instruction in this post.


Be sure to join me next week for my final post of the series: Using technology to Grade Smarter Not Harder!

Grading Smarter Not Harder Series: Retesting and a FREEBIE

Have you been searching for a way to motivate even the most resistant students to complete their work?  How about ways to lessen your grading load and make the process quicker?  If so, this is the series of blog posts for you!

This is the third post of the series based on the book Grading Smarter Not Harder by Myron Dueck.  If you missed them, make sure you read:
Grading Smarter Not Harder: Overview
Grading Smarter Not Harder: Homework

In this post, I wanted to focus on one main concept:  We can close the achievement gap with retesting. Why?  Because students learn more from correcting their mistakes (test corrections or retakes) and they retain the information longer. 

Here are the steps to take to maximize the effectiveness of retesting:

1.  Have the student fill out a test tracking sheet.  

A crucial part of the tracking sheet is to have them think about what they will do to prepare for the retest.  Taking another test without doing any new preparation for it is a waste of time and energy. 

I created a FREE "Request to Retest" resource for this purpose. CLICK HERE to download this FREEBIE. 

2.  Choose whether the student needs to retake the original test in its entirety, only the parts they got wrong, or an entirely new test.  

3.  Decide whether the retest will count for whole or partial points. 

Things to consider before implementing retesting:

Will you offer it to ALL students, regardless of how high they scored on the test?  

What about students scoring an A?

Will you allow retesting on quizzes?

Will you allow oral quizzing?

In this alternative to paper-pencil tests, students can use any resources they want to correct their answers. When they have the new answer, they come up to the teacher to explain their evidence. Teachers can then ask other questions to see if students really have a better understanding.

How will you deter students from not preparing for the initial test just because they know they can retest?

• Let students know that they can reduce the amount if work and preparation if they fully prepare for the first test. 
• Change the format of the retest so that the initial test is more user-friendly. For example, the original test might be multiple-choice, while the retest is fill-in-the-blank or short answer.  
• Average the two test grades together.  
• Alternatively, you can keep the higher of the two scores. This is especially useful when you're giving a different testing format on the second test. Sometimes it's the format, not the knowledge, that throws a student off.
• Use the “I Know I am Close” multiple choice testing format. 
• This allows students to choose two answers from the choices provided on the test and still get credit as long as one of them is correct. The catch:  The student must provide an explanation of why their choices were “close”.  Dueck recommends limiting this type of option to five questions per test and reminding students that they will receive either full, half, or no points depending on the extent of their explanation.  This approach can also be used to differentiate for special needs, such as ESL and nervous test-takers. 

Be sure to join me next week for my post on Grading Creative Projects!

Grading Smarter Not Harder Series: Homework

Have you been searching for a way to motivate even the most resistant students to complete their work?  How about ways to lessen your grading load and make the process quicker?  If so, this is the series of blog posts for you!

This is the second post of the series based on the book Grading Smarter Not Harder by Myron Dueck. 

If you missed the first post, which highlights the main ideas and possible solutions in the book, please read it by clicking here.

There are so many great suggestions in this book.  In this second post, I wanted to focus on motivating students to complete homework and how to lessen the grading workload for teachers.


First, I'd like to share my own hard-learned lessons about students' homework completion:  

Don’t take it personally if students don’t complete their homework on time.
It often comes down to home life, ability, and yes, motivation. If home life and ability prevent homework completion, then we must provide the motivation at school. 

Don’t assume a zero is “teaching the student a lesson”.
The goal is to get the student to complete it and be enriched by the experience. A zero in the grade book isn’t achieving either of those things. 

Most students want to make their teachers happy, even if they don’t complete their homework. So giving punishments or shaming them for not completing it only stresses both parties out. 

Now, here are the great ideas for homework motivation from Grading Smarter Not Harder:

1.  Offer homework-completion time before or after school. 

2.  Cross-Age Mentoring:  
This support is done within the school. It pairs older students with younger/struggling ones to help with assignment completion. 

3.  Grade level teacher group support:  
This can be a "lunch bunch" during which the teacher(s) manage a homework-completion group one day a week. Make a simple rotation schedule so students know which subject is available on which day of the week. I.e., math with Ms. Myers on Monday. 

4.  In-school suspension to get help from teachers. 

This can include an established homework-completion room during lunch. 

5.  Free tutoring from students needing community hours.  
In my area, the Key Club high school students tutor at the library each week. 


Be sure to come back next week to read my post on closing the achievement gap with retesting!

Grading Smarter Not Harder Series

Have you been searching for a way to motivate even the most resistant students to complete their work?  How about ways to lessen your grading load and make the process quicker?  If so, this is the series of blog posts for you!

This is the first post of the series based on the book Grading Smarter Not Harder by Myron Dueck.

There are so many great suggestions in this book.  In this first post, I just wanted to give a summary of all those suggestions and some actionable tips.

Some ideas in the book that really got me thinking:

Idea #1: Assignments that are late or not turned in on time should not automatically receive a score reduction or zero. 

The chronic procrastinators and students who happily take the zero over doing the work are the students who need to complete the work. They have missed so many learning opportunities because (if we're being honest) it's easier for them not do the work and it's less work for the teacher to give a zero. 

Actionable Tip:  Give a time "span" in which something is due. 

I.e., If next Friday is the due date, students can turn it in "early" on Wednesday. Watch positive peer pressure kick in when you compliment the early-finishers. Alternatively, you could offer extra credit for turning it in early. 

Idea #2:  Students shouldn't receive a grade on their report card if they have not completed all/most of the assigned work for that time period.

Actionable Tip: Students should receive an "Incomplete" until the work has been made up.  The idea of giving an incomplete on a report card both intrigued and bothered me. I wasn't so sure my school or district would support this because they set fairly strict grading windows in which we have to enter report card grades.

Idea #3:  Students learn more when they know what the end expectation is. 

Actionable Tip:  Provide students with the following things at the beginning of a unit, chapter, or project:

• Rubrics
• Study guides
• Unit outlines / syllabi 
• Goal statements

Idea #4:  We can close the achievement gap with retesting. 

Actionable Tip:  Students learn more from correcting their mistakes (test corrections or retakes) and they retain the information longer. 




Come back next week for the post on motivating students to complete homework and how the grading load can be lessened!