[English] support for yr 7-10 program

Tue Feb 15 08:09:24 EST 2011

Hi, Jenny,
The underlying philosophy is an understanding we all reached through
meetings and the actual process of looking at/combing through the VELS
document. We don¹t give grades in our reports, just S/N and of course the
standard in the relevant VELS levels. Staff work out their own rubrics, but
share frequently. S/N/ is for the amount of work/fulfilling the stated
outcomes of the units  the VELS grades report on the standard achieved
within those outcomes. Thus, someone with a ŒLOW¹ VELS level can still get
an ³S² as we see it. We place great store on reporting on work habits,
effort and improvements shown to supplement that.
We have a slightly different situation here in that we teach vertical units
rather than at horizontal year levels, so everyone is doing different
content at different times  hence the need for people to do their own
thing. However, we archive all the work on our intranet page to share. Most
of us work out of the same office, so sharing happens quite naturally in
that way, too.
Cheers,
Kathy

On 14/02/11 11:14 PM, "Jenny Gilbert" <nenifoofer at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello to both of you and thankyou for your input. It is nice to know I am not
> alone with some of the issues I am having.
>  
> Katy do you have a document of your underlying philosophy and how do you
> ensure the sharing happens? Do all teachers follow the same format or do they
> like to invent or do their own thing? Does everyone use 3 as standard?
> Do you use grades A+ - E ? on reports?and if so how are they determined? Just
> on the standard or some other way? (where C is at standard?) ?When I have used
> rubrics I do prefer the 5 column to rubistars 4?
>  
>  
> Neale 
> Like you I am focussing on writing ? some teachers have taken on the ?7 steps?
> approach they learned about least year at an inservice. I have been looking at
> 6 traits + 1 ? I do not know which might be the better approach ? but having a
> journal for writing has been our starting point. I am going to try and get
> more inservicing on teaching writing across the domain. What I am really after
> though is rubrics ? or a common format that teachers can then work from. I
> like the idea of your extracts approach. I think for us the main thing is not
> to get so bogged in a text study that everything else suffers.
>  
> Cheers
>  
> Jenny Gilbert
>  
> English Coordinator, St Joseph's College Mildura
> Blog <http://nenifoofer.edublogs.org/>
> Wiki <http://msgsresources.wikispaces.com/>
> Diigo <http://www.diigo.com/user/nenifoofer>
> Jens PLN at Live Binders <http://livebinders.com/edit?id=6500>
> Twitter - @nenifoofer
>  
>  
>  
>  
>  
> 
> From: english-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:english-bounces at edulists.com.au]
> On Behalf Of Kathy Skidmore
> Sent: Monday, 14 February 2011 12:20 PM
> To: VCE English Teachers' Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [English] support for yr 7-10 program
>  
> We did a grid, taken from the VELS document, that listed the progressions
> skill by skill. They DON?T ALWAYS OCCUR (!!!) e.g. Spelling is not mentioned
> at all levels. 
> We then decided that for each task in class we would assign a specific skill ?
> and assess on a rubric for that skill. On a 5-point rubric, 3 would be ?at
> standard? - e.g. 5.0 and the corresponding/surrounding points would match the
> surrounding VELS levels.
> If you use RUBISTAR, you get 4 levels, and I personally use 3 as ?at
> standard?, as being near the ?top? encourages the kids.
> If you want to assess a piece of work for a variety of skills or VELS strands,
> you modify accordingly, but the assessment becomes less specific.
> We devise our own rubrics, but share them, as not everyone does the same
> tasks. However, the underlying philosophy is used across all levels.
> Cheers ? hope that is clear enough!
> Kathy Skidmore,
> Wanganui Park SC
> Shepparton.
> 
> 
> On 14/02/11 12:01 PM, "Neale Baker" <NBaker at sac.vic.edu.au> wrote:
> Hi Jenny
> I would be happy to join the discussion. I am in my first year as Head of
> English and am interested in the same ideas, though I may not have much to
> offer so far...
> We are going to look at assessment sheets too as we have a million and one
> different varieties so we want to have some common ground for consistency and
> also to have the students have some idea of what we require.
> Briefly, overview we seem to handle the text analysis side of English quite
> well and preparing studenyts for writng essays. For us this year, we are
> concentrating more on writing, creatively I suppose as looking at our Y12
> results the context is the area we atre down.. We use short forms at Y7-10
> using extracts from authors as models for their own writing, poetry and prose.
> This seems to be working quite well. Studnets anecdotal feedback is quite
> positive.
> Does this help? I will check your twitter feed as well
> 
> Neale Baker
> Head of English
> Sacr? C?ur
> 172 Burke Road, Glen Iris, Australia 3146
> Phone:  613 9835 2724  FAX:  613 9885 5936
> Email: nbaker at sac.vic.edu.au
> www.sacrecoeur.vic.edu.au <http://www.sacrecoeur.vic.edu.au>
> <http://www.sacrecoeur.vic.edu.au/>
>  
> 
> 
> From: english-bounces at edulists.com.au [english-bounces at edulists.com.au] On
> Behalf Of Jenny Gilbert [nenifoofer at gmail.com]
> Sent: Saturday, 12 February 2011 8:27 AM
> To: 'VCE English Teachers' Mailing List'
> Subject: [English] support for yr 7-10 program
> 
> Hi
> 
> I know this list is for VCE but I am hopeful some people may like to share
> with me off list what goes on in year 7-10 in their schools. I am no going
> into my third year as domain leader and I have a real bee in my bonnet. I want
> to prepare a complete scope and sequence for 7-10 that clearly goves the big
> picture and determines the common ground we work from at the school level. I
> am struggling with the best way to format or lay this out ? I have seen a good
> example from NSW ? but that isn?t quite what I need since the underlying core
> standards are different from the VELS. Would you care to share such a map of
> what your school is doing?
> 
> I am also after examples of assessment sheets  ? the model we use was
> originally prepared for VELS recording and blending this with grading. Having
> used it for a number of years we are finding it is not a useful tool for
> students or their parents for lots of reasons I do not wish to into. I know
> there is no perfect beast for this ? but if you are prepared to share what
> your school does I would greatly appreciate it. I am genuinely interested in
> those of you using rubrics ? what do you have one them ? how do you ?score?
> them. There are I know thousands of examples online but most seem linked to
> everyone else?s curriculum. Finding those that specifically identify
> objectives based on VELS PP?s is something I have not succeeded at when it
> comes to seeing what others do. Any advice/example would be appreciated.
> 
> In return If you are a twitter user you will see I use #vceeng to share
> resources. Please join me. Thanks
> 
>  
> Jenny Gilbert
> 
> English Coordinator, St Joseph's College Mildura
> Blog <http://nenifoofer.edublogs.org/>
> Wiki <http://msgsresources.wikispaces.com/>
> Diigo <http://www.diigo.com/user/nenifoofer>
> Jens PLN at Live Binders <http://livebinders.com/edit?id=6500>
> Twitter - @nenifoofer
> 
>  
>  
>  
> 
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