RenewSteller Jan. 31, 2007 meeting
Educational Methods Discussion Group
Facilitator: Cheryl Hilmes; Recorder: Ken Varee
Nancy Harbour
Strongly support returning to the seminar process. Feels that some of that was lost with the loss of Pamela.
Is seminar lost?
Seminar last semester was great with Danielle with my daughter.
What is seminar?
Forced students to have an opinion
about this.
Meg Eggleston
Galen hasn’t had the depth of writing experience that Erin had.
Linda Childers
Explained the process with Pamela when she helped out as a facilitator
In-depth examination of pieces with a method for that examination
Deep writing
Chris Jenkins
Seminar classes are getting some help from students, but not enough.
Students learn how to disagree civilly
Student
I really enjoyed the seminar experience
Sarah Whealy
I’ve been a coach in some classes
We’ve had some great classes
Parent
What about grants to help support the program
Should we have on teacher be the person who
spearheads the
seminar program, a mentor
Assessment
What about grades? Do we need them?
Many colleges do accept students
that do not come
from graded programs.
Students
need to be more engaged in evaluating their own work.
How
do we get students to a point where they do well on standardized tests
for
college choices?
Standards
are the way to get folks to a particular body of knowledge.
Check
with teachers about whether standards are being met.
How
do we get students to be more a part of the process with regard to assessment.
More
use of rubrics would be helpful to students and would help
students with their evaluation.
The
rubrics tend to help students maintain contact with their learning
Rubrics
not used in a specific manner unless they are used in a learning
contract
Strongly in
favor of narrative grading with input from the teacher as well as
the student which tends to get the
student more interested in fixing their problems.
Waldorf
schools have an innovative approach to help students to strive to
improve
Grades are
still needed to help students expand their choices with other schools.
Some
anxiety on the part of some parents that the self-evaluation process
would lead to a mutual admiration society
instead of accurate evaluation
Ungraded programs tend to do well on
the standardized
assessments in ASD
If a
student needs to be constantly nudged, then maybe and open optional
program may not be the best program for you
and your child
Some
students leave Steller because they aren’t comfortable in this
environment
Natalie
uses writing in their math where students write about their math, which helps their processing
When you
are working, you are evaluated and if getting rid of grades, maybe the
document should be restated
Few things
in life are pass/fail
If grades
are not going away, it is important that the child be able to design
their own rubic
for
meeting the grade they are looking for
Students
need to be trained in how to design their own evaluation process for
grading
It would be
great if the elementary optional teachers could meet with the
secondary teachers to help them understand
how
to use open methods in their classes
Students
coming from non-optional schools need to have more help to make
the adjustment
to a more open philosophy
Help is available
in SDL classes from the teachers
Todd-If
students aren’t being stretched in SDL, then they need to be monitored
more closely