Self-determination

Today I asked my Grade 10 class to write their own rubric for the creative assignments I had given them.  I gave them an example, explained our new grading policy of Mastery (A), Proficient (B), Competent (C) and Partially Competent (D), explained how Proficient is being able to tick all the boxes but Mastery has a special something that lifts it above the proficient and they have to define what that special something is and said, "OK, you guys have handed in tons of assignments before, I think you know what makes top quality work and what doesn't.  Go into groups based on the assignment you chose and put together a rubric".  I was really impressed by the collaboration I saw and the results.
I had decided that if they couldn't come up with a good rubric I would use it anyway and then we could ask the questions, "What is wrong with this?  What are we really looking for?"
The thing I took away with me, though, was one girl who could not believe I would use the rubric they designed.  She asked, "Will you really use this?  You won't change it in anyway?" in several different ways. I assured her I would and even wrote the rubric into a google doc while she watched, ready to use next week.  But, how sad that she would think I would waste their time by designing a rubric and then discount it. 

Grading the book study

My class and I had a very interesting discussion today about whether I should grade the book groups.  They were split about half and half as to whether they wanted it graded so we moved on to how to grade.  We opened a Google doc and one of the guys typed the ideas that came up.  It became an animated discussion as we gradually moved to what would be graded.  I want to make sure they have read the book, but not just to have got it done but to have engaged with it as well.  I was trying to emphasise that it wasn't the level of understanding I was interested in but the personal interaction with the novel.  One student couldn't handle this and one of his hang-ups was the fear that he would be graded by comparing his understanding to another student's understanding (I assured him this wouldn't happen).
Overall, this was a useful exercise as it made my students reflect on what and why they were reading the novel; what the grade was being given for and gave them ownership of the grading.