A rubric for the new year

At school, we set clear goals with students, establish clear criteria for success, and track progress with rubrics. Why don't I use this approach at home?

It's kind of funny to think about. Imagine pulling out a rubric during dinner time to score your younger children on their table manners, or pulling out a "relationship rubric" to talk to your teens about their relationships with their significant others (or to your wife about your own relationship).

But this is exactly the sort of thing we're trying to do at The Depot--using rubrics and setting goals for improving our students' noncognitive skills. We're trying to be intentional and objective about helping our students grow in important ways. Why should home be any different?


Some people really don't like rubrics at all. Maybe they feel like they are artificial. Maybe they feel like that's not how humans operate.

And maybe I don't talk about specific goals and criteria for success with my own kids when I discuss life skills with them, but maybe I should. Having clear expectations, rules, criteria for success, and feedback is essential to improvement, whether you're improving your basketball skills, your fitness, or your relationship skills.

Of course we don't want to make this all about scores or constant judgement, but using data doesn't have to be the way. It can be a powerful tool for avoiding natural cognitive biases that cloud our view of how we're actually doing. It's about being willing to look at things as they really are, and improving.


To various degrees I try to track my own stuff, like cholesterol, fitness, meditation, and reading. I recently discovered I had high cholesterol, so I started a series of experiments to see what might bring it down. I started with a baseline data point (here's our current paleo-primal winter meal plan), then I cut back on a bit saturated fats for a month. This meant skipping my coconut milk breakfast smoothies and cooking in vegetable oil instead of bacon grease. Then I got another blood test. Then I started up my old supplement regime again for a month, and retested. The results are in the figure on the right.

This month I'm drinking red wine every day. Since I saw a drop with the saturated fat reduction (the middle point on the graph), I'll kick it up a notch next month and try the Mediterranean diet (here's the tentative meal plan).


What if we had similar measurements for relationship variables and subjective well-being (actually, there are a bunch of ways we could measure these) and then came up with specific strategies to improve them?

Maybe it would look something like this: Hey, honey, how about we take this relationship test and then try something new, like going out every week, and take the test again later to see if things improve?

Or how about this: By the way, son, I've noticed you've been working towards some serious fitness and professional goals. Have you thought about setting any personal or relationship goals? Are you interested in some ideas about how you could track them?



I know there must be a balance between contentment and striving. There's a time to be content with who you are and where you are, and just be. But as long as we're talking about improvement, I know I need to be more intentional about it, whether at work or home. If there's something wrong with this approach at home, then why am I doing it at school, and if it works at school, then why am I not I doing it at home?

I don't plan on developing any relationship rubrics for myself or my kids right away, but I do plan on working towards more intentionality in helping everyone around me, including myself, improve. And maybe a little rubric for that wouldn't hurt.

Instead of a resolution, here's a rubric for the new year:

Just getting started	Developing	Meets expectations	Exceeds expectations
Bill offers to help his kids and wife establish new personal goals and tracking systems. He begins to work on a new tracking system for one of his own personal goals.	Bill offers to help his kids and wife establish new personal goals and tracking systems, and follows up with them during the year. He also establishes a new tracking system for one of his own personal goals.	Bill helps one of his kids and/or his wife establish new personal goals and tracking system, and follows through with them all year. He also establishes a new tracking system for one of his own personal goals.	Bill helps his kids and wife establish new personal goals and tracking systems, and follows through with them all year. He also establishes two new tracking systems for his own personal and relationship goals.

What if you don't like what the students tell you?

"What would you do if we were all overwhelmingly against it? Would you keep doing it this way?"

That's what a student said today after I summarized the results of the online feedback they gave me about the class. I use a flipped learning model, and most students either preferred it or at least appreciated the benefits of it--more in-class time to work problems and get one-on-one attention.

That's when this one student asked his key question: What would I have done if it hadn't come back that way, if all of them hated the flipped model?

I had to think for a minute. I said I'd make sure the data supported the same conclusion, grades, etc., and if so, then I'd have to change it.

As it turns out, my classes' scores are similar to those of the other teachers, and if anything, better than previous years (though we've changed other variables, so it's hard to tell).

But his question is so important. Student voice is really about involving them in the decision-making process, not just gathering feedback. And it's more than that: What do we do when the evidence is against our strategies or beliefs? Do we ignore the evidence, or follow it wherever it leads.

It's hard to face failure or admit we've been wrong, but it's also tremendously freeing somehow, like breaking out of a cocoon. Our delusions, masks, misconceptions and denials are like weights that keep us from something better.

So bring on the error. Bring on the failure. Bring on the evidence that shatters my pet projects, favorite notions, and cherished beliefs. Bring on change. And improvement.

Schools as open systems

Spent the day today doing some reading and writing about school culture for my school administration class. Funny, I began by wondering which of my "3 options" I could employ to make the task more tolerable, only to find by this afternoon that I'd inadvertently become interested in it. (Not sure I slipped into flow, but almost.)

A few things rolling around in my head as a result...


Gerstner's quote: "culture is not part of the game, it is the game."

Too many toxic cultures in schools these days. Maybe it's the result of a constant barrage of mandates from above, or maybe just a blame-game response to the very real challenge of educating our diverse clientèle. Either way, this has got to change, and I love the story in Deal and Peterson of Jefferson High. They brought in a consultant, and one toxic teacher stood up and asked him to leave even before he'd begun. He responded that he was thankful he had the option (implying he was better off than them for that reason). But he stayed, and proceeded to interview every one of them and compile such a dismal picture of the school that they were all forced to face the facts and embrace the need for change. We need a paradigm shift from schools as filters that serve the "good students" to schools as fires that ignite a love for learning in every student.


Deal and Peterson on school-parent relationships: "a school must be... an open system with highly permeable boundaries."

One of my dreams is that the walls of public schools will dissolve and the school will truly become bigger than the building. We live in a truly global community, and it's time our educational system reflected that. Education is not about textbooks and content curricula--it's about being human, and that means being hypersocial animals with a passionate penchant for understanding.

For too long, schools have been like factories. It's high time they became a catalyst for community. And my experience the other day in a Senior Center confirms that the community wants this as badly as we do.

A synthesis coalescing from my two years of study in this program: As a school leader, I need a streamlined system by which students, teachers, parents, and community members can rapidly and easily give me feedback and get involved in the decision-making process.

Which ties back to the above points. In order to build this kind of community, everyone needs to have a voice, and not just a voice, but a say in the decision-making process. Our systems of governance need to evolve with the world. The days of hierarchies and top-down directives belong in the dust heap of history. And today's digital technologies can facilitate this.

No grades, but lots of data

I'm really interested in the concept of the "no grades classroom" that people like Starr Sackstein (@mssackstein) and Mark Barnes are advocating. My students and I have been trying out Starr's goal-setting and self-assessment conference approach lately in biology, and though I'm still giving grades, I'd love to get rid of them.

I think replacing grades with formative feedback could go a long way toward causing a paradigm shift in our students (and teachers)--from a focus on grades and points to learning and growth.

Right now, for some students, the coursework is mostly about getting a good grade so they can get into a good college, while for others, it's just about passing. Either way, it's not about learning. It's not about autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

So getting rid of grades altogether should help. But that can't mean getting rid of data. It seems to me we need regular, quantitative performance measurements in order to assess their progress (and our instruction) objectively and improve it.

At first I thought these two goals were incompatible (no grades but lots of data). But that doesn't have to be the case at all. What I'm envisioning these days is something like this:

The students don't get grades, but they get lots of rich feedback, and I record as much data as possible.

But what about report cards and GPAs?

Well, we'll have to tackle that next.

Slow feedback = demotivation

I'm a slow learner.

It's taken 10+ cycles of this for me to get the hint.

When I fall behind in giving my students feedback on their work, their motivation suffers.

I try to catch up on grading over the weekend. It's hard during the week, when planning for impending classes takes priority (should it?).

But sometimes, on weekends, I am faced with snowdrifts of accumulating extracurricular (and often imposingly boring) tasks, and I let the grading/feedback slip.

And now I know, there are implications.

Maybe it's just coincidence, but my students are less motivated to work steadily and diligently toward their learning objectives.


Here's what I think: Timely feedback taps into Daniel Pink's trinity of motivation: mastery, autonomy, and purpose.

Maybe it's mostly about mastery here.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi says that flow-generating activities require immediate feedback (think of the feedback a basketball player gets as she shoots three pointers).

By puuting off feedback, I'm sucking the flow out of these experiences, and sucking teh motivations out my classrooom and studntes.

Of course, feedback takes time, and I can do anything, but not everything, but hey, what am I trying to accomplish here?

Time to make feedback priority number 1, 2 or 3 (second/third only to planning with meaningful standards (purpose) and relationships?).

Student Feedback on the Flipped Classroom

This is the third year I've been "flipping" my honors chemistry course. Instead of classroom lectures and practice at home, we flip it: their homework is to watch a short video (and a quick mastery-based online quiz) and then we do problems in class, where I can provide more one-on-one assistance.

I feel better able to help them learn the material in this format. My role in the classroom has shifted from lecturer to coach and tutor, and their time has shifted from 90% passive to 100% active.

But don't listen to me. Here are some excerpts from a little survey my students completed for me. (Since I have recently done a bit more in-class lecturing for logistical reasons, the students had a unique opportunity to compare the two approaches.):

"The videos (and quizzes) have been very helpful for me to learn new material as well as reviewing and testing myself on material that I've recently learned."

"I really like being able to do problems and worksheets in class so we can ask questions and get help easily. I liked it better when we took more notes on online lectures instead of doing in class lectures because I'm better able to focus. Also, that gives us more time to do actual problems in class which is helpful."

"The emphasis on practising problems in class is very beneficial. Being able to practice and have the opportunity to ask questions really helps me learn. The lecture part of class is very effective as well. We never sit and take notes for too long which helps us stay engaged."

"I think you do a really good job of making sure that there are plenty of materials for us to use to study for tests. I like that our homework is on Moodle a lot because that is so much more convenient since when I don't have time to sit down and do it at home, I can just do it on my phone wherever I am."

"I find that the online videos are helpful to me. They are not very long but they are very effective in that I can replay them over and over again until I fully understand the concept at hand. Often, in class, I get confused because chemistry is not my best subject (though, I am working on changing that) and we go a bit fast."

"Though it isn't the most fun things to do, watching the videos that you put online actually helps me to remember the lessons betters, and it makes me feel as if I'm in the middle of class. The fact that there is a quiz after also helps me to make sure that I pay attention and keep focused on the video."

"I think many things have worked for me this semester. For one, I really enjoyed learning some of the material on my own time because it let me go at my own pace and it gave me the option of using other resources. I also like dong practice at school because it allows us to ask the teacher last minute questions on some of the harder questions and gives us an idea of what the test is going to be like."

Others are not so fond of the videos, though they still appreciate the extra time we have for in-class problems and practice:

"One thing that has worked for me is all the worksheets given to us for practice. That has really seemed to help me. One thing that hasn't helped as much is the videos outside of class. I often find myself searching more on the topic to give myself a comprehensive understanding."

"In the past few weeks, I've enjoyed in-class lectures. I like learning in the classroom more. However, I didn't like the video and quizzes on Moodle. It often feels like we have to sit through things we already learned just to get to the topic of the quiz."

"I don't learn as much from the video lectures as I do in class when we take notes because I have a hard time focusing during the videos. In class when you explain it, its much easier to understand."

"Doing practice problems was helpful. Your lectures teach more effectively than homework videos, though though they have their merits."

"I like how we take notes and then do a worksheet after because it helps me make sure that I understood what we just learned. I also like the homework videos on Moodle because I like being able to go back and listen to the lecture instead of just having notes. The only thing I don't like is that sometimes the homework quizzes are only testing to see if people watched the video, not testing to make sure everyone understood the concepts." 

And this last complaint rings true, but at the the same time captures the essential advantage of this model:

"Well when we are working on a problem sheet and the whole class is raising their hand to ask some questions. You run back and forth from one end of the class to the other. I think it would be helpful to have maybe a student teacher in our class to help answer some questions we usually ask."

All in all, out of 39 students responding, 10 clearly identified the online vids as helpful, 6 preferred in-class lectures, and 9 mentioned liking the massive amounts of in-class practice they get.

My take: In class, it's harder for kids, but the net result is more learning.

Feedback is key, but it takes time

I was rushing through the lab packets today. I really needed to get them all graded. They had already been on my desk for a week. 

And I was "in the zone" (#flow), comparing the boiling points the students measured to what they should have been, writing check marks or deducting points like an assembly line worker.

But as I was correcting their conclusions, reading over their explanations of why molar mass is related to the boiling point of the liquids we tested (one of the coolest labs EVER, BTW), I realized what I was doing (or not doing).

I was not leaving much quality feedback. I was not leaving them with much more than point deductions.

But I kept going, because time is not in infinite supply.

But I've been thinking: If quality feedback really is key, then I need to make time for it.

But how?

Maybe something else, something that's not essential, has to go.

Not sure what that is yet.

Actually, I'm pretty sure a big part of the problem is that we simply don't have enough prep time as teachers. US high school teachers teach more than half again as many hours per year than the OECD average (. I'm not whining. I'm just stating the facts. We have less time to plan, collaborate, and provide rich feedback.

And that's a big deal.

A framework for a mastery-based classroom

I've been working on building a mastery-based and student-centered high school science classroom system based on Pink's ideas on motivation. Here's what I've identified as 7 key elements:

1. Start with meaningful standards. Can't overemphasize this--this is how to tap into two of the three keys to motivation: mastery and purpose. We're all more likely to want to master clear, clearly meaningful/practical goals, especially when they tie into a purpose bigger than ourselves.
2. Class discussions regarding the objectives. Unpacking them together. 
3. Students set their own goals (#autonomy) regarding the objectives and plan their learning process. I'm interested in teaching deconstruction as a learning technique (a la Tim Ferriss).
4. Students choose among options for learning activities/products to better suit their interest and readiness. Autonomy, again.
5. Students get immediate feedback as they work (from me and peers and self-assessment).
6. Students get multiple attempts to master the material/skills. No zeros. No late penalties. Incentive to keep working is intrinsic, plus the realization that falling too far behind is a very real danger.
7. Students share their work with each other and the world. @Twitter is key here, but @YouTube, etc. are also great.

Already running #4, and #6, and we've done some work with #3 and #7. Bottle necks are at #1, #5, and, surprisingly, #7. Building a truly meaningful curriculum would be a lot of work, but it would be worth it. Quick, quality feedback is always a challenge, but working on enlisting students to do it themselves and also on using more informal feedback rather than always using the formal rubric. Many students aren't up to speed with sharing things online, or are not ready to show their friends that they are scholars, but we're working on it.

I feel like if I can build the right structure, one that is in line with human nature, and then build relationships on top of it, it will run itself.