For a daily assignment this maybe a hard theory to use. My students change subjects every 50 minutes so to have anything that is differentiated to accommodate for the marble cups can be quite the challenge. However on assignments that teachers give that are over a few days, then I fully believe that there is more then one way to do it, essay, painting, writing a song, etc. For my own students I let them run any idea they have as long as they run it by me first. If they want to be more ambitious I want to encourage that! As long as they don't "bite off more then they can chew." I think that has a adult as long as we all "get there" what difference does it make as to which road we take?
The best way to measure student accomplishment is to use a bit of everything! Tests, projects, participation, etc. all help to fill all of the marble cups!
I agree, especially in special education it is important to use a bit of everything. There is always something that can be used to measure student accomplishment besides testing!
Using a bit of everything is a great way to measure success. I recently was talking to someone who'd worked with two of our students several years ago and we were talking about the life skill accomplishments those students were successful in.
With all students using a bit of everything is necessary. We as adults know our strengths and weaknesses. How would we want them to be measured, it might change some of what we do if the situation were turned around.
That is a good idea. I figure that every assignment teaches one or two ideas or skills, so as long as the students learn those skills, it doesn't matter if they do a thirty question worksheet, make an advertisement poster, write a letter, or do some other project.
I like your comment about turning the situation around, and how would we want things to be handled if it was us. I wish people had that mindset more often, just in general.
I think that using the twenty first century rubric and assessment the author provided are great ways to monitor student achievement. With special education it is important to find ways to show growth. Grades are not always the best way to do that. Many students need a way to feel and see that they are accomplishing things and are being successful. I think assessments like these are great.
The marble theory is great. My special education kids definitely have areas that they are very intelligent in. I love some of the suggestions like "choose kind" and shared reading in literature circles. This is something I plan on using in my room.
I agre with showing growth to our kiddos. They can get so hard on themselves and I love seeing their faces light up when I can show them how much they have improved because they don't always see it for themselves.
At the middle school we have talked about using other systems to track/monitor students progress other than using traditional grades. We have discussed using a skills type checklist that the lower elementary schools use. It would give parents and teachers a better picture of where the student is in the curriculum. Not so sure how that would work when each teacher has about 100 students??
I also really liked the idea of 'Choose Kind.' It's SO simple, but still such a great strategy (I also thought of some adults who could benefit from it, too, haha!).
I think that all my students are very diverse in what their strengths are. Some are all about reading and read at very high levels, other read only when necessary. Students learn to build on both there weaker areas as well as their strengths. Sometimes I have put in back on the students to measure their own accomplishments, make them take a real look at what they did. They are usually very honest in what they come up with and grow from that.
I had my students write down what they learned last year. At the beginning of this year I had them write down what they thought they were going to learn and what they wanted to learn. We will revisit these at the end of the year. I don't think this would be a bad thing to do quarterly!
I like the idea of having students take a real look at what they accomplished. A lot of students just seem to care about the grade on the paper, and don't have any real sense of accomplishment.
Each of my students has an area of strength Sometimes we have to help others recognize those strengths and build on them. I also try to challenge them and help them build in areas that they are not as strong in. I really like the author's use of the story "Wonder" - about the boy Auggie and the challenges he faces as a way to build empathy. The best way to measure accomplishments:Wow...... not necessarily grades. For several of my kiddos success is seen in very small steps and over a year or more...
I really like the story too. The teacher I worked with during my student teaching read Auggie for the read aloud. The kids had the same reaction as the authors students. Very cool.
I like Mockingbird too. It gives an interesting perspective on autism and the behaviors associated with it. I also like Man Who Loved Clowns because it deals with the main character's feelings about her disabled uncle as well as a minor character's feelings about poverty and her dad's incarceration.
It is amazing how students with confidence are willing to work more than students that think they are "bad at everything." It is not enough to use the blanket statement that "everybody is good at something." A teacher often needs to find the things that students are good at and highlight it in class. This shows students that we actually believe that they are good at things and can be successful in the classroom.
I guess I kind of use marble theory in math once in awhile. I allow the students who are better at a certain math topic such as time help the others who are struggling. Then when we switch topics the other students might have more marbles in that cup so they get to be the helper. They see each other as having better skills in certain areas but are very respectful to one another... Measuring accomplishments... I'd say a good way is through data collection. I can tell the student how much they have improved and that I see how hard they've been working. That is true for their non-academic accomplishments as well. I enjoy watching them do activities outside of school and complimenting them on how hard they have worked in that as well. It's not always black and white.
I use peers to help other students also. Sometimes they learn better from their peers than me. Their peers might have a way of presenting the info differently than me that makes it click more. Plus peer learning is a great reinforcement for the peers who are doing the teaching!!
I do this with my students who attend reg ed classes too. When I can, I pre-teach units that the math teacher will be teaching a couple days in advance. When the math teacher then teaches it in class, my students already are ahead of their peers. They then get to help their peers and answer teacher questions in class. It is a real boost to their confidence and they are getting extra practice by helping their peers.
Gosh I think every student could benefit from knowing the marble theory. Honestly I would explain it just like he has it in the book. We have talked about this is my class before. We talked about auditory learners, visual learners, kinesthetic learners and each student picked which one they thought they were. I wanted to know this about them to help them as much as I could. This was more a focus on themselves though. We have talked about how everyone learns different and it is important to know which way works best for you, that way you can utilize your strengths when learning new things for the rest of your life! I need to keep up with it though so they practice and seek out their learning in a way that they will truly learn. I feel the best way to measure accomplishments depends on the individual. If that person truly feels they have accomplished their goal, then how can we tell them they haven't? I often ask my students if they feel like they are better readers; I started doing this when I saw so much growth on my data collection but I didn't know if they personally felt it. When a person/student can set their own goals and feel like they are reaching them, that is accomplishment.. whether its written on a piece of paper or not.
I like the idea of students setting their own goals, what a great way to help hold them accountable for their learning! I have the students who have a transition goal do this for me, and the results are amazing.
I have heard of this theory before but in a different way. When the author talks about extremely specialized cups I wonder if some of my sped students do not have many, if any, marbles in their extremely specialized cups and that is why they struggle in certain areas? Paul Solarz states that students do not have just 1 cup for reading abilities but have several cups for specific reading abilities. When I think about my students I can see that they may not have many marbles in certain cups and that is why they struggle with certain aspects of reading, or math, versus other students who do not struggle as much. It is our job as teachers to add marbles to our students' cups, to help them specialize information giving them more more marbles in their cups to access. Ruby Payne writes books about how poverty affects students coming into school. She talks about the lack of experiences, lower vocabulary, and behavior issues all associated with poverty levels. I can see how those students would have cups with few or even no marbles compared to other students who are not affected by poverty. I realize that poverty is not the only reason for this, there are other reasons, that is just an example. On You Tube there are videos by Mark Gungor about how our brains specialize information into boxes the difference between men and women is how we access information in our boxes. It is more of a comic routine but it demonstrates how boys and girls learn differently, somewhat along the same lines as the marble theory.
Carol, I've been reading about poverty/family/education issues on the Pine Ridge reservation. Your idea that students may not have many marbles makes sense.
I'd love to hear about your research on the Pine Ridge reservation! I went to college near there and have a few ideas of my own. Tying that to marble theory is a connection I wouldn't have made, but very true in its own right.
Many of my students have talents in areas that are not valued in today's test based educational system. I have students with amazing talent in art and creativity, music, and mechanical skills. I believe finding opportunities for them to see and use those skills so they understand that they are important too is a valuable part of marble theory. I feel the best measurement of accomplishment is progress. My students take longer to master tasks than their peers. If being at the same level as their peers was the only measuring tool they would always feel like they were failing. We sit down and look at their work samples, rubrics, etc that show what they could do when we started the school year, semester or unit, and what they can do now so they get a chance to see that they are doing better, that there is progress.
I like the marble theory, especially since all students have talents in different areas.
Measuring accomplishments is so different for every student. An incredible athlete will measure his accomplishments in homeruns or bases stolen. However, a good student will measure her accomplishment in GPA. At the end of the day, I would hope that my students are confident, a productive member of society, and content with where they are in life. When we talk about life goals, that’s what I want for them – to find a career that will support them, for them to be happy, and to be a productive member of society. That, of course, doesn’t help us to measure their accomplishments while in school. But, we can still have the end in mind while using the system we have.
I do prefer a growth or progress measurement. I realize there are certain aspects that will always show if students meet a specific mark. However, with IEPs, we are able to take where students are and help them move along. Even if the progress is slow or intermittent, we are focusing on what the student knows or can do and building on that.
The nice thing about teaching Kindergarten is that the playing field for most is still pretty level. In the beginning they are all shy and just wanting to please and have a passion to be at school. As the year goes you start to see the playing field beginning to divide yet everyone of these students has something unique to offer. With our MTSS groups and small literacy groups kids are up and moving to different groups around the room and building all day long so they really don't know who is needs what or struggles with anything.
As for showing growth we use a lot of data collection to show how kids are progressing. Our school uses AIMSweb for Reading and Math assessing for MTSS. One of the things I do not like is that it is a timed test and that doesn't always work the best for my students, therefore when I sit in meetings with parents and teachers I explain I know that some of my kids will never make the target due to the time factor what I am looking for is that that line continues to go up and stay consistent. That tells me they are learning.
I like the marble theory, for the most part. It is helpful for students to understand that everyone is gifted with different intelligence. Also, the visual with marbles and specifically-labeled cups can be helpful. The problem that I see with it is the limited number of marbles. For example, many of my students would never want to take a marble from the dribbling a basketball cup to put it into the reading comprehension cup. Having students that are so apathetic about school makes the marble theory a bit of a hard sell. This being said, good teachers will always look for the areas in which students are gifted and figure out how to highlight that and show how to incorporate it into school.
I’ve had conversations with kiddos before to explain to them that they’re not ‘dumb,’ but just learn differently, and that just because they can’t read as fast as someone else doesn’t mean they should hate school or are a failure. Then, we discuss that even though reading might not be a strength right now, it’ll get better if they work hard, and in the meantime, they have lots of other things they’re good at. After we talk about some of the things they excel at, and how they might even be better at those things than other people in their class, it seems to put them in a better mood. I don’t think kids realize some of their strengths sometimes, because if they’re not academic, it’s really not a focus point during the 8 hours they’re at school; What does tend to be a focus point, though, is how low they are in reading, writing, math, etc.
Ideally, I think students’ accomplishments should be measured by how much effort they put forth and the progress they make, and not necessarily if they were successful at obtaining a good grade at the end of the year.
I enjoyed Solarz's explanation of the marble theory. I work hard to keep the focus on a person's strengths and building from these. The answers for helping kids make connections and build friendships and confidence often lie in linking them with opportunities to use their strengths. If a student is not strong in ELA or math, and most of their day is spent being compared to others in those areas, it can weigh down their spirit. If we can help them find times to show others their talents and celebrate them, they'll feel more confident, safer, and more open to learning in those other areas.
For a daily assignment this maybe a hard theory to use. My students change subjects every 50 minutes so to have anything that is differentiated to accommodate for the marble cups can be quite the challenge. However on assignments that teachers give that are over a few days, then I fully believe that there is more then one way to do it, essay, painting, writing a song, etc. For my own students I let them run any idea they have as long as they run it by me first. If they want to be more ambitious I want to encourage that! As long as they don't "bite off more then they can chew." I think that has a adult as long as we all "get there" what difference does it make as to which road we take?
ReplyDeleteThe best way to measure student accomplishment is to use a bit of everything! Tests, projects, participation, etc. all help to fill all of the marble cups!
I agree, especially in special education it is important to use a bit of everything. There is always something that can be used to measure student accomplishment besides testing!
DeleteUsing a bit of everything is a great way to measure success. I recently was talking to someone who'd worked with two of our students several years ago and we were talking about the life skill accomplishments those students were successful in.
DeleteI love your idea on letting them do their assignment however they can! What an awesome way to show their individuality!
DeleteWith all students using a bit of everything is necessary. We as adults know our strengths and weaknesses. How would we want them to be measured, it might change some of what we do if the situation were turned around.
DeleteThat is a good idea. I figure that every assignment teaches one or two ideas or skills, so as long as the students learn those skills, it doesn't matter if they do a thirty question worksheet, make an advertisement poster, write a letter, or do some other project.
DeleteKim-
DeleteI like your comment about turning the situation around, and how would we want things to be handled if it was us. I wish people had that mindset more often, just in general.
I think that using the twenty first century rubric and assessment the author provided are great ways to monitor student achievement. With special education it is important to find ways to show growth. Grades are not always the best way to do that. Many students need a way to feel and see that they are accomplishing things and are being successful. I think assessments like these are great.
ReplyDeleteThe marble theory is great. My special education kids definitely have areas that they are very intelligent in. I love some of the suggestions like "choose kind" and shared reading in literature circles. This is something I plan on using in my room.
I agre with showing growth to our kiddos. They can get so hard on themselves and I love seeing their faces light up when I can show them how much they have improved because they don't always see it for themselves.
DeleteI agree, grades do not measure what students have learned. Needs to be an individualized assessment.
DeleteAt the middle school we have talked about using other systems to track/monitor students progress other than using traditional grades. We have discussed using a skills type checklist that the lower elementary schools use. It would give parents and teachers a better picture of where the student is in the curriculum. Not so sure how that would work when each teacher has about 100 students??
Deletejporter-
DeleteI also really liked the idea of 'Choose Kind.' It's SO simple, but still such a great strategy (I also thought of some adults who could benefit from it, too, haha!).
I think that all my students are very diverse in what their strengths are. Some are all about reading and read at very high levels, other read only when necessary. Students learn to build on both there weaker areas as well as their strengths. Sometimes I have put in back on the students to measure their own accomplishments, make them take a real look at what they did. They are usually very honest in what they come up with and grow from that.
ReplyDeleteI had my students write down what they learned last year. At the beginning of this year I had them write down what they thought they were going to learn and what they wanted to learn. We will revisit these at the end of the year.
DeleteI don't think this would be a bad thing to do quarterly!
I like the idea of having students take a real look at what they accomplished. A lot of students just seem to care about the grade on the paper, and don't have any real sense of accomplishment.
DeleteMaking students analyze what they did and take a hard look at it can be helpful, especially with a mindset to improve and make progress the next time.
DeleteEach of my students has an area of strength Sometimes we have to help others recognize those strengths and build on them. I also try to challenge them and help them build in areas that they are not as strong in.
ReplyDeleteI really like the author's use of the story "Wonder" - about the boy Auggie and the challenges he faces as a way to build empathy.
The best way to measure accomplishments:Wow...... not necessarily grades. For several of my kiddos success is seen in very small steps and over a year or more...
I really like the story too. The teacher I worked with during my student teaching read Auggie for the read aloud. The kids had the same reaction as the authors students. Very cool.
DeleteI like Mockingbird too. It gives an interesting perspective on autism and the behaviors associated with it. I also like Man Who Loved Clowns because it deals with the main character's feelings about her disabled uncle as well as a minor character's feelings about poverty and her dad's incarceration.
DeleteHeather, I am not familiar with "Man Who Loved Clowns"....sounds like a great read. Thanks for sharing!
DeleteIt is amazing how students with confidence are willing to work more than students that think they are "bad at everything." It is not enough to use the blanket statement that "everybody is good at something." A teacher often needs to find the things that students are good at and highlight it in class. This shows students that we actually believe that they are good at things and can be successful in the classroom.
DeleteI guess I kind of use marble theory in math once in awhile. I allow the students who are better at a certain math topic such as time help the others who are struggling. Then when we switch topics the other students might have more marbles in that cup so they get to be the helper. They see each other as having better skills in certain areas but are very respectful to one another...
ReplyDeleteMeasuring accomplishments... I'd say a good way is through data collection. I can tell the student how much they have improved and that I see how hard they've been working. That is true for their non-academic accomplishments as well. I enjoy watching them do activities outside of school and complimenting them on how hard they have worked in that as well. It's not always black and white.
I use peers to help other students also. Sometimes they learn better from their peers than me. Their peers might have a way of presenting the info differently than me that makes it click more. Plus peer learning is a great reinforcement for the peers who are doing the teaching!!
DeleteI do this with my students who attend reg ed classes too. When I can, I pre-teach units that the math teacher will be teaching a couple days in advance. When the math teacher then teaches it in class, my students already are ahead of their peers. They then get to help their peers and answer teacher questions in class. It is a real boost to their confidence and they are getting extra practice by helping their peers.
DeleteGosh I think every student could benefit from knowing the marble theory. Honestly I would explain it just like he has it in the book. We have talked about this is my class before. We talked about auditory learners, visual learners, kinesthetic learners and each student picked which one they thought they were. I wanted to know this about them to help them as much as I could. This was more a focus on themselves though. We have talked about how everyone learns different and it is important to know which way works best for you, that way you can utilize your strengths when learning new things for the rest of your life! I need to keep up with it though so they practice and seek out their learning in a way that they will truly learn.
ReplyDeleteI feel the best way to measure accomplishments depends on the individual. If that person truly feels they have accomplished their goal, then how can we tell them they haven't? I often ask my students if they feel like they are better readers; I started doing this when I saw so much growth on my data collection but I didn't know if they personally felt it. When a person/student can set their own goals and feel like they are reaching them, that is accomplishment.. whether its written on a piece of paper or not.
I like the idea of students setting their own goals, what a great way to help hold them accountable for their learning! I have the students who have a transition goal do this for me, and the results are amazing.
DeleteI have heard of this theory before but in a different way. When the author talks about extremely specialized cups I wonder if some of my sped students do not have many, if any, marbles in their extremely specialized cups and that is why they struggle in certain areas? Paul Solarz states that students do not have just 1 cup for reading abilities but have several cups for specific reading abilities. When I think about my students I can see that they may not have many marbles in certain cups and that is why they struggle with certain aspects of reading, or math, versus other students who do not struggle as much. It is our job as teachers to add marbles to our students' cups, to help them specialize information giving them more more marbles in their cups to access.
ReplyDeleteRuby Payne writes books about how poverty affects students coming into school. She talks about the lack of experiences, lower vocabulary, and behavior issues all associated with poverty levels. I can see how those students would have cups with few or even no marbles compared to other students who are not affected by poverty. I realize that poverty is not the only reason for this, there are other reasons, that is just an example.
On You Tube there are videos by Mark Gungor about how our brains specialize information into boxes the difference between men and women is how we access information in our boxes. It is more of a comic routine but it demonstrates how boys and girls learn differently, somewhat along the same lines as the marble theory.
Carol, I've been reading about poverty/family/education issues on the Pine Ridge reservation. Your idea that students may not have many marbles makes sense.
DeleteI'd love to hear about your research on the Pine Ridge reservation! I went to college near there and have a few ideas of my own. Tying that to marble theory is a connection I wouldn't have made, but very true in its own right.
DeleteMany of my students have talents in areas that are not valued in today's test based educational system. I have students with amazing talent in art and creativity, music, and mechanical skills. I believe finding opportunities for them to see and use those skills so they understand that they are important too is a valuable part of marble theory.
ReplyDeleteI feel the best measurement of accomplishment is progress. My students take longer to master tasks than their peers. If being at the same level as their peers was the only measuring tool they would always feel like they were failing. We sit down and look at their work samples, rubrics, etc that show what they could do when we started the school year, semester or unit, and what they can do now so they get a chance to see that they are doing better, that there is progress.
I like the marble theory, especially since all students have talents in different areas.
ReplyDeleteMeasuring accomplishments is so different for every student. An incredible athlete will measure his accomplishments in homeruns or bases stolen. However, a good student will measure her accomplishment in GPA. At the end of the day, I would hope that my students are confident, a productive member of society, and content with where they are in life. When we talk about life goals, that’s what I want for them – to find a career that will support them, for them to be happy, and to be a productive member of society. That, of course, doesn’t help us to measure their accomplishments while in school. But, we can still have the end in mind while using the system we have.
I do prefer a growth or progress measurement. I realize there are certain aspects that will always show if students meet a specific mark. However, with IEPs, we are able to take where students are and help them move along. Even if the progress is slow or intermittent, we are focusing on what the student knows or can do and building on that.
The nice thing about teaching Kindergarten is that the playing field for most is still pretty level. In the beginning they are all shy and just wanting to please and have a passion to be at school. As the year goes you start to see the playing field beginning to divide yet everyone of these students has something unique to offer. With our MTSS groups and small literacy groups kids are up and moving to different groups around the room and building all day long so they really don't know who is needs what or struggles with anything.
ReplyDeleteAs for showing growth we use a lot of data collection to show how kids are progressing. Our school uses AIMSweb for Reading and Math assessing for MTSS. One of the things I do not like is that it is a timed test and that doesn't always work the best for my students, therefore when I sit in meetings with parents and teachers I explain I know that some of my kids will never make the target due to the time factor what I am looking for is that that line continues to go up and stay consistent. That tells me they are learning.
I like the marble theory, for the most part. It is helpful for students to understand that everyone is gifted with different intelligence. Also, the visual with marbles and specifically-labeled cups can be helpful. The problem that I see with it is the limited number of marbles. For example, many of my students would never want to take a marble from the dribbling a basketball cup to put it into the reading comprehension cup. Having students that are so apathetic about school makes the marble theory a bit of a hard sell. This being said, good teachers will always look for the areas in which students are gifted and figure out how to highlight that and show how to incorporate it into school.
ReplyDeleteThat concerned me a little as well. I believe in the capacity for neurological growth/regeneration. I think kids can "grow more marbles"
DeleteI’ve had conversations with kiddos before to explain to them that they’re not ‘dumb,’ but just learn differently, and that just because they can’t read as fast as someone else doesn’t mean they should hate school or are a failure. Then, we discuss that even though reading might not be a strength right now, it’ll get better if they work hard, and in the meantime, they have lots of other things they’re good at. After we talk about some of the things they excel at, and how they might even be better at those things than other people in their class, it seems to put them in a better mood. I don’t think kids realize some of their strengths sometimes, because if they’re not academic, it’s really not a focus point during the 8 hours they’re at school; What does tend to be a focus point, though, is how low they are in reading, writing, math, etc.
ReplyDeleteIdeally, I think students’ accomplishments should be measured by how much effort they put forth and the progress they make, and not necessarily if they were successful at obtaining a good grade at the end of the year.
I enjoyed Solarz's explanation of the marble theory. I work hard to keep the focus on a person's strengths and building from these. The answers for helping kids make connections and build friendships and confidence often lie in linking them with opportunities to use their strengths. If a student is not strong in ELA or math, and most of their day is spent being compared to others in those areas, it can weigh down their spirit. If we can help them find times to show others their talents and celebrate them, they'll feel more confident, safer, and more open to learning in those other areas.
ReplyDelete