Rehearsal Etiquette 20%
Students must be prepared for class (instrument, music, pencil, reeds, etc) in order to participate fully and be a productive member of the ensemble. Tardiness and improper behavior disrupts rehearsal. Students will earn daily points toward this portion of their grade.
This is a part of my grading criteria for 6th Grade Band. It says the same thing for my 7th and 8th Graders too. The only difference is the percentage. Over the years it's dropped down from 40%. I had good intentions with it. As a young teacher, my first groups really tested my abilities and I wanted to tie a consequence to constant rehearsal disruptions. As students and I got to know each other over time, poor behavioral choices decreased, so did my percentage.
Fast forward to this school year. I kept Rehearsal Etiquette as part of my grade criteria but it's time to remove it due to three things:
- Logistically it's much harder to keep up with for 210 students than it was for 80.
- There is a built-in behavioral component to their report card that is unrelated to their class grade and has actual rewards and consequences.
- (here's the big one) The only time I find myself remembering to enter the Etiquette grade for the day is when something negative happened.
Because it it my first year in a new building, I'm encountering some of the same challenges I did as a brand new teacher. With more experience under my belt though, I know that many of those challenges will decrease as I build relationships with my new students. Additionally, if I follow through with the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports model that our school uses (and I'm a member of the PBIS team), I need to do a better job of teaching proper rehearsal etiquette rather than punishing when it is poor.
It's taken a while to change my thinking, and now that I have, it is only fair to my students to continue to change my system.
I think it's really big of you to realize #3 and that the circumstances have changed. It's hard to adapt sometimes!
ReplyDeleteNumber 3 hitting me was definitely the final straw. It was hard to admit to myself, but once I did, it was time for a change. Thanks for reading!
DeleteI'm curious what your grading components are/will be without a rehearsal grade of some kind. I struggle with this also and have called it so many things over the years...the latest being rehearsal collaboration. My fancy word for Daily participation I suppose. In my HS band you get points for showing up and no points if you don't, regardless of excused or not. The only exception is school-related absences. I was struggling with having HS Band the last hour of the day and students getting picked up ALL the time early for appointments. This is my 2nd year of doing the points this way and I think it has improved attendance, especially during marching season. I do not do the same for my MS Bands because frankly, they wouldn't understand it, and some miss A LOT of class. ARGH! Just writing this note here frustrates me because I want to teach the kids responsibility and hold them accountable, but I ABSOLUTELY loathe rewarding students for what they're supposed to be doing. Love the blog as always Amy.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome to check them out. All of my grade criteria for the marking period is under the "Important Documents" tab on our band site: www.hartmsbands.weebly.com. I'm open to ideas because I'm still not entirely happy with how my grading is set up.
DeleteTo be honest, I don't know that I would be completely removing the "Etiquette" part if there wasn't a built in behavioral mark on their report card. Students who earn all 1's and 2's in regards to their behavior have points added toward their yearly Eagle Award. Including the behavioral component can definitely be used to encourage positive choices especially in the unique set-up of a performance ensemble, but when it came down to it, that's now how I was utilizing it. Do you have a collaboration grade for MS?
Yes, there is the RC component for MS kids and since many of our teachers give a daily participation grade the MS kids seem to understand it more. They're also smart enough to realize the rule of averages in that a day without their instrument here and there won't hurt their grade too much overall. I wish I didn't have to award grades at all. Last year I went to a Mastery type of grading for the playing quizzes, meaning that you either passed it or you didn't. For too long students who earned an 8 out of 10 were fine with it even though no one would ever want to hear a band where students made 20 percent mistakes. There are unlimited retakes of course and kids always wait until the last possible day to submit their Google Voice recordings. That drives me crazy since there's no time to replay them if they don't pass. I also struggle with giving zero's when kids don't do something or 5 out of 10 points since the averages between a 10 and a zero are far different than the average of an A and E. But then, how can they even get an E when they didn't bother??
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