March 7:

"I think it would be great to organize or host an English SBG forum for those who have been working in the 'field' of study..." -HS English Teacher
March 22:
  • April 20th date set - advertised via email and Twitter.  The LA SBG summit is born.  
April 13:
  • It became pretty clear that this was going to be a bigger deal than we anticipated.  We were going to need a tool more powerful than Skype to bring everyone together.  Solicited assistance from a friend and ended up borrowing an Adobe Connect Pro license so teachers from around the country could present, listen and participate.
April 20:

  • All three hours of the summit were video recorded for future viewing.
  • Thanks to Russ, Amy, Doug, Ken, Brad, Jim and Rebecca for sharing your implementation tips, struggles and successes!
  • Charles Barniskis, HS English Dept. Chair at Minnetonka HS, was unable to join us, however he was able to answer some questions earlier in the day.  (Nice work, Nathan!)
  • Resources posted including grade book screen shots, rubrics and parent communication letters. 
  • Shawn couldn't make it, however he posted his thoughts on some of the summit's key questions.  


(Thanks, Kathy - this graphic was our mantra for the afternoon!)


My take away:
Some say it can't be done, but standards-based grading is possible in a language arts classroom!