Sasha's Creations: January 2016

What Are Performance Based Learning Scales?

I'm the first to admit, I wasn't thrilled when they told us we had to make learning scales. However, I have found that in practice that it really does help me. As the teacher, it keeps me on track teaching the standard and gauging how my students are doing. It also helps students, yes even kindergartners, understand what they are learning and rate how they are doing. An added bonus is that they are Marzano Aligned & will help you earn points in your evaluation if your school uses Marzano like mine does. Writing them is like riding a bike there is definately a learning curve but it does get easier with practice.

See them here.

What do I Include in a Performance Scale?

The Standard

I always start with the standard and write it on top to keep myself focused.

Picture Cue

Since I teach kindergarten, I include a picture cue to give my students a mental image to help them as they refer back to it.

Scale

4 is Advanced
3 is the Standard
2 is Almost There
1 is With Added Support

Learning Goals

I always start with Level 3 since that is the standard & copy the standard exactly.
For Level 4 it is helpful to look at the same standard for the next grade level.
For Level 2 simplify the standard but make sure I include key vocabulary words.
For Level 1 add support. For kindergarten, I added visual support since prompting and support is already included in many of the standards.

Student Evidence

These are student friendly I Can's to help students understand what is expected of them.

You can see a sample below of one of the one's I made for Kindergarten.

I currently have Kindergarten Performance Scales Language Arts for Literature, Informational Text, Foundational Skills and Writing in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store in both Florida Standards and Common Core Format. Language & Speaking and Listening Performance Scales are coming soon.