Work Ethic Rubric

Are you using a menu or workshop format in your math block? Working levels are designed to help raise students' awareness of their own behavior, to make expectations more explicit, and to give focus to discussions about what it means to work hard.

Students of all ages must be given opportunities to discuss questions like,

"What does it look like to work hard?"

"What does it look like to be responsible? What will we see? What will we hear?"

"How will we know when we're working hard?"

A working levels rubric gives students more information about what is expected and the information they need to improve.

Work Ethic Rubric

(from Working Levels by Kathy McGrath)

Level 4

• Productive
• Respectful
• Collaborates with Others
• Craftsmanship

Level 3

• Productive
• Respectful

Level 2

• Works when Reminded

Level 1

• Not Working

Level 0

• Interfering with Other's Work

Climb the Ladder!

Danylle, the 4th grade teacher at Hedog, is concerned about her students' fluency with base-10 concepts. We dug out her Kathy Richardson "Understanding Numbers: Place Value" kit and put together an effective (We hope!) set of activities for Menu.

It was funny, though, because our planning session began with me giving her an impromptu idea that seemed great at first, (Don't they all? Ha!) but looked more and more shabby the deeper we went into Kathy's materials.

Danylle proved her worth as a teacher, though, with unflagging encouragement! "I like your idea, Chris," she said. "I'm going to still use it."

Uh huh.

I left Hedog that afternoon determined to craft this idea into an activity that would produce results, and wouldn't look pitiful next to the other Menu items. I happened across some "Climb the Ladder" activities while browsing Mathwire.

Climb the Ladder was just the touch I needed! So I'm happy to share with you an activity that requires only a deck of digit cards and a work some activity sheets. This should be good for latter year second graders, third graders, and 4th graders who need further support or practice.

Note: The directions ask students to represent their number using squares, lines, and dots. This vocabulary was chosen for simplicity. These representations should be connected with the flats, rods, and cubes of the base-10 blocks, or to the sheets, strips, and singles of the Sticker Station.

Have fun!

Download: Climb the Ladder Base-10 and Place Value Concepts