I've been curious about these for a while and as a math teacher they're definitely appealing. I wonder if you can help me with a question: what is the benefit of a standard celeration chart as compared with a regular tracking sheet where I (or the student) note the student's current personal best and use it to highlight progress?
Here is my understanding of it: One unique feature of a celeration chart is that it shows growth on a ratio scale rather than in equal intervals; it is multiplying/dividing, not adding/subtracting. So growth from 1-10 is much more significant that 50-100. It is also the same distance form 1-10 as from 10-100. This gives a more accurate picture of an intervention’s effectiveness. You can also record more than one behavior on a celeration chart. I can record errors and words correct at the same time and see the whole picture on one page. The celeration line is also determined by a certain factor (e.g. x2) to reach a goal in a certain timeframe. The daily aimline is also really helpful for students to see where they need to get to today, not in the future, which is much more manageable for them. The end goal may be 100 wpm, but today, it is 75. You can also see in about 3 points if the student is making sufficient progress or if the intervention needs to be adjusted. (You can see in my chart I should have made adjustments sooner than I did. But interventions is a whole other ball game.) I have only started using them for very specific interventions for only a couple students. It takes a minute to figure out how to use it, and doing it for a whole class is a lot of work. Ideally, you train all your students how to use one and then they chart each other. But that takes a bit of time, and I’m not sure if it’s worth it as a lone teacher without whole school support. Hopefully that’s helpful.
Got it, that makes sense. I'm not sure I fully understand the ratio scale, I think I would need to give it a shot to really see the difference, but I get the distinction. Thanks!
Using this for fact fluency is of huge interest to me! Thanks for posting
I've been curious about these for a while and as a math teacher they're definitely appealing. I wonder if you can help me with a question: what is the benefit of a standard celeration chart as compared with a regular tracking sheet where I (or the student) note the student's current personal best and use it to highlight progress?
Here is my understanding of it: One unique feature of a celeration chart is that it shows growth on a ratio scale rather than in equal intervals; it is multiplying/dividing, not adding/subtracting. So growth from 1-10 is much more significant that 50-100. It is also the same distance form 1-10 as from 10-100. This gives a more accurate picture of an intervention’s effectiveness. You can also record more than one behavior on a celeration chart. I can record errors and words correct at the same time and see the whole picture on one page. The celeration line is also determined by a certain factor (e.g. x2) to reach a goal in a certain timeframe. The daily aimline is also really helpful for students to see where they need to get to today, not in the future, which is much more manageable for them. The end goal may be 100 wpm, but today, it is 75. You can also see in about 3 points if the student is making sufficient progress or if the intervention needs to be adjusted. (You can see in my chart I should have made adjustments sooner than I did. But interventions is a whole other ball game.) I have only started using them for very specific interventions for only a couple students. It takes a minute to figure out how to use it, and doing it for a whole class is a lot of work. Ideally, you train all your students how to use one and then they chart each other. But that takes a bit of time, and I’m not sure if it’s worth it as a lone teacher without whole school support. Hopefully that’s helpful.
Got it, that makes sense. I'm not sure I fully understand the ratio scale, I think I would need to give it a shot to really see the difference, but I get the distinction. Thanks!