How do you define mastery?

[PeachyDoodle]

DD has shown some careless errors in her spelling workbook lately. After talking to her, I came to the conclusion that she is getting bored. She is a fairly natural speller, so I told her that if she could score at least 95% on a spelling pretest she could skip her workbook this week.

 

She scored 93%. :glare:

 

I didn't want to go back on what I'd said, so I let it stand. (She was okay with this, since that was our deal.) The words she missed all had the same error (not dropping the silent "e" before adding "-ing"), and after I explained this, I don't think she'll have trouble with it again.

 

It got me thinking: I'm curious as to how others define "mastery" when it comes to skill work.

 

And... discuss!

[Farrar]

I voted for 90%.  I don't actually grade and we only rarely give tests.  It's just an estimate from observing them do the work.

 

I will say that there are different levels of mastery.  I don't expect a child to ever be at 100% all the time.  And I do expect that kids will regress when working on something new.  So a child may have mastered a spelling rule in the context of spelling and we're therefore ready to move on.  But I wouldn't expect them to get it right every single time on independent writing right away because they're concentrating on so many things.  Similarly, they may have mastered addition, but I'm not shocked if they make an adding error on a complex, multi-step problem that also has new math.

 

So to me, there's the "mastery" when they first learn it and we spend time on it and drill it and so forth and they get it, but when they're focused on it.  And then there's the mastery when something becomes so ingrained that it's really second nature.  I mean, I'm not going to misspell many words when I'm typing my own thoughts no matter how hard I'm thinking because they're that ingrained in me.  That level takes longer.  And, at least for us, we move on to other new material before we get there.  I see that as a longer process that involves practicing a skill in context of many other skills.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I voted for 90% too, but I have to say that the only thing that I assess in such an objective fashion at this point is math.  Language arts is mostly handled orally, or via discussion, or spelling dictation or something else where there is immediate feedback, but no "score."  I'm not testing in content areas at this point.

 

For writing, I don't expect a 90% perfect essay or composition - whatever that would mean - but I do expect that whatever the primary objective of the assignment was, it should be met.  This may require multiple days or several rewrites.  But I don't "grade" writing, I just have her work on it until she has met my objective, or until she can't stand to look at it any longer.

 

 

[Crimson Wife]

I look to see whether the mistakes are conceptual or careless computation errors. I recently had to re-teach a lesson to my oldest involving the four operations with numbers written in scientific notation. DD was getting the problems wrong because of a conceptual error so she had to do more practice on the concept. If she had gotten problems wrong because she was careless in her computation then I would've made her fix the mistakes but I still would've moved on to the next lesson.

[Dmmetler]

I said 90% or better for a post test. For a pretest (like placement in a math level), if she's over 80% I know I need to pick and choose topics based on what she missed.

[My3girls]

I chose 80%, but I agree with Sadie and  Crimson Wife.  I should have read their posts before voting. lol  I look for competency (80% or better) then move on.  Mastery will come in time, but I don't typically wait for it.  If I see careless errors, I scold, but if I see conceptual errors, I re-teach the concept or try to approach it from a different angle.  That all said... true mastery would be 95% or better, in my opinion.

[myfunnybunch]

Other:

True mastery is when the skill can be lifted out of the isolated learning/practice context and used in other areas. Spelling properly in one's writing, for example, shows true mastery of spelling.

 

On a spelling test, I would consider 90%+ mastery of the skill of spelling on a spelling test, but the child would have to practice the misspelled words before moving on to the next unit.

 

Cat

[RaisingGodsGirls]

Mastery for me is more or less measured by seeing something occur naturally in ALL subject areas as well as every day life.  That being said, many times on rough draft writings my kids will misspell words...MASTERY is when they can catch the errors on their own during the editing phase - or at least recognize it's not correct. 

 

I also don't always wait for mastery on something before moving on.  MANY times I have just moved on and within a few lessons that previous concept has clicked!  I see this ALL the time in Math with my 9 year old.

[SilverMoon]

Other. I don't consider percentiles at all when assessing mastery. When they can explain how and *why* it works, in their own words, without any help, and demonstrate it for me, I will consider the concept mastered.

 

For the purposes of a spelling book, mine can advance to the next lesson if they get only one word wrong on the practice test. Assuming they are in the appropriate book for their skill level, the exercises in their spelling book (Spelling by Sound and Structure from Rod and Staff) are worthwhile even if they can already spell most of the words. It's the work that drives that "drop the final e before adding a suffix that starts with a vowel" in deep, not practicing a word list.