Annika is a pretty good reader. She isn’t a fast reader, and neither am I,
but she is a good reader. She
understands what she reads and can ask some good questions about the material
once she is done. Because she reads
well, she has to meet an Accelerated Reader goal that is challenging. Unfortunately, though, she doesn’t see this
as an opportunity or an achievement; she sees it as a task—a job to be
completed. The joy of reading and losing
herself in a book has been stripped by the demand to read books that add up to
a certain number of points. Her
perspective has been changed by the grade attached to the assignment.
She started reading one of her American Girl books on Sunday
afternoon. A few pages into the book,
she stopped, looked up the book on AR, and decided to quit reading then and
there even though she had been enjoying the story. Why?
Because the book wasn’t “worth enough points” in her estimation. She didn’t see the value in reading a book
that she felt didn’t help her reach her goal for the quarter quickly. While I acknowledge that we all need to
determine the value of continuing with a project, why are we quietly
encouraging our students to only do a task if there is a reward or grade
attached? Why are we educating them out
of learning?
Kids are naturally inquisitive; they want to learn. But at some point in their educational lives,
they lose that natural desire, and I believe they do so because they are more
concerned about the grade than they are about the learning. I have had seniors say, “Just tell me what I
need to do to get an A. I don’t care
about anything else.” Really?
So what do we do as classroom teachers and school leaders? How do we put the learning back in education?
I believe standards based grading will help, but that alone
doesn’t inspire inquisitiveness.
Problem-based learning is another methodology for which I have high
hopes. PBL allows students to
demonstrate their learning through projects that they develop based on the
objectives needing to be reached or the problem needing to be solved. But like I discussed in the last blog, the
true shift occurs in the whole paradigm of how schools grade and how society
wants schools to grade.
The other idea that holds promise for me and could
potentially bridge this gap is explained on pages 65 and 66 of Reeves’ book, Elements of Grading. Here, he explains that assessments of
standards can be converted into grades using a three-, four-, or five-point
scale. I especially appreciate his
explanation of letter grades:
A=At least four assessments with a
final score of 4 and two assessments with a final score of at least 3
B=At least four assessments with a
final score of at least 3 and two assessments with a final score of at least 2
C=At least three assessments
with a final score of at least 3 (66).
I can easily
see how I can convert this into something useable for essays, particularly if I
break down the elements of the essay into separate assessments. For example, I can assess structure and
grammar; organizational techniques; content; and diction/voice separately and
convert that to one grade. This would
also, hopefully, help students see which part of the essay needs improvement. It won’t be perfect, but like a methods
professor often told us: “If we had found the perfect method, we would be using
it by now. Until then, we have to keep
working at it.”
While this concept of converting to standards based grading
and blending it with traditional reporting methods isn’t without its pitfalls,
it certainly is worthy of experimentation.
I am looking forward to the chance to examine the possibilities with
student scores when I “play” with my gradebook this summer. I want to see how these shifts affect real
kids in real situations before I implement them in the classroom.
Grades need to assess learning. (And a student who doesn’t turn in an
assignment isn’t demonstrating learning.) I have become a firm believer
in this statement while I acknowledge that making that shift in reality is
challenging. But I know it is essential
to move toward a better system for everyone, including Annika.
