My cooperating teacher and I kind of hate grades.
By kind of, I mean that if we made a list of our least favorite things to do, feeding into to the fact that many of our students' entire identities are wrapped up in what their grades say about them would be in the top two.
But I'm noticing trends in how teachers are talking about this issue vs. how they are acting, and it's making me think about what I really believe about giving students grades (since we have to do it anyway.)
I was part of an interesting chain of conversations today with a teacher and a student. It went something like this:
Student: ...I don't want to keep getting bad grades because I can't meet that required percentage with my old word count goal. [students are writing novels in November, and they have to set word count goals for the month]
Me: I just don't want you to focus on the grade. I want you to focus on the challenge and trying to meet the goal you've set yourself. You lowered your goal a little too much and I think you're capable of more than that.
Student: Then why are you grading us on it? I want to meet that goal, and I know I am capable of it, but I'm not doing it quick enough for the grade and I don't want a bad grade.
Teacher: Just to give you some perspective, those grades are for accountability, and part of participation, which is only worth 10%. It doesn't count for a whole lot of your grade.
There was a little bit more resistance, and I could tell that the student was frustrated. Despite this, I think we left the conversation with a better shared understanding. Then the teacher said the following to me after the student left (I'm paraphrasing):
Teacher: I don't understand why they care so much about their grades that they do things like that. It doesn't affect them, but they do things specifically for the grade.
I realized I didn't know how to respond to this, and the reason came to me later.
If you don't want your students to care about the grade, why do you grade them on it? I truly empathize with this student's frustration because I see it a lot, with many teachers I've observed. When a teacher puts numbers on everything, assessing their compliance, why wouldn't you do what's necessary to get the numbers you want?
It feels hypocritical. And I don't really completely blame the teacher, but we can't blame students for something we perpetuate with our own actions.
Like I said, my cooperating teacher and I both hate grades. We don't grade very many assignments because we don't want to grade them on formative assessments. It teaches them that to succeed they have to be compliant. They have to do only exactly what someone else says and if they don't they fail, when real life focuses far more on shared inquiry, collaboration, and communication. Why would I grade them on those things? I'm interested in what they're learning and how they're applying it. Most of what is graded in our class is summative. We grade the final application of the skills and information we've been teaching them, not every step they took to get there.
But I do feel like we should allow our students to do what they need to do to make improvements on the summative assessments. Because we grade so little, one grade can have an enormous impact if they don't particularly do well on a quiz, or take the time they should have taken to do it. As much as I don't want grades to matter, they do. If I have to give them grades, I want them to use the grade to learn what they need to do to improve, which means allowing them to actually make the improvements.
I understand that summative assessments are evidence of students' growth and learning. And that that summative assessment should be reflected in their grades because it is their evidence for their learning. The thing is that I don't believe students can't learn from their struggles with the summative assessments.
I have this vision for my future classroom where if a student asks if they can retake a test, or redo that book review and have me regrade it, or something relating to summative grade, I let them, but I have one qualification to make to that statement.
I would add three questions to whatever assessment they want to redo:
I think that if they want to redo something, why not let them take that learning opportunity and make themselves better learners? The issue might be with students cheating or getting answers unfairly, I understand, which is why I want them to think through what they need to improve and how they are doing it. If I want to teach them the process of screwing up, reflecting, and learning from mistakes, why shouldn't I allow them to do it in my own classroom? I would do anything to help foster a dedication to learning over grading. Isn't that what growth mindset is all about?
Students complain that their grades are not As. I get that. They want to feel successful, and their entire education has told them that grades are the way to do that. I think it's only fair to show them that they have that opportunity. It probably isn't going to be the opportunity that they like (no, by the way, there is no extra credit.), but it is an opportunity that, if they really want to grow as learners, will allow them to work on the material that they need to learn to meet the standards that I ask of them.
By kind of, I mean that if we made a list of our least favorite things to do, feeding into to the fact that many of our students' entire identities are wrapped up in what their grades say about them would be in the top two.
But I'm noticing trends in how teachers are talking about this issue vs. how they are acting, and it's making me think about what I really believe about giving students grades (since we have to do it anyway.)
I was part of an interesting chain of conversations today with a teacher and a student. It went something like this:
Student: ...I don't want to keep getting bad grades because I can't meet that required percentage with my old word count goal. [students are writing novels in November, and they have to set word count goals for the month]
Me: I just don't want you to focus on the grade. I want you to focus on the challenge and trying to meet the goal you've set yourself. You lowered your goal a little too much and I think you're capable of more than that.
Student: Then why are you grading us on it? I want to meet that goal, and I know I am capable of it, but I'm not doing it quick enough for the grade and I don't want a bad grade.
Teacher: Just to give you some perspective, those grades are for accountability, and part of participation, which is only worth 10%. It doesn't count for a whole lot of your grade.
There was a little bit more resistance, and I could tell that the student was frustrated. Despite this, I think we left the conversation with a better shared understanding. Then the teacher said the following to me after the student left (I'm paraphrasing):
Teacher: I don't understand why they care so much about their grades that they do things like that. It doesn't affect them, but they do things specifically for the grade.
I realized I didn't know how to respond to this, and the reason came to me later.
If you don't want your students to care about the grade, why do you grade them on it? I truly empathize with this student's frustration because I see it a lot, with many teachers I've observed. When a teacher puts numbers on everything, assessing their compliance, why wouldn't you do what's necessary to get the numbers you want?
It feels hypocritical. And I don't really completely blame the teacher, but we can't blame students for something we perpetuate with our own actions.
Like I said, my cooperating teacher and I both hate grades. We don't grade very many assignments because we don't want to grade them on formative assessments. It teaches them that to succeed they have to be compliant. They have to do only exactly what someone else says and if they don't they fail, when real life focuses far more on shared inquiry, collaboration, and communication. Why would I grade them on those things? I'm interested in what they're learning and how they're applying it. Most of what is graded in our class is summative. We grade the final application of the skills and information we've been teaching them, not every step they took to get there.
But I do feel like we should allow our students to do what they need to do to make improvements on the summative assessments. Because we grade so little, one grade can have an enormous impact if they don't particularly do well on a quiz, or take the time they should have taken to do it. As much as I don't want grades to matter, they do. If I have to give them grades, I want them to use the grade to learn what they need to do to improve, which means allowing them to actually make the improvements.
I understand that summative assessments are evidence of students' growth and learning. And that that summative assessment should be reflected in their grades because it is their evidence for their learning. The thing is that I don't believe students can't learn from their struggles with the summative assessments.
I have this vision for my future classroom where if a student asks if they can retake a test, or redo that book review and have me regrade it, or something relating to summative grade, I let them, but I have one qualification to make to that statement.
I would add three questions to whatever assessment they want to redo:
- What aspects of this assessment were difficult for you?
- What did you do to improve your understanding?
- What have you learned from this process?
I think that if they want to redo something, why not let them take that learning opportunity and make themselves better learners? The issue might be with students cheating or getting answers unfairly, I understand, which is why I want them to think through what they need to improve and how they are doing it. If I want to teach them the process of screwing up, reflecting, and learning from mistakes, why shouldn't I allow them to do it in my own classroom? I would do anything to help foster a dedication to learning over grading. Isn't that what growth mindset is all about?
Students complain that their grades are not As. I get that. They want to feel successful, and their entire education has told them that grades are the way to do that. I think it's only fair to show them that they have that opportunity. It probably isn't going to be the opportunity that they like (no, by the way, there is no extra credit.), but it is an opportunity that, if they really want to grow as learners, will allow them to work on the material that they need to learn to meet the standards that I ask of them.