Have you ever thought
this… said this… heard somebody else say this?
"If his grades
start to slip then we take away that Xbox."
"She's a good
student, she keeps her grades up, I trust her."
"He got straight
A's. I never would have guessed he was struggling so."
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| Ken O'Connor |
Do you want to be
graded on your performance in the beginning when all the information is new, or
do you want to be graded in the end after practice?
Consider this story:
"I was meeting with our
high school Advanced Placement teachers, who were expressing concerns about our
open enrollment process and the high failure rate. One math teacher said that
while a particular student was now getting 80's, she had made a 12 on the
initial test, so there is no way she is going to make a passing grade for the
first nine weeks."
Grades tend to reduce
students’ interest in the learning itself. One of the most
well-researched findings in the field of motivational psychology is that the
more people are rewarded for doing something, the more they tend to lose
interest in whatever they had to do to get the reward.
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| http://goo.gl/kZBN3z |
Grades tend to reduce
students’ preference for challenging tasks. Students of all ages who have
been led to concentrate on getting a good grade are likely to pick the easiest
possible assignment if given a choice.
If I can’t give a
child a better reason for studying than a grade on a report card, I ought to
lock my desk and go home and stay there.
The primary purpose of
classroom assessment is to inform teaching
and improve learning, not to sort and select students or to justify a grade.
Don’t punish academic
dishonesty with reduced grades; apply other consequences and reassess to
determine actual level of achievement.
The price of freedom is
proficiency… students are motivated not by threats of failure, but by the
opportunity to earn greater freedom and discretion by completing work
accurately and on time.
Don’t leave students
out of the grading process. Involve students; they can - and should - play key
roles in assessment and grading that promote achievement.
Thoughts and ideas here are from Alfie Kohn's 'Degrading to de-grading,' Ken O'Conner's 'How to grade for learning,' and Douglas Reeves' 'Leading to change / effective grading practices.'
What are your thoughts in regard to grading?