The Schwartz paper says “several challenges emerge in attempting to cultivate modeling practices in classrooms. First, students need an authentic reason for building a model other than ”doing school” (pg 652).
I have been thinking about the topic of grading for a while now. I personally hate the idea of it. I think I hate it so much because it was a constant pressure for me as a child to get the best grades–to get the A+! It seems to me now to be a very behaviorist way of motivating kids to “do school.” I have been struggling mentally to come up with an alternative to the current system of giving kids grades and ranking them from 6-12 grade (and even in lower grades in certain schools). I have these seemingly extreme thoughts of wanting to removing ranking systems altogether, but how would we determine who gets to go to Harvard?
Looking at the learning progressions papers, I was thinking to myself, this sounds like a pretty great idea! Then I thought, if I’m a teacher, how am I going to come up with a test as well thought out as these researchers say theirs are. As one person, can a teacher address the issues that will arise when they discover that one student is a one on the progression scale and one is a four. I feel that we stretch teachers too far in the classroom. I see twenty-seven students for four hours a week as a TA, and I feel that in the laboratory setting it is practically impossible to meet the needs of every student. Another thing that discouraged me when thinking about learning progressions was, if a student is at a 1 and a student is at a 4, who gets the “A.” Are grades given out? Should students be punished with a C for not progressing as quickly as other students? Of course, that is what we do know isn’t it?
To this day, I am still driven by the thought of getting a bad grade. I received a 92 on a test recently, and was disappointed at my performance. I think what we do to students at a young age, ranking them and telling them who is smart and who is not, is very detrimental to their psyche.
Last little comment. If grades didn’t exist, would kids want to learn? Would I want to learn? Perhaps we would learn what we wanted to. But of course this would have to be a self-motivated process. This could have its benefits and negative consequences in my case! Any thoughts?
I helped pilot a program in my school district which was a non-graded 4-6th grade class of 25 students. It really was one of the most amazing experiences in my teaching career. Feedback was based upon performance and their achievement toward their goals (some of which were district driven). These goals were all based upon their current ability and what they needed to master. I had a 4th grade boy who was horrible at spelling and language arts, but excelled at science. In most classes, he would be ridiculed by his peers. Instead, he was held in great esteem regarding his science knowledge and was provided help with his spelling and writing. Now that was a community of learners!
This is the same struggle i have had with grades my entire academic caterer, both as a teacher and a student. I often think that I should start my classes by saying, everyone gets an A no matter what you do in this class. I don’t care if you show up, do work, participate, whatever. I wonder what would happen? At the very least no one would ask me how many glossary entries they have to make/edit to get a good grade, right?