Grades and grading and maybe some learning
I am in the process of preparing for conferences on Thursday and as I examine my grade print outs, I experience moments of "What am I looking at?"
I started experimenting with weighted grades and categories this fall when I started at AHS. I liked the idea of of a more open and honest grade book, where parents and students could easily monitor academic progress. (My other goal is to create a community of learners where grades are valued, but the community of the class is as important as the kid's actual grade.) I am lucky enough to work with a great group of folks in my department - so it was easy for me to look at how they did their grades and then figure out my own system. My categories are simple; responsibility, formal assessments, daily learnings and the final. I played with the percentages a bit between first and second semester, but I maintained a simple system. I also changed how I structure assignments in my US History classes. There is less emphasis on small homework assignments (daily learnings) and more on seminars and the unit essays (formal assessments). I want to focus more on big picture learnings and building bridges to other concepts in class. My goal is to have the grade categories reflect this value.
But...
Lately, I am wondering if I am spending too much time on the grade part of the grade and not enough on what the kids are learning. Kids are crafty - they have figured out how to play the new and improved version of the the grading game. They inquire about their responsibility points as much as they do the other points. I wanted to achieve more meaningful grades, but lately I am wondering if that is a juxtaposed term like "military intelligence."
I would love to hear your ideas and suggestions. It is funny, when I talk to my freshmen about grades, they are all excited about more, as they put it "real work", but they still want to know how many points everything is worth and whether or not I will be collecting it. On the surface they buy into my "we are a community of learners" value, but at the end of the day, they want to know what being in the community is worth.
I started experimenting with weighted grades and categories this fall when I started at AHS. I liked the idea of of a more open and honest grade book, where parents and students could easily monitor academic progress. (My other goal is to create a community of learners where grades are valued, but the community of the class is as important as the kid's actual grade.) I am lucky enough to work with a great group of folks in my department - so it was easy for me to look at how they did their grades and then figure out my own system. My categories are simple; responsibility, formal assessments, daily learnings and the final. I played with the percentages a bit between first and second semester, but I maintained a simple system. I also changed how I structure assignments in my US History classes. There is less emphasis on small homework assignments (daily learnings) and more on seminars and the unit essays (formal assessments). I want to focus more on big picture learnings and building bridges to other concepts in class. My goal is to have the grade categories reflect this value.
But...
Lately, I am wondering if I am spending too much time on the grade part of the grade and not enough on what the kids are learning. Kids are crafty - they have figured out how to play the new and improved version of the the grading game. They inquire about their responsibility points as much as they do the other points. I wanted to achieve more meaningful grades, but lately I am wondering if that is a juxtaposed term like "military intelligence."
I would love to hear your ideas and suggestions. It is funny, when I talk to my freshmen about grades, they are all excited about more, as they put it "real work", but they still want to know how many points everything is worth and whether or not I will be collecting it. On the surface they buy into my "we are a community of learners" value, but at the end of the day, they want to know what being in the community is worth.
posted by Jackie Price at 8:14 AM
10 Comments:
Great post Jackie! The challenge of grades... I think your revised system sounds great, though I am sure it takes some getting used to. As a counselor, I rely heavily on grades to track student progress. Ultimately, I wish there was another way to track student progress, but we live in a grade laden environment and it seems impossible to get away from this. I don't know what it's like as a teacher to assign grades to students, but definitely have experienced what the grades mean to students and parents. Yes, they are extremely important. It makes me wonder how we can ever convince students and parents that grades aren't the essence of learning...As you said, demonstrating what has been learned is more important, but how can this best be reflected, especially in a system dependent upon grades? I am interested to see what other teachers have to say about this!
I too struggle with the concept of grades vs. learning. I agree that students will be able to figure out how to be the most successful with each teacher’s method of grading, but once again, the big picture is not the grade, but the learning. If the learning is taking place, then the grades will follow. As educators, what is our motivation to learn? We don’t get grades (at least not in the traditional sense), so why are we “life learners”? We certainly do not do it for the money. My question wouldn’t be how to change our grade book, but how to engage students to be motivated to learn for learning. Lastly, if a student isn’t learning who is responsible? The student or the teacher?
Whew - this is always such a tough question! Like Jackie, I am also experimenting with the weighting and categorization of my grades. I've divided mine into 4 sections for ICA: Keyboarding, Software Application, Responsibility, and the Final. Then I broke Responsibility down even further into: Meeting Deadlines, Classroom Behavior, and Attendance. A paperwork nightmare! I find that it takes me 3 times as long to enter grades and then explain them to the students...and my fear is that in the end the students will have no better understanding of the curriculum and a similar grade to what it would have been under the old system.
I'm finding that I am enjoying the responsibility portion of my grade that I added to my system this semester. Last semester I had a responsibility grade for showing up on time and also participating in class and behavior. This semester I added to the resposibility for turning in tests, projects and quizzes...although it takes a little extra effort to add the info in, I love seeing the grade breakdown as your content knowledge is 90% so you are understanding the material petty well, however the 25% in responsibility means you aren't doing what you are supposed to be doing. I guess it makes me feel good to let a student take the test, or turn in the late work and they just lose the responsibility portion of the grade and i am still able to assess their content learning. on the down side, since I let students take tests past the 1 week absence period, many are taking advantage and letting it slip, but they are learning that with more time that goes by the worse they will do on the tests because we have already moved onto new material.
On the down side of this, how much responsibility are we teaching the students that they can always turn in late work, even for some credit? How much reality is that? Sure your boss would take that project 1 month late...NOT! but then gain, they are high school kids, should we give them the harsh reality check so early in life? i guess it is personal preference on that one....
I have been thinking about my grading system in relation to our meetings with Tony Winger. I did change some things around, but what I keep coming to is the fact that most of the time a student is going to end up with about the same grade no matter how you slice and dice the numbers unless you get extreme with the weighting of certain categories. My real focus with my students is work completion and learning. Many times their learning is best displayed in class discussion and I try to find ways to capitalize on that. Most of my students aren't good testers in the traditional sense, but if you ask them about a concept they can explain it to you and give great examples that illustrate their point. We work on putting that on paper, but it is rarely as clear in focus and rich in content as an oral response would be.
In Special Education, I often feel that I am as responsible for a student's failure as the student. This may be right or wrong, I don't know, but in the end I am the one who has to answer for why even with a small class, individualized instruction, accommodations, and modifications a student has a poor grade in my class. "He/she doesn't do the work" isn't good enough. There are always the questions to follow such as why didn't you...? I try to give my students the opportunity to demonstrate and apply their knowledge in ways that are advantageous to each individual. So, while it may not be a drastically modified grading system, it is a change to assignments and grading that reflects what the students are able to demonstrate and it works for both the students and me.
I really like what Paul had to say, how do we motivate students to learn for the sake of learning. Its like what we talked about with CSAPs, how can we convince students to take these exams seriously. I know having a good relationship with the students does help with this.
Great idea for a post! I think we all have grading methods and practices on our mind so it’s great to see what others are doing. As a new teacher it is always nice to see different ways of grading/entering grades. I am getting a lot more confident in establishing solid grading categories, but I am trying to learn how to properly weigh my grades. I have had some good helpers in my department so I should be able to do this starting next semester if I decide that it’s a better way to go.
Changing both the students’ and the parents’ mindset on grades is a monumental task that will take time and training. This year, I too have experimented with categories and weighted grades, and a couple of things have stood out to me regarding this process. First, students just want to know what their grade is and categories mean very little to them. This could be a result of my lack of experience in using this grading system, and therefore I did a poor job of explaining to the students how the grading works and how it is beneficial in illustrating what they know. Next year I hope to do a better job explaining how the weighted grading system is beneficial to students and will give them a better idea of what they have learned in my class.
Similarly, I have seen the same thing with parents, for when they e-mail or call me, they just want to know what their son or daughter’s grade is and what they can do to get it higher. With that said, I have found that when I can sit down with the parent (parent-teacher conferences), the categories work well because I can show them the grade and then use the break down to focus on the student’s strengths and weaknesses. In my experiences thus far, I have found that parents like this feature and it really helps me see trends in grades and where students in my classes are struggling.
In response to the amount of time involved, I have noticed that the “responsibility” and “late” work portion of my grading is the most time consuming portion of my grading program. I have been (and will continue) to look for a new and better way to handle the “responsibility” portion of my grading system to make things easier to grade and keep track of.
Jackie, I think you’ve really hit the nail on the head with your closing comments. It has been a while since I was in the classroom, however, I do know how easy it is to take on the role of bookkeeper versus instructor. The amount of time and effort spent assessing and documenting student progress can be overwhelming. It makes me think of a quote from Chris Tovani in which she says, “school is a place where young people go to watch adults work.” I’m not sure one teacher can change the system or, to put it more accurately, the mindset of students and parents when it comes to how grades are perceived. I do think it is important to ask, however, is the gradebook the communication tool that it can be?
I’ve found our discussions/conversations with Tony Winger eye-opening. Some of what he’s presented flies in the face of what we often picture our roles to be. Is a teacher’s role to teach content and skills in their subject area or to teach responsibility? Or both? And if so, to what extent?
Developing and using an “accurate” grading system is one of the least glamorous tasks educators must face. Keeping in mind what we want the students to learn is crucial, in my opinion, to developing a meaningful grading system. How does a grading system document the acquisition and understanding of specific skills and knowledge?
To be honest, I never used a weighted grading system – I used points. If I deemed something especially important, I made it worth more points, thus weighing certain assignments more than others. When I look back on it, my gradebook was simply a listing of activities or topics (Constitution, Civil War, Middle East, and so on). I doubt that I regularly identified student learning. From looking at my gradebook I don’t think any student could have stated to what degree they had mastered certain skills, concepts, or content. Of course, students would receive grades for worksheets with titles like “Using Latitude and Longitude to Locate Places,” but did an “A” grade really mean they “got it?” And did the points really convey the importance of that specific concept or content in the big scheme of things?
I’m not sure I clarified anything or offered any worthwhile suggestions. It seems to me that as educators, we need to identify what we want students to learn and ask ourselves if our gradebooks clearly communicate whether understanding has been attained or not.
I constantly struggle with how to grade students’ work. What did I want them to learn? What should they have learned? Are there alternate answers to the questions? These are just a few of the question I constantly ask myself. I also think as I grade did the students answer the question. Sometimes they give good information but they did not answer the question at hand. Do these students deserve all their points? I find that many students do not read the question or answer the question at hand. Many of my students do not answer the whole question. If it asks for three examples they only give two. If the question has the word AND in it, they seem to overlook it.
As for the grade I have on IC they can even seem more confusing. What does the grade really represent? After making categories for responsibility and content knowledge, I still wonder what it represents. It did not take long for students to find out how to play the “new” game. They quickly find loop-holes to take the easy way out. Grading will always be a struggle. It just think is important to always reflect on how and why you are grading the way you do.
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