Start from a place of believing that all are working to do their best. This certainly makes a difference when working with students! It also reminds me of month 2 with Beth when she gave us our first "No Risk" assignments. I worked so hard on those assignments despite the fact that as long as I completed the work, I would receive an A. I have to say they are still products of which I am truly proud and I completed them at the beginning of the program when I was completely new to tools like iMovie and GarageBand.
I work so hard with my AP students to get them to see that the grade does not define them as a person. I would love to not have to give grades, but the fact remains that I have to use some sort of widely accepted scale to rate my students. I do tell them that whether they spend 5 minutes or 5 hours on an answer and it is wrong...it is wrong. (You are correct if you imagine that they do not like this information.) I take comfort in knowing that I really want the doctors that take care of my daughters to have been top in their class and to have scored high on every medical school exam. (I don't actually know if this is true, but I am pretty certain that our pediatrician was top in her class since she is a rockstar!) It would not be the same if she received an A just because. I unfortunately found myself putting less stock in the authors' arguments because one of them was teaching music. I wholeheartedly apologize to my musician friends!
Yet, imagine if you could really embrace this at your school. Imagine that student who saunters into class unprepared, never turns work in on time and then days before the final exam asks for extra credit to raise their grade. Or imagine giving an A to that colleague who walks in just in time in the morning, complains about everything and yet will provide no solutions, and is mysteriously sick for important require meetings. For some reason I am more able to cut my kids slack than adults. I guess I expect some degree of immaturity from teenagers, but won't take it from the adults. This "giving the A" sure sounds like a challenge.
Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteI giggled when I read your statement “whether they spend 5 minutes or 5 hours on an answer and it is wrong...it is wrong.” I have heard this seemingly from both of my piano and guitar teachers of late, “Bad practicing even if done for 10,000 hours is still bad.” Yes, I have even been told to walk away from a piece because I practiced in such a way that recovery was impossible at that moment. No A would have saved me, no matter how much I practiced, hurt feelings or not. I would agree that we all can benefit from experiences that are “risk free” and there are times when the acquisition must rise beyond practice to a great performance.
Thanks for sharing,
Tracy Anderson
Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteI totally understand your point when you mentioned imagine if the slacker students would be given an A and never take advantage of learning in a beneficial way? Or the negative and late colleague. Those individuals described do not need to be given anything, but a reality check, lol! I also like how you expounded on the positive aspects of the A concept. It is a great idea and strategynfornthe pople who are motivated to accomplish things, not based on a score or grade. Your visual ,"A" was very nice and creative.
Rebecca, this is a nice post, but I take issue with the idea behind the, "whether they spend 5 minutes or 5 hours on an answer and it is wrong...it is wrong" quotation. Can it really be this simple? Is this really the best information to give students this truth? I certainly agree with the sentiment, but I question the value of telling a student this idea. Given the lack of maturity in their rational abilities, might you run the risk of leading them to a path wherein the believe the answer is the most important aspect? Surely, in a medical situation, an answer is indeed the most important. But I harken back to Socrates, and his idea that accepting that you know nothing is the first step in knowing something. Students who are still learning habits for a lifetime of learning might be better served not to hear statements that focus so directly on the importance of an answer. Might this statement also discourage creative and innovative solutions? New answers? Better answers? I think of the Newtonian lemma 1, which sets forth the classic way to determine the area under a curve. It certainly works for it's purpose, but it is by no means the only way one calculates the figure.
ReplyDeleteI certainly agree with the thought, but I do question its usage with students.
Tobin, you bring up some excellent points. I am not saying that I live or teach by the "if it is wrong, it is wrong" philosophy all the time. I am dealing with seniors who are taking college level biology and they are all interested in a scientific career. My course can sometimes be the first major challenge they have faced. There are times when effort does not factor into the grade. This is where the "if it is wrong" comes in to play. There are times when it really is that simple. If the assignment requires them to come up with a specific answer and they are wrong, they should not get points just because of the time they spent. There are also times when inquiry, creativity, innovation are required in solving a solution. That is when the hard work of acquiring, understanding, knowing the information pays off. In order to design a lab, complete the experiment and draw conclusions, students need to know a certain amount of information. It is no longer ok for them to put glitter on a project and expect to get a better grade (yes, I had a student tell me this was their middle school experience and many other students agreed. glitter = better grade!) Students do need to know that the answers are important, but the process by which they learn the answer is the real reward. They need to become more comfortable with getting the answers wrong and continuing to struggle because that is how learning happens. So whether it takes 5 minutes or 5 hours to come up with the wrong answer, the question really is what will they do next? My hope is that they will continue to search for the right answer and in the process maybe even discover new answers!
Delete