Grades vs learning

At my last school I had a group of kids who were not only interested in getting good grades but were also interested in learning and seeing their progress. It was so rewarding to hear some of the questions they asked to help them better understand and to see them so focused on being able to apply what they learned.

This year I am not seeing that in most of my students. I have a few very high achievers who won't accept a grade less than a 100%. And I've come across parents who are so focused on their kids GPAs (although often times the kids of these parents could care less about their GPA).

This group of kids is quick to complain and blame when their grades are less than ideal but are not willing to do anything about it.

One example:
Part of every rubric for a writing or speaking project includes creativity, risk-taking, and variety. I have explained what this means. I have given very specific comments to individuals who are just handing in the very minimum and yet nothing changes yet they complain so loud when their grades are perfect. I have level 4 students who will hand in a paragraph of 5 sentences (which may have been the requirement) but all 5 sentences are nothing more than a subject and verb and maybe an object thrown in making it a VERY basic paragraph and something that I would expect of my Spanish I students.

Another example:
We had a test coming up in my Advanced class. They expected there to be a snow day the day of the test (a Friday) and so most of my students wasted the entire review hour the day before chatting and studying for their chemistry test because they figured they would have the weekend to study. It turned out that we did have the snow day and so their test got pushed to Tuesday and none of them started studying until Monday. Then when the same material shows up on the next test they will have completely forgotten it (because they crammed instead of learned it) and will complain.

Some days I wish we could take away grades and just focus on the learning and on what students accomplished. I think kids would learn and retain far more if our report cards looked more like checklists of skills needed to be acquired where we could just keep track of what they have or have not accomplished.

Homework completion corrolates to success

My Spanish II students took a test on the preterit on Friday. Every student who earned a C or higher (with most of those earning Bs and As), had completed the previous 4 assignments carefully (all 4 of those assignments directly related to this test). Every kid who failed, missed at least 1 assignment with most missing multiple assignments or did not complete carefully the assignments they did do.

When I shared this information with my first hour, they all just stared back at me like they could care less. It really is unfortunate.

Teaching kids to be independent

What can we do to teach kids to be more independent and responsible for the choices they make?

We have had a quite a few kids ineligible since the quarter ended and they are always so quick to blame the teachers who "gave" them the Fs.

I tell kids about a vocabulary quiz coming up, write it on the board, put it on my website, remind them daily, and the day the quiz comes and they bomb it they are so quick to turn the blame around to someone or something else. "I had a game last night." "I didn't know there was a quiz today." "I didn't know what was going to be on the quiz."

I give kids an assignment (that should be very self explanatory if they would just read the directions) and so many kids come to class the next day with it not complete and say, "I didn't know how to do it so I didn't do it." And my response always is, "Did you stop by my room afterschool, during lunch or before school this morning to ask for help? Did you find a classmate and ask them?" There response always is a blank stare.

I give kids an in class assignment for them to work on independently while I circulate the room and kids stop me to tell me they don't get it. So I always ask them "What part don't you get?" And they just repeat "I just don't get it." So I say, "well, think aobut it and call me over when you figure out what part you need help on."

Or a student asks me a specific question. So instead of just giving them the answer, I usually respond with a question to get them thinking about it and continue with follow up questions to guide them to the answer. And too often they refuse to think about it and refuse to answer my questions. They tell me "it's your job to tell me the answer." Too many kids just aren't willing to try things on their own and need to be spoon fed.

I want to get kids to think independently. I want them to try things on their own first and then if they still don't get it, to be able to think through it well enough to ask good questions. I want kids to take responsibility for their own learning and realize that their successes and failures are directly because of what they put into it. I want kids to learn to keep track of deadlines and manage their workload effectively. These are all skills they so desperately will need when they leave our four walls.

How can we teach them these skills?