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.
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1 comment:
I definitely feel your pain. I wrote about some of my feelings about grades in this post . My students know that I hate grades but I have to give them.
Something that helps me get more from my students is to 1)give outlandish examples that make them laugh and then 2)give fewer restrictions on what they write. So I may say they have to use 7 commands and 3 have to be negative and 1 has to be dime, but the topic can be what your friend should do with their pet mouse who gets out of his cage everyday, or whatever floats their boat. The #1 factor in success is motivation, and if students are only motivated by grades, they'll stop learning and forget as much as possible as soon as they've completed your last final. If they get to blog every week about their latest deer hunting exploits, like one of my Spanish 3 students, they'll learn something, and it'll be something they find useful in their lives. And isn't that what they're always clamoring for in school--something useful?
Best of luck to you!
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