Today I finished grading my last student assignment this
year. As I finalized my students’
grades, I pondered over my personal views of assessment. The truth is I HATE GRADING. I love planning exciting, engaging
lessons. I love giving students valuable
feedback about the quality of their speaking, listening, writing, and reading
skills. I love using assessment as an
instructional tool to help me determine what students need more of and what
they need less of in the classroom. But,
I HATE GRADING. I hate the sometimes
seemingly arbitrary numerical grade that is assigned to a student’s work that
can, for some students, seem like a number that is assigned to their sense of
worth.
In
this age of high-stakes testing and a more materialistic society, extrinsic
factors are often more motivational than intrinsic ones. How do you explain to students, parents,
other educators, and stakeholders that learning is about the process
more than the outcome? Furthermore, how do you communicate that a grade is not
an indicator of self-worth? These
questions plague me at the end of every school year. Whether calculating grades for my
grade-focused International Baccalaureate students or my inclusion English II
students, I observe the different ways that each student deals with the concept
of grading. Some students are devastated
not to receive an A in a class, while some students celebrate merely
passing. Some students use a failing
grade as justification for giving up, while others use the failing grade as
motivation to change their study and attendance habits. In this educational world centered on
testing, I can offer no concrete, clear-cut solutions, and can only provide
general inquiry. Fundamentally, I think inquiry
is the best way we can teach our students to understand their grades. Now, I do not advocate inquiry in the form of
“Why did I get such and such grade?” or “What can I do to get an A?” Instead, I advocate the inquiry that comes
with reflection.
I
would love to see us shift our focus in public education away from grading and
onto assessment and feedback. Just as I
would like for my students to view grades as a starting point for thoughtful
consideration about what their strengths are and what areas they need to
improve, I also view each school year as an opportunity for reflection and
growth. While I do receive some “grades”
in the form of teacher observations, parent communication, and peer and student
feedback, the most useful tools for reflection come from my own assessment of
these outcomes. I ask myself, “What
worked well? What could I do better next
year? What do I need to change? What new resources do I need to reach out to
my students?” The key point in my
personal assessment is that I consider multiple measures of mastery for myself,
and I always put the ownership of my actions back on me. Even when assessing why the student who
missed forty-five days of school failed, I still have to ask myself what I
could have done differently.
I want to teach my students the same
strategies for viewing grades and feedback.
I want to see them shift their focus from “Why did you give me this?” to
“What can I do to improve?” I try to
provide these opportunities for self-reflection as a part of major essays and
assignments, but I often see students diminish the importance of
self-reflection as just “filler” or a “waste of time.” What they are really concerned with is the
grade that I will assign them on the final product. Thus, we come back full circle to the necessity
of grades, even though I absolutely HATE GRADING.
Unfortunately, as we continue to focus on numerical
and letter grades with EOGs, EOCs, Common Exams, and School Report Cards, I
don’t know if we will ever be able to shift fully to a system where assessment
is more important than grading. In
keeping with the spirit of inquiry, I would like to pose a few questions for
you: How do you feel about grading? What
purpose do you think grades serve? Please post your comments and see if we
can get a discussion started on grading!
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