100% Not always what we want

Just recently I gave a formal exam to one of my classes, and some students scored 100%.  Normally, I would not critique this mark, but what I heard from my students caused me to reflect. 

At the start of one of my classes some students were discussing their marks and I overheard one student, who achieved a 100% on the exam, say “I can’t believe I got a 100%, I had to guess on some answers. Lucky me!”

Is this the reaction we want from our students after an exam, regardless of the mark they receive? 

I believe it is more important we know WHY a student feels as they were successful or failed then the actual mark they received on an assessment.  This particular student believes it was luck that actually caused his achievement to increase not talent, ability or knowledge. 

When students inform me that they have “studied hard” for an exam, my first question is why?  I, always, try to see any action from the student’s point of view and then determine whether or not real learning is occurring and will it keep occurring.  If a student is studying hard because he/she is completely lost in the course, he/she is most likely cramming and no real learning is occurring.

I now ask, why do students spend countless hours cramming information, which is usually not into their long term memory, into their mind?

Years ago, I blamed myself for these actions.  I promoted this mind-set in my class by constantly using the words, “Performance, Results, Achievement, Failure, and Success!”  In my class I was more concerned about the answers to my problems than in the procedure to solve the problems. 

Students were leaving my class happy they got an A, while I wanted them to be excited they now understood how to think critically in a mathematical world.  The irony of it all was when my final results of my courses came in.  Paradoxically, I was ending up with results which were lower than my colleagues.  This priority of achieving high results, ultimately was my demise in both achievement and, more importantly, learning. 

Lastly, we need to be aware of the plethora of research around achievement and grades which is showing that if we put a large emphasis on these it will

1) Undermine the idea of true intrinsic motivation in the material we are teaching.

2) Causes some students to feel as success is an idea which is unachievable.

3) Will force students to “take the easy route” instead of working on a more challenging problem.

4) Reduces the quality of learning.

5) Creates an environment where students will create a self-image of themselves based on how smart they are, instead on how hard they are trying.

Facts and Myths of traditional learning in schools

It is little short of a miracle that modern methods of instructions have not completely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry – Albert Einstein

From “Breaking Free from myths about teaching and learning” by Allison Zmuda, we learn about various myths and facts about learning in the traditional classroom, and my synopsis:

Myth: The rules of this classroom and subject area are determined by each teacher:

This is false as the push for meeting provincial (and state) standards increase, the autonomy of the individual teacher decreases.  Collaboration is being used to enforce compliance as well as standardizing the rules of each classroom.  For learning to be meaningful it must stem from personal experiences, current issues from students, as well as address the personal attributes of each student.  This cannot be achieved by blanket policies which affect all.

Fact: What the teacher wants me to say is more important than what I want to say:

This is truly a sad fact about our education system.  It is entirely summed up by a student who said:

It’s easy to take what the teacher says and regurgitate it without even thinking about what was said, and it’s how we’ve been taught to learn.  When I set out to write a paragraph, I actually thought I should ask my teacher to spell out what he wanted me to write… If I tried to challenge my teacher, all it would take is a little bit of him pushing back to make me drop my argument and look like a deer in the headlights, even if I had a decent argument.  Now that I know how passive I’ve been, I’m ready to make some changes in my learning style.

 Students need to have opinions in classes, and the teachers need to be cognisant of these ideas.

Fact: The point of an assignment is to get it done so that it’s off the to-do list:

In our schools, too many students are feeling overwhelmed to get the assigned readings complete, answer the repetitive math questions, study for the Biology exam and still have time to pursue to their own interests outside of school.  One student has even said

Most students just do the assignment because there is not time to really study it.  We don’t really get a chance to go further into the parts of the topic we are studying that aren’t part of the curriculum because we have already moved to a whole new topic.

We, as educators, must be aware that for students to complete all their “homework” they must take shortcuts and thus truly never understand the material at a deeper level.

Myth: I feel proud of myself only if I receive a good grade:

Students are using grades to truly sort themselves among their friends and classmates.  I believe all teachers have heard comments such as:

I got an F on this exam, but that is ok because I am not good at it.

I got a B like I always do, so I am doing fine.

No one is getting an A, so makes sense that I am not getting one either.

Grades and other extrinsic rewards are actually limiting the potential success of students.  Students are actually seeing the grade as an indicator as to how well they are playing the game of school.  As we push for improving learning we must move away from using grades to motivate students.  Students are proud of the product of their education not the mark they receive on how well they have manipulated their education

Myth: Speed is synonymous with intelligence:

Too many times we are pushing students to complete tasks at a speed which is unnatural to their own learning.  We are stripping education of passion and interest and replacing it with efficiency.  This can be seen in math classes when we teach “math tricks” and justify it by “this is the fastest way to get to the answer”.  Other educators validate this idea of rushing to complete the course due to the amount of material that is needed to be covered in a short amount of time.  The pressure to prepare students for standardized exams and complete the overwhelming curriculum is making it quite difficult for teachers to accept alternate views of learning, instruction using discovery methods, and taking time to allow for each student to deeply understand a topic before moving on.

More myths and facts exist, and I encourage all to read the book…WOW!

Grading with O'Connor

Recently I read through "How to Grade for Learning" from Ken O' Connor, who brings up some GREAT points about grading.  Here is synopsis of my own learning:

First and foremost.... "Learning can (and does) happen in the absent of grades!"...This was the biggest myth I believed for quite a while when I first started teaching.  I truly believed that grades were the ONLY way learning could occur...I was wrong (the first and last time I have ever been wrong :) )

Grant Wiggin even said

"Perhaps the most counterproductive aspect of schooling as we know it is the conventional system of letter grades. The problem with grades is not the use of symbols, but the absence of any DEFENSIBLE plan for coming up with the symbol… most grades reflect what is easy to count and average into a final grade.”

O' Conner brought up his 7 persepectives underlying grading:

• Grading is not essential for learning.

• Grading is complicated.

• Grading is subjective & emotional.

• Grading is inescapable.

• Grading has a limited research base.

• Grading has no single best practice.

• Grading that is faulty damages students and teachers!

I have heard many teachers express their views that grades truly motivate students into learning, however O'Conner says:

If grades are extrinsic motivators, they can destroy intrinsic motivation. Good grades may motivate, but poor grades have no motivational value.

Even further, Gusky has said:

“Low grades push students farther from our cause, they don’t motivate students. Recording a D on a student’s paper won’t light a fire under that student to buckle down and study harder. It actually distances the student further from us and the curriculum, requiring us to build an emotional bridge to bring him or her back to the same level of investment prior to receiving the grade.”

Lastly, Marzano (after researching over 8000 studies) said:

The most powerful single modification that enhances achievement is FEEDBACK. The simplest prescription for improving education must be ‘dollops of feedback’.”

And now the big finale...here are 15 "fixes" you can do TODAY to change your assessment:

#1 - Don’t include student behaviors (effort, participation, polite manners, etc.) in grades; include only achievement.

#2 - Don’t reduce marks on late work; provide support for the learner.

#3- Don’t give points for extra credit work or use bonus points; seek only evidence that more work has  resulted in a higher level of achievement.

#4- Don’t punish academic dishonesty with reduced grades; apply other consequences and reassess to determine actual level of achievement.

#5 - Don’t consider attendance in grade determination; report absences separately.

#6- Don’t include group scores in grades; use only individual achievement evidence.

#7 - Don’t organize information in grading records by assessment methods or simply summarize into a single grade; organize and report evidence by standards/learning goals.

#8 - Don’t assign grades using inappropriate or unclear performance standards; provide clear descriptions of

achievement expectations.

#9 - Don’t assign grades based on student’s achievement compared to other students; compare each student’s performance to preset standards.

#10- Don’t rely on evidence gathered using assessments that fail to meet standards of quality; rely only on quality assessments.

#11 - Don’t rely only on the mean; consider other measures of central tendency and use professional

judgment.

#12- Don’t include zeros in grade determination when evidence is missing or as punishment; use alternatives, such as reassessing to determine real achievement or use “I” for Incomplete or Insufficient Evidence.

#13- Don’t use information from formative assessments and practice to determine grades; use only summative evidence.

#14 - Don’t summarize evidence accumulated over time when learning is developmental and will grow with time and repeated opportunities; in those instances, emphasize more recent achievement.

#15 - Don’t leave students out of the grading process. Involve students; they canand should- play key roles in assessment and grading that promote achievement.

Last, Reeves says

“If you wanted to make JUST ONE change that would immediately reduce student failure rates, then the most effective place to start would be challenging prevailing grading practices.”

Learning on a test day? You bet!

I remember back to my first year of teaching when my principal walked in during my class to complete an evaluation.  He stepped in, took a look around, and then walked right back out.  I was scared out of my mind, while I thought “should I have been doing more?”  After school I approached my principal and asked if I was doing anything incorrect.  He quickly responded, “No, not at all, but I can’t do an evaluation during a test day”.

Most administrators would agree that an evaluation can’t be done during a class where there is a “test”, and most wouldn’t question that.  I believe the reason is because “there is no way to witness how the teacher teaches, or how the students learn”.  Some might even argue that test days are the days where the least amount of learning occurs.

How does this change?

Recently, I administered a quiz to my students but in a new way, and I saw an entire new outcome.  In the past, during “quiz days” students would put up dividers (since they sit in groups of 4), remain silent, complete the quiz independently, and leave the occasional answer blank.  This adds up to very little or no new learning occurring, just summative assessment.

 This year, I administered a quiz and told my students it was not for marks.  I told them to take down the dividers but to treat this like a test.  After 5 minutes of silence, I noticed one girl whispering to her classmate.  I walked over and informed her that she can’t cheat. She replied with, “I am not cheating but asking for help”.  I smiled and asked her to continue.  Minutes later, I saw another student pointing out some information to a different classmate.  After informing him that cheating would not be accepted, he replied with “I am teaching Sally how to do this”.

After 20 minutes had passed, all of my students were collaborating on questions, comparing answers with a classmate, or teaching a student who had a question blank.   My students were learning from a quiz, not because I graded them on their mistakes, but due to collaboration and determination from each other.

Now the cool part, I would still call this assessment.  I did not need to take in the quizzes to assess which students were struggling with the material and which students were at a level of adequate understanding.  By pacing the room and listening to the conversations, I gained the knowledge of which students needed remedial help and which students were ready to move onto the next topic.  Of course there is no possible way I could say Sally knows 74% of the material, but I would argue that even if Sally’s quiz was marked at 74%, I still couldn’t rightfully say that. 

Overall, students were learning while I was assessing them; that was a great lesson in my books!

When no mark is better than a mark

Recently, it was report card due date.  In the past, I would input the marks into my grade system then attach comments to the grades and submit my marks to the appropriate people.  Afterword, I would go home and enjoy a drink.

This year I decided to do things a little differently.  I inputted the marks, just the same, however after I decided to take a closer look.  Between my three classes, I noticed four students who were not meeting success in my course.  Instead of ignoring the failure, and attaching the canned “Please see me at parent teacher interviews…” comment, I took a different approach.

Before, I failed to realize that the failing mark was actually destroying the self-confidence of the student and informing him/her “You are a failure.”  This year, and in future years, I am no longer sending this message home to parents and, more importantly, to the students themselves.

This year, I removed all the marks of the students who were not meeting success in my class. Instead of sending a mark of 40%, 34% or 48%, I sent a mark of “—“ home.  Instead of having the “you are failing the course” conversation, I sat down with each student and had this conversation with a student:

Me: Suzy, currently, you are not meeting the expectations of my course.

Suzy: I know, and my mark is low.

Me: How about this?  Instead of giving you a mark we will leave it blank and over the next two weeks, you and I will review the first three units until you can truly demonstrate the knowledge at an acceptable standard.

Suzy: Huh? What is my mark?

Me: Do you feel like you understand the material I have covered in class?

Suzy: No, but I really need to pass this course.

Me: Alright, then does it really matter what your mark is?

Suzy: No, but I don’t think I will be able to pass the class, because I am pretty sure my mark is really low.

At this point Suzy started to cry.

Me: That is my point.  I don’t want you to think that.  We will wipe the slate clean, spend some time going over the material and then reassess you.  If you can demonstrate the material next week, then I will ignore the first month.

Suzy: Wow, can I give you a hug?

Me: Ha ha, no but a high five will do!

All the conversations went very similar to this.  Also, when I phoned home, EVERY parent thanked me profusely.  

Marks are not causing problems solely for failing students, but for more students than you are probably aware of.  This year, already, I have had multiple students drop a class of mine because their midterm mark is lowering their average.  Every student, when talked to, informed me that he/she enjoyed the class, has learned a lot, but he/she is too concerned about their average mark.

The students were dropping my pre-calculus class, which runs as a first year post secondary class.  Some would argue that this is a positive experience as I am “weeding” and “opening the eyes” of my students to the true post-secondary experience.  When I hear comments such as these, I want to join Suzy crying!

Even my high-end students are being negatively effected by these midterm marks.  I have heard, several, of them say similar comments such as: “I have to make sure I stay on the honor roll, and since I am well over that, I can stop trying”.

Education should NEVER be about destroying confidence, weeding students out, or informing them that they can stop trying, but unfortunately this is the message sent home when we become marks orientated.

At first, I believed for failing students “no mark is better than a mark”, but as I listen and talk to my other students I have concluded that for EVERY student “no mark is better than a mark”.  Imagine what we could accomplish if, instead of giving a mark, teachers just had to answer one question “Will this student be successful at the next level?”

Working with Parents to Abolish Grading

Joe Bower is one damn good educator.  His blog can be found here. 

Many people have asked, "How do you get parents on board with abolishing grades?"  and here is his story:

Working with Parents to Abolish Grading

Abolishing grading is both a worthy and challenging task. I'm often asked how parents react to it all. In my experience, for the most part, parents have been an easy sell.

In the five years since I first abolished grading, I've yet to have a parent come absolutely unglued with the prospect of no grading. I have had parents ask questions during parent-teacher interviews or student-led portfolios about this whole no grading thing, and I am more than willing to engage in the conversation - in fact, I'm usually the one who brings it up by asking "So, how do you feel about the way I do things? No grades, no homework, etc". I've noticed that many parents are relieved that I bring it up first as they are hesitant to engage in what might appear as a challenge to my teaching.

Most parents are interested in how I do it, but none of them can really conceive how school can be done without grading. I often ask myself why this is - why can't adults envision school without grades?

There are probably as many answers to this as there are adults who ask the question, but I believe there is some truth in the idea that most of us parent the way we were parented and teach the way we were taught.

But you have to remember that school was likely just as frustrating for today's parents as it is for today's students. School hasn't changed very much. Tests and grades haven't changed very much. The game of school  prevails.

Parents may not know it, but we must remember that most parents are an ally in the move against grading - it's our job to remind them how it felt to be gamed by the fraudulent grading and testing machine. To remind them, I ask them these kinds of questions:

• Did you ever work really hard and learn a lot about something and receive a low grade?
• Did you ever slack off and learn almost nothing but receive a high grade?
• Can you think of someone you went to school with, and you knew they were really really smart, but always received low grades?
• Can you think of someone who received really really high grades but you knew they were a dolt and that they had, at best, a superficial understanding?

The whole idea here is to convince parents to see (remember) how grading is and was so inaccurate for them and that nothing has changed for their child. I have yet to speak with a parent who couldn't remember how this all felt. I tend to get head nods of strong agreement - even by those who are most suspicious of my no-grading policies. They get it - they just need to be reminded.

In the end, parents may not walk away 100% convinced that no-grading is the answer, but there is one more trump card here that has them leaving the interview satisfied and that is they know their child is learning. They know because for some reason, their child keeps coming home and talking about Mr. Bower and what we did in science or language arts today.

Their children are coming home saying they like school! Their children are reading more. They're asking questions and researching seemingly random stuff on the Internet. They are writing, talking and thinking about what we are doing in school.

How do parents know their children are learning? They don't need grades or test scores to know all this because they can see it with their own eyes.

Their children are happy, and so they are happy.

And that makes me happy.

Cheating or Collaboration

“We are not cheating, we are working together!”  This was a statement of a student who was accused of cheating at my school.  Just by walking by, I don't believe anyone could assess whether or not cheating or collaboration were occurring.

If as adults, we collaborate on most or all of our tasks in life, why do we require our students to work alone?  We should be promoting collaboration in our schools and not independence or even cooperation.  I have written about the difference between cooperation and collaboration here.

If you are truly worried about cheating in your class, here are easy and simple solutions to prevent it from happening:

·         Create open ended projects which allow the students to create and use autonomous strategies.  Once the “group” has decided on a certain path to take, students will want to be more accountable without extrinsic motivators.  Have these projects relate directly to the students’ lives through their passions or interests.  Once the student understands that it is a worthwhile problem, he/she will have more motivation to also understand how to solve it.

·         Have these tasks as low risk tasks.  This can be done by not assigning any marks to the project.  Put the emphasis on the work done, the learning achieved, and the final project presented, not on the mark given to the group.

·         If you are giving marks, have the students actively involved in the mark.  Ask them to evaluate themselves; listing both strengths and weaknesses of the completed project.  Allow for students to improve the mark by giving them comments (without marks at this point) as to what areas are needed for improvement.

The common argument to letting students collaborate on a project is: “The teacher won’t actually know how much each person knows.”  I am still not convinced that this statement is true.  I believe if you give students a well thought out collaboration project, students will learn the intended outcomes. 

Teachers need to stop the requirement of marks and start looking more at a holistic idea of whether or not students understand the intended outcome.  I agree that teachers will not know the EXACT mark (ie: 92.5%) of a student through a collaborative project BUT….. Neither will they know it through a test!  Great teachers understand how poor and inaccurate test scores are to demonstrate how much learning has occurred. 

Once, as an entire education system, we embrace the idea of not needing marks to assess students you will see how a collaborative project is a more effective tool than an individual traditional test.

Do schools use a bell curve grading system

I was reading an article called “Bell Curve Grading”.  Three parts that I found interesting were:

“In education, grading on a bell curve is a method of assigning grades designed to yield a desired distribution of grades among the students in a class……”

“…Because bell curve grading assigns grades to students based on their relative performance in comparison to classmates' performance, the term "bell curve grading" came, by extension, to be more loosely applied to any method of assigning grades that makes use of comparison between students' performances…..”

“…strict bell-curve grading is rare at the primary and secondary school levels (elementary to high school) but is common at the university level.”

Most elementary to high schools, that I have either taught at or heard of, have abolished the use of a bell curve grading system.  Even though they have formally abolished such a system, does one still exist below the surface?

I started pondering this idea when I heard a teacher talking about her marks.  Three years ago this teacher tried something amazing in her class and the students’ achievement increased drastically.  This achievement was demonstrated by the class average being over 90%, where in other years it was around 65%.  This teacher felt uneasy giving such high marks to most of the students in the class.

I asked this teacher, “What is the best class average to have?”, the response was “65%-75%”.  After our conversation, I proceeded to ask other teachers about the “best” class average, and every single one of them responded with a mark in the range of 65%-75%.  This sounds very similar to grading on a curve.

Wouldn’t the best class average be 100%?  Most would say this absurd; one teacher informed me that if I had a class average of 100%, I better have been teaching robots!  I laughed at the teacher’s comment about robots, and was informed we are teaching humans and as humans we make mistakes.  To give 100% to a student is truly saying this student has never made a mistake in the class.

My heart sank.  We should not be grading students on what they have done throughout the course but what they can demonstrate at the end of the course.  I fear that if you ask some educators they will say they “desire a distribution of grades among the students in a class”, which is “bell curve” grading.

Grades should not be based on what the class is learning, but actually what the student came in the class with and what the student has learned throughout the class.  My last question to all educators out there: “How many times have you given 100% to a student in a course?”  Most who I have asked have informed me that they never have.  I truly feel sad when our highest mark for a course is set outside the reach of a student.  In a sense we are asking students to run a race they have no chance in winning, and we are disappointed when they don’t finish first.

For more on my views on grading and class average click here

For more on my views on giving 100% in class click here

AMP first, marks second.

Why do we give exams?

After asking many teachers the top three answers that have been given are:

1)      “To assess, and find out actually what the students know”

2)      “If we don’t test it, the students won’t want to learn it”

3)      “Hold teachers accountable for their teaching”

After many hours of thought, I have decided to post my rebuttal to these three reasons, over the next three blogs:

1)      To argue this I would like to start by quoting Einstein “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts”.  I believe that discrete statistical data, derived from tests, actually devalue the professional judgement of a teacher.  Teachers should be able to rely on the personal interaction with their students that they have on a day-to-day basis and not the mark received on an exam. 

To further illustrate this, before a student even writes an exam, he/she could explain to the teacher what his/her mark will be on the evaluation.  Furthermore, I would even go as far saying that most teachers know what mark the student will receive on the exam as well.  If both the teacher and the student know what mark is going to be achieved, why waste valuable class time giving an examination?

Tests are also discouraging to any student achieving a mark that is not sufficient.  A student, in this category, will walk into your class KNOWING they will not achieve an adequate mark, and then write the exam.  When you hand back the exam, marked, their knowledge will be confirmed with the poor mark.  We are beating their confidence down with their own knowledge.

Alfie Kohn, would say:

“Most assessment systems are based on an out-dated behaviourist model that assumes nearly everything can -- and should -- be quantified.  But the more educators allow themselves to be turned into accountants, the more trivial their teaching becomes and the more their assessments miss.”

Some would then argue; give more exams.  The more chances a student has to demonstrate their learning, the better the picture the teacher has of what the student knows.  Psychologists Martin Maehr and Carol Midgly would say “an overemphasis on assessment can actually undermine the pursuit of excellence”. 

It has been shown, many times, that the more a student is told to focus on their marks, the less engaged they become about the learning.  Classrooms should have less of an emphasis on achievement and marks, and more emphasis on autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

More on intrinsic motivation before extrinsic

An argument to my blog about motivation is “Would you work if you weren’t paid?”  Society needs to understand that extrinsic motivation will only induce and encourage people to a certain point, while intrinsic motivation will provoke and inspire behaviour beyond that point.

To illustrate this let’s take two teachers, who both work in middle class Red Deer:

Ivan – a teacher who is motivated by true intrinsic motivation.  Ivan loves to teach solely to inspire young minds.

Edward – a teacher who is motivated by only extrinsic motivation.  Edward loves to teach for the 2 months off at summer, the pay check, and the honour of calling himself a teacher.

Scenario 1: They are paid $100 000 a year for teaching; a pay which allows them to both live comfortably.  Their administration then offers a 10% (or $10 000) increase in pay if they were to take on extra teaching duties.  Due to their motivations Ivan would say “Yes”, while Edward would decline.

Ivan is agreeing as he is seeing an opportunity to stimulate more young minds.  Edward declines since he does not need the increase in pay to sustain his lifestyle.

Scenario 2: They are paid $30 000 a year; a pay which will NOT allow them to both live comfortably.  Their administration offers the same deal, 10% (or $3 000) increase to take on extra teaching duties.  This time, however, they both accept the deal.

Even though the increase is less this time than in scenario 1, Edward needs the increase to maintain and continue living his lifestyle. 

Teachers need to understand that extrinsic rewards, or carrots, only motivate students to a point.  For some, this point is a 50%, and others it may be a 90%, but there is a mark XX% for every child.  Once a student achieves his/her XX%, the learning curve will drop drastically.  To further illustrate this, an actual comment from a student:

“My parents require me to be on the honour roll, which is to have an average of 80% or higher.  Since my mark in this class is an 85%, I can stop trying”

This is occurring more often than we realize!  When we start creating classrooms based on learning, and not marks, the paradigm shift will be amazing.  Students will start holding themselves accountable for their learning, and there will no longer be an XX% for which students will maximize their performance at.  We need to start answering the question of “Is this for marks?” with “NO! It is for learning!”

Outcome based assessment first, high stakes second.

Today I asking for any opinion of what I am trying to implement as my new assessment and teaching strategy.  First, I will talk about how I am assessing currently and problems I see, then I will introduce my policy.  I will be bringing this forward to my administration, but I would like some input before I do that.  The course I will be implementing this in is “Math 30 Applied”, where there is a standardized exam at the end the course worth 50%.

Currently, my marks have been based on the picture to the right.  Students are also given the chance to write a replacement exam, once at the midterm and once at the end of course.  If students achieve better than their lowest mark they can replace this mark with the mark they achieved on the replacement exam.  As you can see 95% of their mark is based on how they achieve on exams. 

3 large problems:

I am assessing student achievement and not student learning. 

I am promoting the idea of memorization for an exam, regurgitate then forget the learning.

I am forcing students to learn outcomes on my strict schedule.

I am tired of grades being sticks and carrots for students.  Students are scared of writing high stakes exams where they have to demonstrate their learning in this one “snapshot”, and if they don’t demonstrate learning this bad mark will haunt them for the remainder of the course [a stick].  I am also tired of students completing assignments only for marks.  [a carrot]

The new strategy: based on here

Students, at the beginning of the term, will receive a list of the 25 learner outcomes required by the course.  The list will also have one illustrated example of what a student should be able to do to demonstrate an acceptable standard of understanding.  I have supplied a picture of the first couple of outcomes.  This list is based on the mandated outcomes from my provincial government.  I will be teaching at the same pace and will still be teaching through discovery learning.  The assessment, however, will not be the same.

On Thursdays, students will be given a set of questions based on 4 outcomes.  3 of these outcomes will be chosen by the students, where the 4^th outcome will be one chosen by me.  This 4^th outcome will be one that has already been demonstrated by the student.  Each student will receive their own personalized assessment.

I am giving one mandatory demonstration a week; however I am allowing my students unlimited demonstrations of any concept. They can demonstrate their learning at lunch, before or after school, or during their prep.  Also keep in mind, when they want to demonstrate an outcome of their choosing, there will also be an outcome of my choosing.

The questions will not be marked in the traditional sense.  Using a holistic approach, on each question, I will assess the student on the outcome out of 4. 

Mark 4 - Student has shown full understanding of the concept with support of reasoning.

Mark 3 – firm grasp of the concept.  Demonstration of some of the concept, with your reasoning not shown to its full extent. 

Mark 2 – Some grasp of the concept.  Did not completely answer the question, and used some inconsistent notation or reasoning.

Mark 1 – Weak of very little understanding of the concept. Confusing reasoning, with very little support algebraically.

Mark 0 – Not at an acceptable level of understanding.

If I was to compare my marks with how our traditional percentages are, mark 1 would be a 50%. 

The mark that goes on student’s rubric will always be the LAST demonstration of the outcome a student completed.

For example, in the second week Sally chooses outcomes 5, 6 and 7.  After assessing, Sally receives a mark of 4 for outcomes 5 and 6, and a 2 for outcome 7.  Three weeks go by and Sally wants another chance for outcome 7.  She chooses outcomes 7, 12 and 13.  As my outcome, I also put outcome 5 on the assignment.  If Sally can’t demonstrate outcome 5 again at a level of full understanding, her rubric will be go from a 4 on outcome 5, to the level of understanding she is currently at.

I am trying to promote the idea of truly understanding a concept, not just memorize, spit it out and forget about it.

Also, at any time during the course a student can create their own project, question, assignment on any outcome.  They can bring the completed item to me, and after a discussion with the student, I will assess their understanding based on the discussion with the student according to the rubric above.  Students can be responsible for their own learning.

This is truly at a beginning level of planning as I have not executed any of this, so please post any comments or problems you may see arise.

Resilience first, zeros second.

I want to talk about one of the largest assessment malpractice that I have witnessed.  The idea I am addressing today is giving a 0 for an assignment/homework/etc. which is not completed.  When you give a student a grade of 0 for something he/she did not complete you are actually assessing behaviour and not learning.  I used the word “malpractice” because very few program of studies actually have student behaviour as an outcome.

When you allow a student to receive a 0 for work not done, a different lesson is taught than the intended one.  Students are being taught that is actually ok to pick and choose which assignments they are allowed to complete.  Is this the lesson we want our students to learn? 

Here is a solution.  If a student does not complete an assignment, inform the student “WHY” it is important he/she completes it.  Teachers must also realize, the reason of “You must know this for the exam”, actually devalues the importance of students learning “this”.  If that is the ONLY reason why a student is completing the assignment, maybe you need to rethink the assignment itself.

Assuming now there is an actual reason why a certain assignment is being completed, we want our students to learn resilience.  When a student fails to complete a certain assignment, teachers should be taking this time to teach resilience.  Giving them a 0 gets them off the hook, while sitting down with them, talking about the importance of the task and having them complete it allows for the true learning objective to be attained. 

Teachers need to make sure students complete all required tasks given to them.  I would even go as far as saying that teachers need to make sure these tasks are also completed at an acceptable standard.  Not only should the students who not complete the task be required to do it, but also the students who complete the task at a level where understanding is not demonstrated. 

Students are going to hate this, and most likely end up saying “Just give me a 0”.  If we teach students that if your best is not shown then you will complete it again, we are teaching students to always show their best.  Once resilience is taught your students, you will stop needing the number 0 as a grade.

Learning first, ranking second.

I have addressed how teachers and students can look past grades, marks and other extrinsic motivators, however there is another group that needs to get on board and they are parents.   Some of my friends, who teach the younger grades and are trying to abolish grades and homework, have informed me there is a pushback from parents. 

First, there is not one shred of evidence that supports the idea of homework in elementary grades.  Parents need to be aware of this fact.  After watching the movie “Race to Nowhere”, and reading many research papers, it has become very evident that elementary kids should not have homework stress outside of school.   Unfortunately, homework is not the only thing adding stress; grades create stress as well.

The truth is that for most students, the above picture is actually their life outside of school.  Your high achievers are becoming stressed to maintain their high grades, while your low achievers are stressed in keeping their head above water.

How do we cut down this stress?  Parents need to stop asking the following questions:

“What did you get on your test?”

“What is your mark in the class?”

“Do you have any homework?”

“When is your next report card?”

The questions should be replaced with:

“What did you learn today?”

“Is there anything you are not understanding in class?”

“Did you have fun today?”

"Is there anything else you would like to learn about what you learnt today?

 Society needs to start focusing more on the learning occurring and less on the ranking of students.  In reality, what do marks really do? RANK students!  Do parents send their children to school, to be ranked or to learn?  I hope the latter is the answer, and if so why are the questions about school focusing on the ranking and not learning?

Learning first, marks second

"what mark do I need on the final so I end up with an XX%?" This was a common question in my classes over the past week. As finals come closer and closer students become more and more concerned with their final marks. This saddens me greatly. 

Educators need to stop the perpetuation of marks being the gate keepers of a course. Students should not be concerned with their marks but actually their learning.  As we change the focus from marks to learning I hope the question will turn into "what learning should occur so I am successful in this course?". 

To illustrate my point greater inform your students that the failing mark in your class is 0. I guarantee, most students will cheer. Now if you informed your students they will learn nothing this year, most will be confused. 

Students crave knowledge but teachers give marks. There is a great disconnect. Next year, i am trying to test drive a new "no-mark" system in my high school math course. This should demonstrate that learning outcomes are the priority and not the mark or grade you receive in a course. 

Trust first, true assessment second

Saskatchewan has the roughriders, and now they have the “rougheducation” policy.  On Tuesday December 7, CBC wrote the article LATE SCHOOL WORK WILL MEAN LOWER MARKS, MINSTER CONFRIMS.  The article begins with


 “The minister of education says she is preparing a province wide grading policy that will require teachers to deduct marks if students don't do their work.”


I truly hope all educators are as disgusted as I am.

Their minister of education, Donna Harpauer, exclaimed,

“at least five or six school divisions don't deduct marks for bad behavior”. 

I was wondering, why don’t ALL the divisions not deduct marks for bad behavior?

Her solution is a provincial wide policy that will require teachers to deduct marks if students don’t complete their work on time.  I agree that schools should be a place where responsibility is addressed, but where in the mandated outcomes, does it express that schools should be grading such responsibility?  In fact, when you start grading on ideas outside of the mandated outcomes, is that not malpractice? 

When we start putting grades on tasks it actually decreases the potential learning that is possible.  The most insightful piece of research in the field of motivational psychology is that the more people are rewarded for doing something, they more they tend to lose interest in the actual task.  Also, by deducting marks for last assignments, the grade is distorting what it actually should represent; what outcomes have the students learned.

As teachers, we need to be trusted that we will assess properly and appropriately.  I believe that these “blanket mandates” actually destroy the trusts this trust.  In my school, I truly do feel my opinion is valued and true innovation is approved and endorsed.  Once a teacher truly feels trusted that he/she is allowed to endeavor on new educational roads, without criticism and reproach, we will start to see assessment practices that are actually validated