Written by Terry Huyck
The issue of grading is one of the most pressing issues in good education.
Scoring can be very time consuming. It can also lower student morale, cause problems at home, and prevent students from enrolling in certain universities.
Teacher morale can also suffer. Any teacher would take a hard look at themselves and their skills if half the class was failing.
So as a teacher, I have spent years creating a system that is most importantly student-centered. It was student-centered in the sense that it was designed to foster understanding, develop confidence, take ownership, and enable students to protect themselves when needed.
Some of this approach is featured in “Why Did That Student Fail?” A diagnostic approach to education. See below for system information. In fact, the few rules I created, while not perfect, went a long way in eliminating grading problems in my classroom.
This meant that my students were paralyzed with fear when I asked them to complete increasingly complex tasks that I was worried they would be unable to reach. I didn’t. It also meant my parents weren’t breathing down my neck “about the C thing” they saw on Mugen Campus, and if both students and parents were happy, the teachers would be happy too. .
How I solved (almost) all my grading problems in the classroom
1. We carefully selected what we graded.
When I first started teaching, I thought in terms of “assignments” and “tests.” The quiz was also fun.
But eventually I started thinking in terms of “practice” and “measurement” instead. All evaluations should be formative, and the idea of a “summative evaluation” is as meaningful as a “last teeth cleaning.”
The big idea is what I often call a “climate of assessment,” where snapshots of student understanding and progress are taken in an organic, seamless, and non-threatening way. Ratings are everywhere and always on.
“Measure” is just one type of assessment, and the word also means “to check growth,” just as you would measure a child’s vertical growth (height) by marking a threshold in the kitchen. Included. This type of assessment provides both the student and the teacher with markers, or data, that indicate where the student is “at” that moment. It provides you with a clear understanding that another measurement will be taken soon and provides dozens of practice opportunities. meanwhile.
Be very careful when grading, as grading requires time and mental energy. Both require finite resources to be a teacher’s success. If you don’t have a plan for your data before you do the evaluation, don’t do it. Also, please don’t call it a quiz or a test.
2. I designed my work to be “published”
I tried to make my student products (writing, graphic organizers, podcasts, videos, projects, etc.) at least visible to students’ parents. Ideally, this work would also be made available to colleagues for feedback and collaboration, and then made available to the public for full-fledged functionality in communities of interest to students.
By making student work public (as long as it facilitates student learning while protecting privacy concerns), the bulk of the evaluation will be done by the people for whom the work is intended. Because it is authentic, the feedback loop is faster and more diverse than any one teacher could have expected.
This system takes what is lost in the expert feedback that teachers might be able to provide (though I’m not saying they can’t publish it, or that they can’t benefit from teacher feedback) to provide the best for students. It makes up for it by giving you a real reason to put in the effort and correct yourself. and create a stand of higher quality than the outlined rubric.
3. I made the rules. “No F or zero allowed.” A, B, C, or “incomplete”
First, we created something like a no-zero policy. Easier said than done, depending on who you are, what you teach, what your school’s “policies” are, etc. However, the idea here is to avoid zeros from ruining the student’s “final grade” mathematically.
I try to explain to my students that their grades should reflect their understanding, not their ability to navigate the rules and pieces of gamification packed into most courses and classrooms. . If a student gets a D, it should be because they have demonstrated a near-universal inability to master any content, and they have earned As and Bs in most of the tasks they are interested in, but those that are not. Well, it’s not because it was a C or lower. And then some zeros were thrown in for work, which ended up returning a D or F, although it wasn’t completed.
Another factor at play here is marking work as A, B, C, or “incomplete.” Put another way, if a student did not reach an average score of at least a C, which should reflect an average understanding of a particular standard or topic, I would give that student an “Incomplete.” ” and will give you clear feedback on how you can improve. And I request you to do so.
4. Frequently reviewed missing assignments.
It’s simple enough. I had a twitter feed of all the “measurements” (work they knew would count towards their grade) so they didn’t have to ask “what are they missing” (still they I did). I also wrote it on the blackboard (there was a huge whiteboard spread out at the front of the classroom).
5. Created an alternative assessment.
Early on in my teaching, I noticed that my students were saying, “I understand it, but I don’t fully understand it” in a variety of ways. Or they may have believed that they actually “got it,” but not in the way the assessment required (note: English Lit/ELA is separate from the literacy skills themselves. This is a highly conceptual content area).
So let’s create an alternative evaluation and check it out. Was the assessment more vague and intrusive than it was revealed to be? Why was it so difficult to explain the steps in an assignment or the complexity of a question when the assignment was given and the question was not the point at all? Should I bang my head against the wall? These were just “objects” that I used like a carpenter uses tools.
In some cases, it may be easier to use another tool.
I also sometimes ask students to create their own assessments. Show that you understand. Although it didn’t always work as expected, this approach resulted in some of the most insightful and creative expression I’ve ever seen from students. As with most things, it was up to the student.
6. I taught through microassignments.
The expulsion letter was one of the best things that ever happened to my education. I rarely used it as an “exit ticket” to get out of the classroom, but I used it almost every day. why?
They provided me with constant data on the aforementioned “assessment status.” It was new every day and made the students feel less anxious. Because students knew it was quick and if they failed, the next test would come soon.
It was a “student-centered” practice because it protected them. They had so many opportunities and mathematically so many points that they could not “fail” at all unless they failed everything every day. And if so,
A single standard or topic could be approached from different angles, complexities, and bloom levels. This made it clear to me that the students who didn’t “get it” last week were likely just “not getting it” with my questions.
In other words, they didn’t fail my assessment. They failed because my assessment failed to reveal what they actually knew.
7. Utilized diagnostic guidance
You can read more about diagnostic instruction, but the general idea is that there was a clear order that I used and that I communicated it very clearly to my students and their families. It usually took the first month or two for everyone to get used to everything, but once they did, the grading problems were *almost* completely eliminated. Problems were still surfacing, but systems in place would allow us to pinpoint exactly what went wrong, why it happened, and communicate it to all those involved in supporting children. Now it’s much easier.
