A freshman English teacher had this to say in a conversation forum related to the use of letter grades in school: "[A grading system] makes [students] afraid to ask questions (because the system penalizes not-knowing), afraid to work things out by trial and error, and -- worst of all -- afraid to express unpopular opinions. None of this is what real learning is all about. Learning is messy. It involves taking risks and making mistakes. It requires you to admit your ignorance at times. But by the time most students reach college age, they have already decided that questions and experiments are dangerous, and the safest course is to memorize, repeat, and tuck everything into a neat plastic binder."
To an extent, I agree with this person. I remember writing research papers in college, and when it came to evaluating the ideas I came across, I often chose not to express my opinion, because I knew they were as yet puerile, undeveloped. At the same time, I do recall that simply attempting to meet the professor's expectations-- even if it meant avoiding the risk of expressing unpopular opinions or faulted logic-- exposed me to ideas that naturally led me to evaluate them. In time, a student becomes accustomed to the teacher's expectations of quality (he or she is socialized to meet the teacher's standards), and-- I'm speaking generally-- it eventually becomes important to the student not only to restate the ideas he or she is exposed to, but to evaluate them and so make them his or her own. This is where real learning takes place; and whether it is the grade, the desire for praise, or the simple desire to understand a concept at a deeper level that pushes a student to perform, the end is that this student grows as a learner and-- I think-- begins to understand why learning is enjoyable. When a student begins to understand the value of learning in this way, his or her motivation becomes increasingly intrinsic, rather that only extrinsic. With all this in mind, here are some additional thoughts on using grades in junior high school, or at any level.
One important barrier for students, in my experience, is not grades, but the discouragement felt in failure. Students don’t try because they don’t believe they can succeed. As a result, they don’t learn. A second major barrier is a life—whether chosen or forced upon a student—that distracts students from focusing on work effectively enough and so performing to their potential. Their lives are riddled with family or social conflict, which distracts them from their work; they choose to play video games or spend a disproportionate time with friends, which leaves them little time (often intentionally, but sometimes because they feel the need for comfort in these activities) for school work; or their lives are otherwise unstable, with little parental support—whether through a parent’s physical or emotional absence-- needed for academic help or for simple encouragement to do their work.
Grades can be seen as a cursory way of evaluating students. Grades alone can make it appear that the teacher doesn’t care enough about the student to explain what that student did well or wrong, and thereby discourage students from trying equally hard-- if not harder-- on the next assignment. Importantly, a teacher’s attitude toward student work can have a significant effect on students looking for affirmation or for how to improve. Without a grading system, however, there is no incentive for an uncaring student to do well.
Students can focus more on grades than on teacher comments, which can lead a student to miss the teacher’s message. They receive a feeling from a grade, whether good or bad, and that feeling dominates the student’s perception of his or her performance. This prevents him or her from understanding the teacher’s evaluation of that student’s specific strengths and weaknesses.
Grades in middle school allow a student to experience the rigor that they may find in high school, but in a safer setting (safer, because grades are not tied to graduation).
Grades are used, in part, as a matter of convenience. Using letter grades allows the teacher to evaluate a large number of students in a shorter period of time, even though it offers the student an oversimplified picture of their understanding of a concept. For the student, it is a simple way to see his or her performance in an area of study; but it often fails to demonstrate how he or she succeeded or failed at understanding. For both the teacher and student, letter grades cannot offer the depth that written evaluations do, but they do provide immediate feedback on a student's performance.
With all these thoughts in mind, I recognize the legitimate arguments against letter grading, but I would not abandon it altogether. Where possible, it is best to use more expressive forms of evaluation, particularly written evaluation. It is more difficult, but more meaningful. I have noticed, too, that using written evaluation forces the teacher to think more thoroughly about whether his students truly understood what was taught, and helps him to narrow his focus to one or a few specific skills that will help students in the future. Using letter grades is helpful for evaluation, but a teacher using it can often unknowingly resort to intuitive evaluation rather than explicit reasoning. In other words, he or she can give grades without truly thinking about why. This evaluation may be based on accurate experiences, but is not explicit in the teacher's mind. It is best, then, to augment letter grades with varied forms of evaluation.
To an extent, I agree with this person. I remember writing research papers in college, and when it came to evaluating the ideas I came across, I often chose not to express my opinion, because I knew they were as yet puerile, undeveloped. At the same time, I do recall that simply attempting to meet the professor's expectations-- even if it meant avoiding the risk of expressing unpopular opinions or faulted logic-- exposed me to ideas that naturally led me to evaluate them. In time, a student becomes accustomed to the teacher's expectations of quality (he or she is socialized to meet the teacher's standards), and-- I'm speaking generally-- it eventually becomes important to the student not only to restate the ideas he or she is exposed to, but to evaluate them and so make them his or her own. This is where real learning takes place; and whether it is the grade, the desire for praise, or the simple desire to understand a concept at a deeper level that pushes a student to perform, the end is that this student grows as a learner and-- I think-- begins to understand why learning is enjoyable. When a student begins to understand the value of learning in this way, his or her motivation becomes increasingly intrinsic, rather that only extrinsic. With all this in mind, here are some additional thoughts on using grades in junior high school, or at any level.
One important barrier for students, in my experience, is not grades, but the discouragement felt in failure. Students don’t try because they don’t believe they can succeed. As a result, they don’t learn. A second major barrier is a life—whether chosen or forced upon a student—that distracts students from focusing on work effectively enough and so performing to their potential. Their lives are riddled with family or social conflict, which distracts them from their work; they choose to play video games or spend a disproportionate time with friends, which leaves them little time (often intentionally, but sometimes because they feel the need for comfort in these activities) for school work; or their lives are otherwise unstable, with little parental support—whether through a parent’s physical or emotional absence-- needed for academic help or for simple encouragement to do their work.
Grades can be seen as a cursory way of evaluating students. Grades alone can make it appear that the teacher doesn’t care enough about the student to explain what that student did well or wrong, and thereby discourage students from trying equally hard-- if not harder-- on the next assignment. Importantly, a teacher’s attitude toward student work can have a significant effect on students looking for affirmation or for how to improve. Without a grading system, however, there is no incentive for an uncaring student to do well.
Students can focus more on grades than on teacher comments, which can lead a student to miss the teacher’s message. They receive a feeling from a grade, whether good or bad, and that feeling dominates the student’s perception of his or her performance. This prevents him or her from understanding the teacher’s evaluation of that student’s specific strengths and weaknesses.
Grades in middle school allow a student to experience the rigor that they may find in high school, but in a safer setting (safer, because grades are not tied to graduation).
Grades are used, in part, as a matter of convenience. Using letter grades allows the teacher to evaluate a large number of students in a shorter period of time, even though it offers the student an oversimplified picture of their understanding of a concept. For the student, it is a simple way to see his or her performance in an area of study; but it often fails to demonstrate how he or she succeeded or failed at understanding. For both the teacher and student, letter grades cannot offer the depth that written evaluations do, but they do provide immediate feedback on a student's performance.
With all these thoughts in mind, I recognize the legitimate arguments against letter grading, but I would not abandon it altogether. Where possible, it is best to use more expressive forms of evaluation, particularly written evaluation. It is more difficult, but more meaningful. I have noticed, too, that using written evaluation forces the teacher to think more thoroughly about whether his students truly understood what was taught, and helps him to narrow his focus to one or a few specific skills that will help students in the future. Using letter grades is helpful for evaluation, but a teacher using it can often unknowingly resort to intuitive evaluation rather than explicit reasoning. In other words, he or she can give grades without truly thinking about why. This evaluation may be based on accurate experiences, but is not explicit in the teacher's mind. It is best, then, to augment letter grades with varied forms of evaluation.
This seems to be a well reasoned analysis of letter grading. I am wondering from your analysis if you use a combination of letter grade and written commentary with your students?
ReplyDeleteIt isn't easy to write comments on daily homework assignments, because there are so many that come across your desk so often. At the most, I'll write short comments to tell them how to improve. When it comes to their writing, I try to give clear written feedback so they know exactly what they did well and how they can improve. For me, it goes farther than helping them to improve (which is the most important reason for feedback), but it also shows them-- in my mind-- that the teacher really is paying attention to their work. Generally speaking, I have seen that the higher the standards I've set for them, the harder they will work to meet them. The comments that they see, I hope, help to raise those standards.
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