"Miss, have you graded our tests yet?"
"Miss, you haven't put in my paper grade yet."
"Miss, what do I have in here?"
"Miss, my mom wants to talk to you about my grade."
Grading is a hot topic at my school right now. It's a multi-faceted subject, so I'll be doing a few posts centered around the idea.
Big Idea: What are grades? Why do we grade?
I was a pretty good student. I liked school. However, like many gifted students, I balked at assignments that I saw as pointless - i.e., "busy work." I recall an incident where I told my 12th grade AP English teacher that I wouldn't be writing the paper she assigned on Jane Austen's
Emma because it "wasn't an adequate assessment of whether or not I read the book." (Ouch.) If my grades weren't stellar, it was usually because of missing work - either because I refused to do it on principle or didn't turn it in because it wasn't "perfect."
The quarter I refused to do the paper, I made a C in English, which was typically one of my best subjects. I think I came out of the class with an A or B for the year, but that's not the point. Does the fact that I made a "C" mean that I didn't master the content for that quarter? What, exactly, are grades meant to communicate?
In general, grades communicate
the extent to which a student has met the expectations of the teacher. This means two things:
- The extent to which the student demonstrates mastery of the content, by producing some sort of measurable artifact related to the objectives; and
- The extent to which the student followed the directives of the teacher, such as turning the assignment in on time, setting up their notebook exactly the same way, etc.
Grades are data. However, like any data, they can be biased, skewed, and varying degrees of useful.
Questions for thought
- How else can we communicate what a student has learned?
- How can we use grades to inform instruction (for ourselves) and learning (for our students)?
- What should be graded, and how?
My Grading Policies
Real talk: I think the way we grade is dumb. First, I think if we're going to use ABCDF grading, we should be on a 20-point scale. But actually, letter grades are an arbitrary, artificial measure: after all, is a 90 (A) substantially different than an 89 (B)? Has that student really attained a different level of understanding? However, we must all work within the paradigm we are given.
To be honest, I haven't settled on a grading policy that meets the needs of my kids and fits what I do in my classroom. I've done something different every year for every class.
For example, in my AP European History class, I initially said that I did not accept late work, because many college professors don't, and AP is supposed to be a college-level course. However, I realized that that did not serve my students or promote learning. Now, I do accept late work, but I make students write a response about why it was late and what actions on their part led to the work not being completed on time so that they can better plan in the future. I also now allow my AP students to re-do assignments for a better grade, because I want them to master the skills, and if they master them, I'm willing to award credit for that.
In World History, I'm trying to teach my students behaviors that will serve them throughout high school, including organization. I love interactive notebooks, but I have a hard time reconciling the idea of grading the notebook when that doesn't really show me anything about their mastery of World History. For now, my solution is to only grade assignments if they are in the notebook, and mark them "missing" otherwise, but I'm not sure that's a beneficial solution either.
Sending Forth
This summer, I'll be doing some soul-searching about how to give my students feedback and a measurement of their progress in my class in a way that promotes growth, relationships, and student ownership of their learning. As you think about grading in your classroom, I encourage you to think about these questions as well.
Look for other topics in this series coming soon!
