This week in Social studies Methods we are working on the learning experiences for our units. Basically, a learning experience is breaking down your performance task. Therefore, you build up to what the performance task at the end of the unit will be, so what skills should the students have at this point? Another great thing that happened this week was the Keep Learning Alive! conference this past Saturday. This was such an amazing experience, and I honestly learned a lot from the short time that I was there. If you have not heard about the amazing Wells Fargo 2015 Principal of the Year, Steve Lassiter, you are missing out and need to research all the great things he has done for his school and his teachers.
This week I found an article, that may be my favorite that I have found so far, and it is titled "When Grading Harms Student Learning" from Edutopia. So I want to start out by asking, is grading the focus, or is learning the focus for our students? Not saying that grading is the worst idea ever, because as teachers we need that assessment, but should that really be the focus of our classrooms? In this generation, grades are what every one looks at. This article mentions that coaches, colleges and parents look into grades so much that it defines the students. Being the horrible test taker that I am, I hate when grades influence me so much. Is there not a better way to test me for understanding, could you not see that I am trying my hardest? This article talks about how giving out zeros and points off for late work, puts students in the mindset that they will fail. Having other alternatives and not stressing students out with a grading scale, gives students hope. I think what we are learning in class about performance tasks and learning experiences are wonderful ways to assess students that will not make them stress out over not knowing whether or not A or B is the correct answer.
I can relate this article to North Carolina Teaching Standard number 4, because it states that teacher's facilitate learning for their students. This ties in with this article well, because as teachers we need to know how to facilitate learning to our students in a way that does not stress them out, but gives them hope that they can be successful.
Here is the link to the article.
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/when-grading-harms-student-learning-andrew-miller
Great blog Am! I also enjoyed getting to attend the Keep Learning Alive Conference for the short amount of time that I did. It was amazing to hear Steve Lassiter and his accomplishments. He was so encouraging and had some amazing points that he mentioned. I really liked the article that you picked. I think that people do focus so much on the letter grade and not enough not the students performance sometimes. I do agree that assessments are ver important for teachers. However, I do think that there are students who understand and comprehend the material that the teacher is giving but aren't the best test takers. I see myself in this category. I am not the best test taker but that doesn't define me and how "smart" I am. Good Job Am!
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ReplyDeleteVery proud of you for starting to investigating grading practices for your future classroom. I believe this is going to be the next area where education will experience a lot of changes.
Great post Amber. Keep Learning Alive was great! I gained a lot of insight as well. I am in the same boat as you when it comes to testing. That is certainly a big issue in today's education world. I agree there needs to be some accountability with how teachers teach and how students learn, but at the same time, if how we teach (or how the system is set up across the board) impairs students ability to progress then we do them a disservice. As we are learning, not all students perform or learn the same way. It is our job to sort out how each individual learns. If we are able to show that we are reaching them in a positive way to learn the content, then that should be able to limit testing. Just think of all the great thinkers, leaders, and business people in the world who didn't do well in school.
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