Blue Crab
benthivore
We've had several threads along this line, generally resulting in disagreement about almost everything except ethnicity discrepancies in readiness to learn new material. I'm posting this note from a college professor but the method here really offers actual promise being applied all the way thru K-12.
My 10 years in large inner city classrooms in grades 5-12, most subjects, and a couple more in "gifted and talented" middle school programs in the burbs has shaped my comments on this board for years. I've opined about major change possibilities and the obstacles thereto and have concluded that anything short of me becoming SecEd, which is unlikely, just won't get it done. This could be a hellava start, however, and works within the system we have rather than the one we want.
"I no longer grade my students’ work – and I wish I had stopped sooner Grading
... I stopped putting grades on written work for three related reasons – all of which other professors have also cited as concerns.
First, I wanted my students to focus on the feedback I provided on their writing. I had a sense, since backed up by research, that when I put a grade on a piece of writing, students focused solely on that. Removing the grade forced students to pay attention to my comments.
Second, I was concerned with equity. For almost 10 years I have been studying inclusive pedagogy, which focuses on ensuring that all students have the resources they need to learn. My studies confirmed my sense that sometimes what I was really grading was a student’s background. Students with educational privilege came into my classroom already prepared to write A or B papers, while others often had not had the instruction that would enable them to do so. The 14 weeks they spent in my class could not make up for the years of educational privilege their peers had enjoyed..."
My 10 years in large inner city classrooms in grades 5-12, most subjects, and a couple more in "gifted and talented" middle school programs in the burbs has shaped my comments on this board for years. I've opined about major change possibilities and the obstacles thereto and have concluded that anything short of me becoming SecEd, which is unlikely, just won't get it done. This could be a hellava start, however, and works within the system we have rather than the one we want.
"I no longer grade my students’ work – and I wish I had stopped sooner Grading
... I stopped putting grades on written work for three related reasons – all of which other professors have also cited as concerns.
First, I wanted my students to focus on the feedback I provided on their writing. I had a sense, since backed up by research, that when I put a grade on a piece of writing, students focused solely on that. Removing the grade forced students to pay attention to my comments.
Second, I was concerned with equity. For almost 10 years I have been studying inclusive pedagogy, which focuses on ensuring that all students have the resources they need to learn. My studies confirmed my sense that sometimes what I was really grading was a student’s background. Students with educational privilege came into my classroom already prepared to write A or B papers, while others often had not had the instruction that would enable them to do so. The 14 weeks they spent in my class could not make up for the years of educational privilege their peers had enjoyed..."