Entry: Refocusing Our Efforts

   As a teacher, I find letter grades to be a useful tool in assessing a student's work, especially in the context of comparing it to other students. It is an easy way to distinguish which students are struggling/excelling and which areas the average mark of the class drops. In a similar way, it helps a student to evaluate his own progress. Without a grading metric, students would be unsure of how well they are performing in the class (I personally will often feel that I did well in a test until I see my grade and realize that I had a poor understanding). However, even though grades are useful, I feel that there is too great of an emphasis on them in the classroom. I think that effort, progress, and your current understanding are all important, and grades only track the latter. They have a negative effect of discouraging kids who have a slower start and quickly evaluate themselves to being weak in a subject, which greatly affects motivation. They also affect the social hierarchy of a classroom, distinguishing the weak and strong students. This plays a pivotal role in peer pressure, motivation, effort, etc. If a student gets a reputation as being weak, they might pretend that they purposely failed (which would repeat itself) or they might lose self-esteem and confidence.

   As a math teacher, it is difficult for me to imagine a math classroom without grades. If I were to create one, I think the emphasis would shift from grades to concepts. Instead of repeating problems and getting scored on how many you get correct, I would give them their homework and ask them to return it (less questions than they get now) along with a brief paragraph that describes the method they used, what they learned, and any questions they have. Instead of grading the problems, I would just read their synopsis. If the students were understanding the material I would move on, otherwise I would reiterate the lesson. I think this would be an effective way of testing their knowledge without needing to grade them. Unfortunately, I am not sure how I would administer an exam without grading them.