http://www.flickr.com/photos/oceanflynn/276344173/In our week 1 reading I was struck by the chapter “Giving an A” where the students were given an “A” at the beginning of the 2 semester music class and then had to write a letter from the viewpoint of the future, the next May and explain why they earned an “A” in the class. I think that this is important in that it relieves the stress off the students from the outset over getting “A’s”, especially which would be seen in a competitive environment like a music conservatory.
I think that this is something that we have all gone through in this program, especially given that we need a “B+” average to graduate. A’s are not as much an option but a necessity to just get through this program and also to make up for stumbling on classes like Music Theory that could easily stumble a non-musically backgrounded student. I recall the stress for our group on one of our first projects when we got a B+ on our final project (87%) because of a 3 point deduction for not listing references in proper APA format on our group website which was based on my design choice to make the References page on the website blend with the site design. I did include a properly formatted APA reference page as an PDF attachment on the page, which was overlooked in grading. The day with us getting a B+ was traumatic for us all until the course director noticed the PDF file and revised our grade to a “A”.
I think that grades are important and think that students should earn their “A’s”, but learning may be done in classes where the students may not produce or demonstrate “A” work.
Sean,
I have experienced some similar panic over a grade because it was not an A. It's funny how this grade will mean nothing once we are finished with this program. We will all have our work to symbolize our accomplishments. I don't think there is really a way to measure our learning in this program. We are each going to be using our learning in different scenarios, and that the productivity is impossible to measure.
Terrie writes:
I found this week’s reading to be very interesting, and discovered that it kind of runs a parallel to what I’m experiencing at the jr. high where I teach. I like the idea of “Give an A”, and see that what the author is saying is very true. I’d never thought of a grade as being invented, but totally agree that it is. The bad thing is that Agua Dulce ISD takes it one step further. In my jr. high, kids are put into classes according to their ability...i.e. their grades... those made up numbers assigned to students by their teachers. We have a “high” sixth grade and a “low” one. We have a “high” seventh grade and a “low” one. We have a “high” eighth grade and a “low” one. It began bugging me when my homeroom class referred to themselves as “The Dumb Ones”, but the book has convinced me even more that the system needs to change. Students in all three “low” classes think of themselves as “The Dumb Ones”. They have never been told by our administration that they are the “low” class, but they are pretty savvy and have figured it all out for themselves. This is a primary example of, as the author said, “matching them up against other students”. It is not fair to any of them, and I fear the damage is very hard to reverse.
My son is a Senior in this district and I’ve battled with him thinking he is dumb and can’t do academics for the last 8 years. Until reading these chapters, I’ve attributed it to things that happened in our personal lives that I didn’t take care of sooner. Last night I found myself wondering if he felt that way because he’d been in the “low” classes in jr. high. The thought infuriated me more. As teachers, parents entrust us with the physical and emotional well being of their children everyday. It is our responsibility to build them up, not tear them down. Isn’t that what we are basically doing when we assign a grade to a student? We are either building them up, or tearing them down.
I realize that our grades build ideas in our heads about ourselves, and now I realize that they really are made up...but my biggest concern is that I see how much damage it causes, and I am desperate to change it, but how does someone go in and change an age-old standard? How do I...one person among MANY...convince an establishment that doesn’t like change that it needs to change? I’m standing by and watching helplessly as my students slip through the perverbial crack and slide perilously down into the darkness that is apathy toward all things related to academics.
