Friday, November 20, 2015
"Homework" Excerpt #3
Excerpt #3
Grading Smarter Not Harder: Assessment Strategies that Motivate Kids and Help Them Learn. Dueck, Myron. (pg. 51)
"Grading Homework Perpetuates Extrinsic Dependency"
Teachers have helped to train generations of students to expect that everything they do in class or in preparing or for a course should result in some kind of grade. Many teachers grade each quiz every piece of homework, all class presentations, and anything that remotely resembles a project. . . . In light of this overzealous propensity to grab a red pen at any opportunity, we should not be overly surprised if students initially respond to ungraded work with apathy: if there is no grade, why bother doing it?
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My experience with flipped classrooms is that even if the homework is simply to read or watch something and come to class with notes for discussion so that they can latter work on an assignment, that most students came to class unprepared. What happens when some students are prepared and some aren't you are now managing two classrooms. Add in to the mix students who are two, three, four, or even more days behind, and this can quickly become untenable. For this type of classroom to succeed, you have to take students from an attitude of "what's the least amount of work I need to do to get through this," to the attitude "what do I need to do to do this the right way."
ReplyDeleteI agree that flipped classrooms are a great idea, but very difficult to make work at a junior high level. And the home-life of some students makes it almost impossible to complete any work at home or prepare for the next day
DeleteI know of some very successful flipped classrooms but they are all in high school and in the upper classes (Honors, AP etc.). Junior High isn't really a place to completely flip. As far as the quote goes I used to try to grade everything and I was drowning. So there are only a few key components that I grade which are summative of what we have been doing. If the students don't hand those in then they get a missing which counts as a zero and their grade drops. They come in and want to know what they need to do and I show them all the work that we did before hand to prepare for this assignment. They have to give it all to me. Some students are starting to see the light but there are those who won't do anything...the horse is at the trough but not drinking. Not only not drinking but stubbornly dying of dehydration but going to show me they can choose for themselves.
ReplyDeleteIs this Travel View person Kandie or Bev? How mysterious!
DeleteIn trying to decrease the amount of grading that I am doing, I have moved to having students keep class notebooks (an idea I saw at summer conference). All assignments, recipes, reflections, and notes are kept in the book. I allow the students to use their notebooks on the test. I had planned on just grading the tests, and I have met with a lot of resistance from students. They say, "If this isn't graded, then why do it?" Many of those students who said that did not do well on the first unit test. So, I have caved and started grading the notebooks...
ReplyDeleteArghhhh! Why do you think students make the connection between the grade on the notebook for their assignments, recipes, reflections, and notes, etc. but don't seem to that doing well on the test because the notebook is helpful is a grade too? What about just a quick "notebook check" each day with a stamp or a signature as a kind of extrinsic reward that doesn't mean actual grading for you? Or, have you considered having them keep a Table of Contents for the notebook that you create when you plan the unit? This would help them have an overview of the unit so they can see how their daily assignments lead to mastery on the unit test. Also, for some students, just providing a place in your room for them to keep their notebooks makes a huge difference. The idea of literally carrying and thereby caring about while caring for their school work is overwhelming to many students who struggle.
ReplyDeleteRaquelle---that Arghhhh! was for the "resistant students" in your comment. Not you!!! Love you!!!!
ReplyDelete