{"id":109,"date":"2017-09-29T12:38:11","date_gmt":"2017-09-29T12:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/?p=109"},"modified":"2017-09-29T12:38:57","modified_gmt":"2017-09-29T12:38:57","slug":"down-with-grades-can-we-at-least-talk-about-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/2017\/09\/29\/down-with-grades-can-we-at-least-talk-about-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Down With Grades! Can We at Least Talk About It?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>To an ever-growing extent, the very concept of grades, or the attempt to accurately quantify learning, is a lingering artifact from an increasingly extinct approach to teaching and learning.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

If grades are a necessary component of the larger institution of learning, then I believe it is the responsibility of the 21st<\/sup> Century Educator to re-imagine exactly why a grade is important, what it represents and how it is arrived at and \u201cawarded\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

What are the implications of removing numeric values from all forms of formative and summative assessments<\/em><\/strong>?<\/p>\n

I know a lot of teachers have this in common: My experience as a High School student was disastrous. Truly! I have no idea how my parents survived it. And now, as a Dad to two young children, the mere thought of it strikes fear from within (my hands are shaking as I write this). Partly because of my lasting memories (nightmares), I believe my best moments as a teacher have been extreme detractions from my memories. It\u2019s a pretty simple approach isn\u2019t it? Just do what my teacher\u2019s didn\u2019t do (this is probably harsh. I did love some of them… liked some of them… liked at least one of them). I mean, over the years, I think I\u2019ve substantiated relatively effectively this approach with actual pedagogy, but still, my own high school experiences remain perched above my \u201cday-to-day\u201d as a haunting reminder. The correlation between me in high school and the students in my class is very direct, if not inverted: the less their experience resembles mine, the more exhilarating and lasting it is. I really do believe this. However, no matter the level of student engagement or the extent to which students \u201cachieve\u201d beyond their perceived limitations – overcoming insecurities, discomfort or obstacles in reaching solutions, breakthroughs or epiphanies – the entire process of learning is continuously and inevitably undermined by the powerful force of GRADES. This is a battle I\u2019m tired of losing!! Ahhh!\u00a0 To great frustration, I have watched it again and again and again: a student receives a grade \u2013 usually a number \u2013 on a particular assessment or at the end of a grading period in the form of a \u201cReport Card\u201d, and the student immediately becomes lost in its power. Suddenly, this number is all that the student cares about, and all of that wonderful learning s\"\"<\/a>eems forgotten. It is too often an immovable obstacle in the way of authentic feedback. The number is an obsession.<\/p>\n

To an ever-growing extent, the very concept of grades, or the attempt to accurately quantify learning, is a lingering artifact from an increasingly extinct approach to teaching and learning. My teachers assigned grades! Doesn\u2019t that mean I shouldn\u2019t? A grade, in a traditional sense, paints a narrow picture of a student. And this may be appropriate if the approach itself is narrow (yikes!). However, in a 21st<\/sup> Century context, this picture is damaging to the extent that it blocks from the teacher\u2019s view the much larger and telling picture of a particular student. This can effectively reduce and even undermine a much broader scope of learning. Most damaging is the extent to which grades adversely affect a student\u2019s sense of self. A learner\u2019s identity is too largely formed by the implications and stigmas of a grade, as opposed to the meaningful, unique and personal interactions with learning and a given culture of learning.<\/p>\n

If grades are a necessary component of the larger institution of learning, then I believe it is the responsibility of the 21st<\/sup> Century Educator to re-imagine exactly why a grade is important, what it represents and how it is arrived at and \u201cawarded\u201d. It is also my belief that this process begins with an imagining and discussion of a culture absent of grades. As educators, let\u2019s remove ourselves entirely from a tradition of grades that, no matter how passively, is inevitably present in our own routines, maybe even to the extent of unrecognized biases. \u00a0I mean maybe we\u2019re not quite there yet in practice, but let\u2019s at least have some fun in discussion. Let\u2019s forget the larger picture and consider this purely through a lens of actual learning: What are the implications of removing numeric values from all forms of formative and summative assessments? Seriously, at least for the purpose of conversation, let\u2019s free ourselves.<\/p>\n

What do YOU think?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To an ever-growing extent, the very concept of grades, or the attempt to accurately quantify learning, is a lingering artifact from an increasingly extinct approach to teaching and learning. If grades are a necessary component of the larger institution of learning, then I believe it is the responsibility of the 21st Century Educator to re-imagine … Continue reading “Down With Grades! Can We at Least Talk About It?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-classroom-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}