Alfie Kohn brings up some controversial, passionate, and valid points in her two texts, “The Trouble with Rubrics” and “The Case against Grades.” She states some points that I agree with, and other points that I do not. I have never done research on the topic but as an English teacher I do have some experience with rubrics and grading. Bottom line is that we, as teachers, do not have too much of a say in how we assess these days.
Kohn states in “The Trouble with Rubrics” “Second, I’d been looking for an alternative to grades because research shows three reliable effects when students are graded: They tend to think less deeply, avoid taking risks, and lose interest in learning itself.”
In my experience students are driven by grades, not learning; This is so unfortunate. I have tried to wrap my head around this concept many time but it all comes down to the grades. For the higher level kids, they seem to e learning at the same time though. The understanding that they are learning if they get a good grade seems to go hand in hand. However, for the lower level kids, it is all about the grades and they don’t seem to care if they learn anything. A few examples:
Scenario 1:
Teacher: Ok ladies and gentleman let write a reflection of the activity we just did, pleae take out your journals and just write. Write whatever you want; did you enjoy the activity? Would you change anything about it? What did you learn? What connections did you make? Choose one if you need help getting started.
Student: Ms. Lee? Are we getting graded on this?
Teacher: No, this is your own reflections, a chance to write whatever you want.
Student puts his head down and closes his eyes:
Scenario 2:
Student: Ms. Lee, are you collecting this?
Teacher: No , I’m not going to collect it, please put it in your binder and we will discuss the answers as a class on Thursday.
Student: I need a grade for this Miss. I did the work now I should get credit for it. I’m not doin no busy work!
Scenario 3:
Student: If I fix this what grade will I get? All I need is a 65 to pass.
Teacher: Why do you just want to pass? If you make the corrections necessary you could get a hgier grade.
Student: I don’t want to do anything more that I have to, I just want to get out of this school with my diploma.
Obviously these scenarios are not indicative of all my lower level students but unfortunately I have learned that many students want to do just enough,; not any more, not any less. Motivating my students to want to learn is very difficult to do at times because of the structured curriculum we have. It is imperative we use texts that the students may connect to or are interested in, especially in the lower level classes.
“Grades create a preference for the easiest possible task. Impress upon students that what they’re doing will count toward their grade, and their response will likely be to avoid taking any unnecessary intellectual risks. They’ll choose a shorter book, or a project on a familiar topic, in order to minimize that chance of doing poorly—not because they’re “unmotivated” but because they’re rational “ (2).
Again, this is catering to the higher level kids; the kids who are motivated, who already love to read and who know how to manipulate the system. What about the kids I spoke of previously. These unmotivated kids, who may be kids who speak a different language at home and need to work on a daily basis to help their family; the kids who do not have the parental support and value for education that many others do. If some of my students do not think that the grade would count, they would choose a shorter story, they just wouldn’t do the assignment. Grades are here to stay and kids are driven by them. A perfect example: The NECAP assessments.
Every year the 11th graders are assessed in reading, writing, math and science. Up until this year, the grades have never mattered. On the three or four days during the testing it was torture for teachers to get kids to even finish the assessment. They just didn’t care! These tests were being used a quantitative date for the state to assess the progress of the schools. Our school set incentives for the kids to show up. For the most part, they were not giving their best effort, to say the very least. Even my own son said he didn’t try very hard, it didn’t matter. Well, the state decided to make it a graduation requirement for all students . If a student tis not at least partially proficient he or she will not graduate! Students showed up, grades went u, and things were quite different this year. What does this tell us?
Learning is a process and so is teaching. In “The Case against Grades” Kohn state, “Replacing letter and number grades with narrative assessments or conferences—qualitative summaries of student progress offered in writing or as part of a conversation – is not a utopian fantasy.”
As an English teacher it is very difficult to teach writing. There is no universal formua (well there is a writing process) that every student masters and voila, they’re writing perfectly. While some kids may struggle with adding content, others may struggle with introductions, or a thesis, or adding evidence ,or the structure . I have found a very successful way in assessing my students writing and teaching writing. It is a long process but that is what learning and teaching is. Whenever I give a writing assignment the students write it over and over until they understand it. This requires reading , assessing, and conferencing on the same text multiple times, but the kids really learn what they need to work on, and they are able to fix it over and over again. I have had nothing but positive feedback on this. The first draft paper is given back without a grade, and often it is given back several times without a grade. My rationale is that if you give a student back a paper with a C on it he or she will take the paper, maybe look at the “markings’ and then put it away. When a student gets a paper back without a grade it is required for he or she to fix what they learned and re-write the paper over.
All level kids benefit from this. The kids who are driven by a grade do not have the satisfactory of taking that D+ and being done with it. I have had students who would end up with a B because they had already revised it several times, but they want to do it over and try for the B+ or an A. This process has been very successful in helping kids gain confidence in their writing skills and forces them to learn more.
This clip is an interview by Barry Lane about the idea of Rubrics and how effective they are to English teachers.
Rubrics
I am not a big fan. At times they do help expedite the assessment process. I am required to use a rubric for our portfolio assessments. What is frustrating is that what I think deserves a 3 other teachers may think deserves a 2. In my school we are spending a lot of time collaborating when grading theses assessments. This works well because we all get a better idea of how to use the rubric. The funny thing is the rubrics are now given a grade. What is proficient? I guess it is anywhere between an 83 and 93, it changes on a monthly basis depending on the latest research that comes out .
For those of us who do use rubrics to assess, there is a great site that helps create your own rubrics. When you need to be more specific to the genre of writing this helps create that rubric specifically for your assignment.
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/
Your scenarios are all too familiar. I think these interactions speak to the larger problem of significance. It is a problem that pervades all levels of students. My junior honors students were split between kids who took the class to grow and be challenged as learners and those whose sole purpose was to bolster their transcript/GPA for college.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great way to assess writing! I think Kohn would applaud your way of teaching kids how to write, requiring them to read those comments and actually do something to their writing based on the comments. That is promoting learning and not focusing on the grade! I think I might steal that idea for my next project!
ReplyDelete"The understanding that they are learning if they get a good grade"
This is definitely the argument behind the fact that kids care so much about their grades and not their learning. In their minds, if they have good grades, then they have learned the material. Depending on the assessment tool that we are using, often times they are correct. If our assessment require high level thinking skills and demonstration of understanding, then the only thing that Kohn would argue would be the fact that we boil our feedback down to a letter or number.
Like Kelly, I also had flashbacks to my own personal experience while reading your classroom scenario section when it comes to the grades of students. I mean, to some of the kids we teach, all they want is that passing grade (which infuriates me to no end!) I mean, don't some kids want to be more than mediocre? I guess not.....
ReplyDelete"In my experience students are driven by grades, not learning."
ReplyDeleteI see this too, but this is something the institution of school has created. Grades have become the means to measure students, teachers and school. When a student's goal is to get a passing grade, that is what will motivate him or her. Learning will motivate students when schools make learning, not grades, what matters.
Reading about your collaborative rubric grading reminded me of when my school decided to pair up everyone (shop teachers, academic teachers, and administrators) on the staff to correct summer reading. There were multiple problems and the process was a confusing also-ran from the start. People got frustrated and indignant, and many assignments were eventually corrected by the Academic Coordinator in spite of the enterprise. The point you made about the rubric itself getting a grade was the basis for most of the collective ado amongst the normally genial staff that afternoon in the cafeteria. The correcting has been the realm of the English Department ever since.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the personal anecdotes. As a teacher and as a student, the scenarios are all too familiar! Kohn was right on point!
ReplyDelete