How does that sound?

I really appreciate your comment. Thank you! We get stuck doing things because they’ve always been done that way and because they are done that way in high school and college. Many do well in this system because they’ve figured out what they need to do to get the A’s and believe me, I understand the power that A has over us. In short, the good news is that I can give A’s at the midterm and at the end of term on Skyward. In the long run though I really would like to see students learning because it’s valuable to them and not for the reward, so I’m going to continue to challenge the way we’ve always done things. Another reason I’m challenging the way we’ve always done things is because in this day and age, it’s just not working. One thing I’ve been telling kids is since they won’t have grades they need to keep assignments in their notebooks as evidence of their learning. I said that when parents come in to see how their child is doing I can get the Science notebook and show them instead of just saying, “your child is getting an A,” or a B or a C or a D or an F. Those letters don’t really tell anything about what the child is learning. As I wrote in the letter I sent home, I’d rather talk with parents about what their child is learning, how their child is learning and how their child is getting along with others in class.

At least in Science I’m hoping to see students continue learning what they find interesting and not stop because they’re already flunking with a D or an F or they’ve already gotten an A. I’m hoping that when students think back to middle school Science they’ll remember what they learned and not what letter grade they got. It was revealing when I asked all my 6th graders what they remember about their 5th grade report card. I heard students tell me about 1′s, 2′s, 3′s and 4′s. But when I asked what standards they got those numbers for, not a single student remembered. It’s what the studies show, when people do something for a reward it’s the reward that takes precedence and it’s the reward that they remember. The saddest part for me to learn when I read Kohn’s book is that people who do something for a reward end up not interested in doing that thing once they get the reward. Highly motivated kids who plan to become doctors or scientists have a long-term goal to continue learning Science but the majority will not. I can’t believe it when a 6th graders tells me they hate Science or that they are not god at Science. Not good at Science? Trying to figure out how the world works is natural so I can’t stand it when children tell themselves they can’t do it. I see my job in middle school is to help my students become scientifically literate but also to love Science and even to love learning. In this century, in order to be successful we all have to be life-long learners.

This one teacher from Alberta, Canada, Joe Bower, has been blogging for quite a while now because he stopped giving grades to his 8th grade students five years ago. He’s put links to all his blog articles about grading here. Check it out, he brings up some very interesting points and challenges the ways we’ve been doing things vs the ways we can do things.

Let’s keep this conversation going. It would be great if more parents can join in so they don’t feel worried. I had a nice conversation with Maggie and Kris about this, too. We can work together through this change.

Al Gonzalez