Category: Grades & HW

These are blogs where I write about grades and homework in an effort to challenge the traditional use of the two.

Oct 04

The Homework Dilemma

Homework is a tough one. We all have our opinions about it. Reading Alfie Kohn’s work on the subject reveals that the research can’t really agree on whether homework is valuable or not for young kids. For my son, who is 15, homework is not pleasant but with prodding he’ll do it. We make sure …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/10/04/the-homework-dilemma/

Sep 03

Response to Intervention

One of the activities I did during August, Connected Educator Month, was take part in a free Response to Intervention (RTI) workshop by eLearning Innovation, Struggling Readers, Differentiated Instruction and RTI. RTI is one of those things that we hear about but that I couldn’t quite put my finger on exactly what it is. Sure, …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/09/03/response-to-intervention/

Aug 10

Student Feedback 11-12

Every year I find some way to get feedback from my students. I’ve been getting feedback from my students for years to determine what I’m doing well and what could use some fixing. I especially wanted to see what students thought this past school year about getting feedback from me because I struggled finding time …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/08/10/student-feedback-11-12/

Jun 18

When is Extrinsic Motivation Okay?

I’ve been looking into gamification and how it can help motivate students to have fun and learn Science. I would love to make certain lessons, projects, or activities look like a game to motivate students to learn boring things like vocabulary. I’d like to do that without points, badges or too many rewards. I’ve abolished …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/06/18/when-is-extrinsic-motivation-okay/

Jun 11

Alternate Reality Game

This past Thursday Nicholas Provenzano hosted a Twitter chat at #NerdyChat on the topic of Gamification (see transcript here). Gamification is the idea of using the best of video gaming in the classroom. Why? Watch a kid play a video game. Video games hook the player and motivate the player to persevere through failure and …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/06/11/alternate-reality-game/

Jun 04

Real Life

We talk a lot about preparing our students for real life. We entice them with the reward of high marks (A’s, 100%’s, 3’s and 4’s) and we threaten them with failure (F’s, 0’s, 1’s and 2’s). It’s easy to think that enticing kids with high marks works because of the kids who work hard for …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/06/04/real-life/

Mar 27

Grades and Feedback

Just a couple of years ago this is what my progress reports looked like. This is what I would give students every three to four weeks for the whole school year. This was what I thought would motivate my students. A majority of them were never motivated by this. And those who got “good” grades? …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/03/27/grades-and-feedback/

Mar 13

What is School For?

That’s what Seth Godin, author of Linchpin and other books, is asking us in his blog post www.stopstealingdreams.com is ready to read and share. Stop Stealing Dreams is a free book Godin wrote to get discussions around education reform going. Why did he do that? Because his readers ask him, “What do you think we …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/03/13/what-is-school-for/

Feb 26

Not Against Competition

I’ve written some posts about awards not being very useful when used as reward and punishment. I’ve written some posts about grades not being very useful when used as reward and punishment. I try to create an environment in my classroom where kids aren’t competing for points or an A but are instead learning and …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/02/26/not-against-competition/

Dec 21

Comparing Traditional and Alternative Grading Schemes

This is a guest post by Elaine Hirsch. Movements for change and reform in the US educational system challenge nearly every aspect of the student’s experience, and grading systems are certainly not exempt from this. In an ongoing struggle to best measure the effectiveness of our education system, traditional and alternative grading systems have been …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2011/12/21/comparing-traditional-and-alternative-grading-schemes/

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