This week's reading was full of tips on how to adapt the curriculum and the culture of our classroom to improve middle school students' education and knowledge. The quote above generated a lot of questions in my head on giving students feedback. I believe that one of the major goals of middle school is to prepare students for that transition into high school. Students in middle school might not see the importance of passing a class in middle school but once they get to high school everything changes in terms of passing a class. You don't pass a class = no credit = retake or fall behind on credits. I understand that educators should recognize the effort that students make but we all have a student who doesn't turn in any work. Why should the student receive credit for no work at all? The district I work with has a grading system of a 1-4. Students receive a credit of 1 even if they don't turn any work. I love constructive feedback and that's what I want to give my students, feedback that they can reflect and build upon. The reading also mentions that the curriculum should have high expectations, have relevant activities with the room of exploration and creativity. Although, we must also include formative and summative assessments to have data to improve our planning, we must hold students responsible for their effort and their grades.
This chart talks about the difference between Assessment and Evaluation. The AMLE book mentions several of these differences and this is something that educators must consider to distinguish between assessment and evaluation.
Your post gives me thought. On one hand, I understand your comment about why a student should receive credit when they didn't do the work, even if receiving a 1. While I am not a believer of letting students slide, I think that if they participate in class and work within the unit a 1 might be sufficient. My bigger concern is why is that student performing at a 1? Is this a subject matter issue or a bigger issue at home? Do other teachers experience this same issue and have concern? How can we work together to help the student?
ReplyDeleteMy other thought about preparing the student for high school perplexes me as I don't see middle school necessarily as prep for high school. In my district I actually see the middle school is a stronger unit than our high school. I feel there is much more collaboration at the middle school between all staff and that by the nature of the middle school program and education, it is inherently preparing the student for that transition. In addition, many high school students are still adolescents and in need of guidance. I see too often high schools adopt that students are now "adult-like" which puts so much more pressure on the grade instead of the learning. I think at any level there needs to be collaboration with all parties involved to understand the underlying issue regarding performance and assessment.
Luis,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that constructive feedback is critical. Having an instructor mark down an assignment with little or no feedback on why or what you need to work on is frustrating. Even in the working world it can be difficult to find mentors who are willing to put in the time to give adequate feedback with an eye on growth. And with the numbering system as you described you can have two students score a three with one being incredibly hard working and another potentially making it off of natural ability. How do you differentiate those efforts within a number or provide meaningful information for student growth? I can see that system leading a student to get discouraged, however, when they put in considerable effort to watch someone else skate by with the same grade and minimal effort. As teachers we may not always have time to give each and every student a long detailed review but we owe it to them to at least be able to highlight the biggest weaknesses and provide opportunities to improve those skills.
Hello and peace to all ,
ReplyDeleteHello Luis,
Thank you for your post. There are a few things that I thought were rather very interesting in it. First, I liked that little chart you gave us at the end that talks about the difference between assessments and evaluations. I will look at that more closely…. But I think it can be helpful to get that more straight my head, so thank you for that!
I continued my comments directly underneath because the program limited my response.....
Also, I too, enjoy giving feedback to my students, and feel it is essential for growth! It is a very important tool to build rapport with the students, and to praise them for the things they do well, so that they get a charge, and get excited out about doing something good in class, and but also, to give feedback to share with them how they can improve the work.
ReplyDeleteI am 50 years old, and I still love getting good feedback and or comments on any work when I do…. It invigorates and enthuses me. So I know if it does is to me at the age of 50, it probably does this for grammar school and high school kids!
And by the way, where good feedback comes in handy the most is for those kids who are on the cusp of either going the right way with academics and school, or the wrong way with school and academics. And so, if we can get them excited about school and learning at the early stages, and show them that learning can be fun, and that it’s exciting to get good feedback, then maybe they will go into the rest of their academic career more interested. But if these kids who are on the cusp of either thinking education is important or not, if they don’t get the right feedback, there is a good chance that they’re going to care little about school going forward.
countined....
And by the way, I will say that as much as I enjoy getting good feedback, I have learned that at the end of the day, the first person I need to satisfy with this work I do is me. And so, even if nobody else says anything good or bad about my work, if I’m proud of it, and feel I put in a good effort, and learned from it, I recognize this is the most important thing, and as such, I can get by when my work is ignored by peers and/or teachers. (And often this is the case because people are very busy in this adult world ). So I have discovered that at the end of the day , if something is worthwhile to do , it has to be worthwhile to be done even if nobody patch on the back for it. And this is an important lesson to learn in life for me (and for others ). But, having said this , is still always nice to hear peers and/or teachers interact and say they really dug an idea, and/or have found that idea in their own experiences to be true.
ReplyDeleteBut again anyway, my point is that I completely agree with you that it is important to give feedback to the students!
And then finally, I also agree with you that if kids are not doing any of the work they shouldn’t get anything. Now, maybe an argument can be made that if they are participating in the classroom, and paying attention, and being an active listener, they might get a point for that. I think I can get behind this . But if they are doing not ,well in the classroom participation part, and aren’t ending and homework, I think that they should get a zero on that wonderful rubrics you set up.
And finally, I am somebody who believes that if kids don’t do anything during the school year (and sadly, we’ve all had, or seen kids like this), they should need to go to summer school for the summer. Here, they will learn what they didn’t in school, and they will have to wake up at 8 AM and go till three during the summer! I think too many schools pass people right along when they haven’t learned anything, or done anything.
Now please note, I am not an overly judicial guy…. I really am not. So when I say more people need to go to summer school when they don’t do anything, I reserve this for the kids didn’t do anything. If kids make a little bit of an effort and/or do some of the work, they might be able to get by with a C, and as such, maybe not need to go to summer school. But for those kids who don’t turn in any (or extremely little amount of) work, and do very little in the classroom, I think more have to be forced to go to summer school before they can continue to the next grade. And I say this for their own good! It is not because I’m trying to be mean. And by the way, if they did go to summer school, that might learn some things they were unable to in regular school because they don’t have few students with them. And/or may be, if they start behaving and learning in summer school, they can start going home at 12 or one, and/or one have to go for the whole summer… If they show improvement.
So, anyway, these are some of my thoughts in response your post. I really enjoyed your post Luis!…. Peace……. Peace all