I had an experience recently in my honors math class that reminded me of this blog. So here I am again. But only for 15 minutes. Go.
I got an email a few weeks ago from our registrar saying that Jolene (not her real name, of course) was dropping the honors course and changing to the Algebra 2 course. "Wow," I thought. What was this all about? My gut feeling was that Jolene was doing just fine. Maybe not at the very top of the class, but certainly in the top half. (And I suppose it's contradictory of me to have used my grades as a way to think this through. Do I contradict myself? Okay, then I contradict myself.) From my observations of Jolene in class, I certainly did not notice her struggling to the point of giving up. So, to check on my gut feeling, I checked my online grading program (my school requires me to use one to my revulsion) and discovered that her grade at the time was an A-.
I immediately emailed Jolene's advisor writing that this was not a good idea, that Jolene was doing very well from a grade standpoint and according to my observations and impression of her in class. (As I only had 12 students in that particular section at the time, I very much trust my classroom impression.) Jolene's advisor, Liz (not her real name), wrote back saying that Jolene was spending so much time on her math homework that she wanted to drop the honors course so she could devote more time to her other classes. Jolene had been relying on other students, it turns out, for a lot of help, and always worked to get a perfect homework assignment.
This, on the surface, sounded like a very good reason to change courses, but, I replied back and suggested that she could likely spend less time and still earn a B. Furthermore, homework assignments in my class are not graded and I have no expectation that a student get every question correct by the day it is due. Rather, my expectation is that the student do as much as they can on each problem and get help as needed. (I had other discussions with honors students around the same time that made me realize I had not adequately communicated these expectations to my student.)
Of course, the main sticking point was the grade. I found out that Jolene's preference was to switch courses so that they could get an A in math and have more time to spend on other subjects. She mainly wanted to switch because she was concerned she might not be able to get an A in the honors course.
Jolene, Liz, and I met to talk this over. I emphasized to her that she seemed to have a very good grasp of the ideas, that her results were indicative of this, but that it was certainly possible her grade could be a B. I did my best to emphasize that I did not think her getting an A was paramount. My opinion was that the Algebra 2 course would be too easy and she would be bored and that, in the end, this would lead her to a less rich education. Liz, her advisor, supported me on all of this, and we devised a plan: she would take the next test before switching and use that to make her ultimate decision. (Again, something that was grade-dependent, but at least something the student would identify as tangible.)
What happened? You'll have to wait for my next post as my 15 minutes are up.
I tried an experiment once in which I didn't put grades on papers but returned narrative comments and margin annotations. Students then redrafted. Uniformly they reported that they worked harder on this assignment than ever before because they were trying to address all the concerns I noted.
ReplyDeleteThe students who earned A- or A's on the first draft expressed great frustration: they had worked hard when they didn't need to do so. They also uniformly acknowledged that they wrote their best papers ever. The administration at my school then told me not to do that again because it was too stressful for the students; the highest achieving students had to work "too hard" to improve their writing when it was already satisfactory.
I have yet to hear a good argument for letter grades beyond that it makes things easier for students and educators, including college admission folk. Easier - defined as settling for satisfactory rather than striving for excellence.
Great to see you back online. November is National Blogging Month.