The following is part of assignment 2, which I'm including because I enjoyed it very much. It wasn't the first time I heard some of the concepts Kohn talks about but it was the first time I had thought deeply about any of them.
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Which of the suggestions given by Kohn would you try to implement in your own classroom? Why? Which ones wouldn’t you consider? Why?
1) I would attempt to implement this suggestion into my (fictional) classroom. As a parent I have always appreciated comments that fully explained the teacher’s experience of my child and his/her learning more than a letter grade – especially since I usually had no idea what the teacher’s grading criteria was. As we saw when reading about the value of the narrative approach, anecdotal information about the student is much more relatable for the parent than a grade is.
2) I would also incorporate the practice of limiting gradations in my classroom if I could make it clear that the check/plus system does not indicate a judgement on student effort because, as with any grading, that judgement would be unreliable and unrelated to an entire grading period.
3) Reducing the number of grades to either an A or an Incomplete is a wonderful idea as long as I am able to give each student the time they needed to feel complete enough to move on the next thing. I am very familiar with some people’s inability to let go of a project until they get that A. Otherwise, I think giving the student permission to work on something until it is done to the best of their ability would be both freeing and inspiring.
4) To never grade students while they are learning something sounds good but I wonder if this is possible. I can ask a student if they’re ready to show me what they know but at some point I will have to push those students who never seem to be ready. As a teacher who knows my students well, isn’t it my job to know when the student is ready, even if they think they are not?
5) I agree that a grade for effort will not create a desire to try harder. I think grades for effort are resented more than grades for performance because that is an internal, personal assessment no one on the outside of the student can make. I wold include this suggestion in my classroom.
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Which of the suggestions given by Kohn would you try to implement in your own classroom? Why? Which ones wouldn’t you consider? Why?
1) I would attempt to implement this suggestion into my (fictional) classroom. As a parent I have always appreciated comments that fully explained the teacher’s experience of my child and his/her learning more than a letter grade – especially since I usually had no idea what the teacher’s grading criteria was. As we saw when reading about the value of the narrative approach, anecdotal information about the student is much more relatable for the parent than a grade is.
2) I would also incorporate the practice of limiting gradations in my classroom if I could make it clear that the check/plus system does not indicate a judgement on student effort because, as with any grading, that judgement would be unreliable and unrelated to an entire grading period.
3) Reducing the number of grades to either an A or an Incomplete is a wonderful idea as long as I am able to give each student the time they needed to feel complete enough to move on the next thing. I am very familiar with some people’s inability to let go of a project until they get that A. Otherwise, I think giving the student permission to work on something until it is done to the best of their ability would be both freeing and inspiring.
4) To never grade students while they are learning something sounds good but I wonder if this is possible. I can ask a student if they’re ready to show me what they know but at some point I will have to push those students who never seem to be ready. As a teacher who knows my students well, isn’t it my job to know when the student is ready, even if they think they are not?
5) I agree that a grade for effort will not create a desire to try harder. I think grades for effort are resented more than grades for performance because that is an internal, personal assessment no one on the outside of the student can make. I wold include this suggestion in my classroom.
6) In our group chat we talked a little about grading on the curve and that was when the talk got most passionate. Many felt they had been denied their just and deserved grade due to grading on the curve. This is the one suggestion of Kohn’s that I might have come up with on my own if I were a teacher. Good work is good work and if we’re grading then everyone who earns a grade should get it.
7) Bringing students in on the evaluation process to the fullest extent would be a real challenge for me but well worth it if it creates a community classroom where everyone feels involved and important. As pointed out, students would “derive enormous intellectual benefits” by expanding their thinking beyond the boundaries of “what is expected” and into the realm of what is possible. Involvement to this degree in the classroom would also prepare students to be good civic citizens and teach important values such as cooperation, appreciation of difference, and seeing something through from beginning to end.
Unit 2 - Recap
Before this unit I had never considered that having the sense that I was doing worthy work had a lot to do with whether a course or a job was enjoyable or not, but, of course it does. Satisfaction and success can also suffer if commitment, benefience and authority are missing values (Winterowd, as cited on p. 41).
Mastery of your subject and knowledge of how people respond to events in their lives are basic to counsellor success - teachers also need to have curriculum expertise to be sucessful.
Glasser's 5 conditions for quality in the workplace can be applied to teaching, to parenting, to any situation where you want employees, or partners, or students to enjoy what they're doing, stick with it, and feel successful. But, since I have always been leary of evaluation (in most of its forms) I found the central role it plays in workplace quality surprising. I resisted the idea that evaluation is teaching but, after reflecting on my own experiences, and putting it together with motivation as Kohn does, I got it.
Questions from Teachers, Children, Science: Theroretical Perspectives - (1.5 in reader).
I have not changed my mind about any of my answers to these questions.
7) Bringing students in on the evaluation process to the fullest extent would be a real challenge for me but well worth it if it creates a community classroom where everyone feels involved and important. As pointed out, students would “derive enormous intellectual benefits” by expanding their thinking beyond the boundaries of “what is expected” and into the realm of what is possible. Involvement to this degree in the classroom would also prepare students to be good civic citizens and teach important values such as cooperation, appreciation of difference, and seeing something through from beginning to end.
Unit 2 - Recap
Before this unit I had never considered that having the sense that I was doing worthy work had a lot to do with whether a course or a job was enjoyable or not, but, of course it does. Satisfaction and success can also suffer if commitment, benefience and authority are missing values (Winterowd, as cited on p. 41).
Mastery of your subject and knowledge of how people respond to events in their lives are basic to counsellor success - teachers also need to have curriculum expertise to be sucessful.
Glasser's 5 conditions for quality in the workplace can be applied to teaching, to parenting, to any situation where you want employees, or partners, or students to enjoy what they're doing, stick with it, and feel successful. But, since I have always been leary of evaluation (in most of its forms) I found the central role it plays in workplace quality surprising. I resisted the idea that evaluation is teaching but, after reflecting on my own experiences, and putting it together with motivation as Kohn does, I got it.
Questions from Teachers, Children, Science: Theroretical Perspectives - (1.5 in reader).
I have not changed my mind about any of my answers to these questions.
