Exit Fear, Enter Success!

Now, how does this percentage thing equate? Equate to what? 

The idea here is to throw out traditional grade book ideals. There is no longer the same standard of 50% means you correctly answered half the questions, and you fail. If you learned half the material, then you learned a lot! Percentages are disproportionate anyway, if after that 50, each ten percent holds so much more weight. Why is that failing? Because who says so! You still have something to learn, but it doesn't mean you have put no effort in at all. 

What if you are able to fully complete some portions of the task? With a rubric that delineates exactly what a student is being held accountable for, they can express exactly what they know and what they still need to learn to master a concept. 

In this sense, we are 

1. taking out the guess work, 
2. taking out the fear of failing after putting in effort, and 
3. building relationships with concepts and ideas. 

That’s what education should be about. Give credit where credit is due and if we have to put a percent on it, then make it a class discussion or make it worth a student’s effort to take part in their own education. The idea after all is to take the fear out of the grade and encourage success.