Quarter Reflection- Where is my GRADE?

    Student input has been important in alternate scale assessing. As this system is new to all of us in my classroom, and I am the Gweniepig at my site, we are continuously developing the idea of throwing out the traditional grade book in our class. Prior to sending home report cards, I sat down with the students and we looked over the assignment sheets listing the scores for each assignment out of 4 and the rubrics, to reflect on what each student learned throughout the quarter.

            Some students were obsessed with the fact that no final grade, and no letter grades, were on the report and could not focus on reflecting over what the scaled scores indicated. I found this completely fascinating that provided with tools to see their individual growth, they were blinded by something that in this case meant so much less, but has been ingrained in them. This is part of our growing process of moving away from the grade towards seeing progress with practice towards demonstrating mastery of concepts. As a class, we had discussed several times about the assignments being for practice, not to affect the “grade”, but to affect the learning process. However, seeing the assignments below the line of not counting confused some students, they would point to a 3 and ask, “this didn’t count?” and I would respond with of course it counted, but towards their understanding of the concept, but it did not demonstrate mastery level understanding. Then I would point out a score of 0 out of 4, and remind them that counted towards their understanding too, yet it did not represent the final mastery. This would make them happy and realize that the system is beneficial. They realized that although they are held accountable, they have time to build the knowledge.

           Many of the scores on the sheet were scores they themselves had provided. Even the assessment scores were self-reflected scores. When asked to use this information to describe what they had learned throughout the quarter, at first they struggled, but as we discussed how to use the verbiage from the rubric, just as they had to defend their score from the rubric, they began to come up with ideas and remember that they had learned concepts. They finished focusing on the grades themselves and started to think about the material. 

           Working with change is a continuous shift in thought processes for all of us, but in the end, I think we are all seeing the benefit of using rubrics for self-reflection, analyzing what is being learned and taught, and assessed. Regardless of what is required to be taught, focusing on the learning, not the grade is going to be beneficial for all of us. It just takes time to shift from traditional thinking. Thank goodness for technological advancement of sharing ideas and manipulation of the grade book.