Making the Grade.

Maybe I’ve become the crazy teacher. I had the realization recently that I am far more concerned with kids thinking “she made me believe I could do anything” than I am about standards.

At the end of the year, I give students a survey to grade both me and our class. It is anonymous. There are several questions on the survey. Some of them require rating, other require responses. Things like “I enjoyed most of the titles we read this year: strongly agree/strongly disagree [or somewhere in between]” or “If I could take one book off of the shelf so that no one was ever required to read it again it would be ____________.” It is rather eye opening to see what kids liked and didn’t like about the class. I do it quarterly for feedback about assignments, but the end of the year survey is a bit more involved.

While I could say that it is great to get comments that go something like “While it may seem like I’m complaining a lot, this was my favorite class!” the reality is, every year, these surveys make me change my teaching. And this year, they’re making me re-think things in an entirely different way.

I was a bit surprised to look over four quarters of grades and see how many A’s and B’s were earned. While I don’t doubt that those grades were earned, I was surprised by some of the names attached to those A’s and B’s. Their writing is not of A or B caliber. Their understanding of literature does not match those grades. So, how did they earn them?

They showed up. They did their work. They tried hard.

My grading scale is broken up fairly evenly so that no one can “just” score high on tests and ace the class. Similarly, one can’t simply do all of their homework and earn a passing grade. I have three categories at 25%, then one at 15% and one at 10%. What I’m realizing is that their grade does not necessarily reflect the mastery of the standards I’m teaching them. And, therefore, I suppose the question I’m posing is: should they?

Should a student be graded on their mastery of a specific subject/standard or on the effort put forth in conjunction with the former? Where’s the mid-point?

These are the questions that ought to be discussed during staff meetings, not who has lunch duty. These are the questions that will reshape how we teach and what we teach and everything in between.

None of the schools at which I’ve taught have ever had a seminar, course, presentation on proper grading scales. No one teaches you how to do this stuff. Maybe you stumble upon an old grading scale or google a sample for the grade and subject you teach. I find this to be troubling.

The first week of school, I spend at least two periods going over with students how to understand and figure out grading scales. None of them have ever been able to explain to me how a grading scale works. When I explain to them that an assignment on a grading scale where the average assignment is worth ten points is the same as an assignment with ten times the value on a grading scale where the average is 100 points, their minds are blown. They’ve learned that ten is much, much less than 100, therefore, the 100 point assignment is of much more value. When I have them grade their own essays using a rubric and then give themselves a letter grade, the numbers and the letters NEVER match. I am learning that students have a poor understanding of grading, percentages, and what “mastery” means. For quite some time, many of them have been told that effort is enough. But in the real world, that is not true. So, I find it my duty to teach them that effort is good and it is important, but it doesn’t always earn you a paycheck.

If I were to only “put forth effort” in lesson planning and grading papers and never actually completed those things, they would be at a loss. It is the same thing with their work, right? If they put forth effort, but didn’t quite get the right answer, how do you grade this? Maybe I should teach math or a subject where there IS only one right answer. English is too subjective.

Other teachers: what are your thoughts? How do you grade? How much does effort play a part? What are your percentage breakdowns? How do you measure a student’s success? Parents, former students, and community members – weigh in. What do you think about grades?

On Storytelling.

As an English teacher, it is my job to teach students about nouns and verbs, adjectives and adverbs, definitions and context. I must teach them how to be good writers and better readers. I have to inform them of what they do well and what they need to work on. Every single day.

If I gave them all a test on all of these things, some of them would do just fine. Others would struggle. But if I were to test them on what they've really learned this year, I would hope that they'd be able to tell me some important life lesson. I'd hope that they would have learned the importance of their own voice, their story.

I use anecdotes often. They're usually about me or someone I know. Every time I tell a story, their eyes grow wide with wonder. I see them really listening. They want to know what happens. They want to know how it ends.

What is most important? Teaching kids the difference between a noun and a verb or teaching them life skills? Teaching them algebraic functions that they may never use again or explaining to them that the kindness of strangers has saved lives?

I suppose we all see our jobs as educators differently. Perhaps this is where my dislike of the idea of becoming an administrator really sets in. To me, teaching kids has much more to do with what's on paper. It has to do with the fabric of life.

Five Tips for Teachers (Why you shouldn't wear white, how to pee in under thirty seconds, and other key elements of teaching)

Five tips every teacher should know: 

1. Teachers should not wear white. It's a fact. No matter how careful or cautious you are, the white you wear TO school will not be the same white you wear home. It never fails.
White is a magnet for color when you're a teacher. And that color can come from a rather wide range of sources: sticky hands (yes, I teach middle and high school, yes, this is still true), exploding pens, residue from art class, your lunch, someone else's lunch. Once white has been marred, it's hard to look away from it. Your students will be distracted all day wondering if the red marks all over your shirt came from kool-aid, strawberries, or red skittle drool. Now they're distracted and they will never know the proper way to identify a simile and metaphor. Way to go. All because you wore white.

White is overrated. Don't wear it. You'll regret it.

2. You need to learn how to pee in under thirty seconds. Let me explain: if I have a five minute break that starts when class is over and have to go to a different floor of the building to use the restroom, I really don't have five minutes to get there. First, I have to shoo all of the bright young futures that want to stay in my room. I have to gently encourage them to pack up their things as I secretly do the potty dance because after a certain age, it becomes completely socially unacceptable. But yes, kids, I do pee. I am a human being. (Honestly, sometimes I forget). Get them packed up, even the last one, who seems to be contemplating deep things of life as he slowly puts his book away as though it were covered in molasses. Lock the door. Get downstairs without having conversations with the kid who missed class because _____________ and now needs make-up work. Oh, and also, he won't be here on Friday, so could he get the work for that day, too? Less than two and a half minutes remaining. Scan the bathroom (shared with kids) for the most decent looking stall: hasn't been used by kindergarten, so there are no "aiming" errors, hasn't been used by HS boys, so doesn't smell like AXE body spray. Yes, found a winner. Less than one and a half minutes left. Dang it! You fool! You forgot to check for toilet paper. Of course there isn't any. This is school! What now? Wait until you hear the pitter patter of little feet that might be able to stick some under the door for you? Wait it out? You have students lining up at your door right now! Someone's life will be ruined if you're not on time.

Teaching is hard, I tell you. You must learn to pee in under thirty seconds. And always, always, ALWAYS check for toilet paper.

3. You will need to learn nice ways to say mean things.
"Your child is very active" is a really nice way to say "Your kid is constantly moving, and while it is impressive that he can put his foot behind his head, it's really not appropriate for him to do that in class. Does he do this at the dinner table? Is it hereditary? Can you do it?"
"Your student constantly participates!" is a super great way to say "YOUR KID NEVER SHUTS UP! Do you even LET her talk at home?"

Figure out nice ways to say hard things. It will make your days easier.

4. You must eat on parent teacher conference day. You must schedule a conference with at least a small bite of food. If you don't, a ravenous, angry monster will show up in your last hour. It will not be pretty. And then you will have to write all of these apologetic emails that you really don't have time for. Schedule in an apple. Make it work.

5. Pretend like someone is always video-taping your classroom. If someone were videotaping your classroom, would you have said that? Done that? Allowed that kid to do that? If you live under a constant sense of false surveillance, the world will be a better place. You'll never worry about getting in trouble if you have an unscheduled observation or parent visit. Big brother IS watching. And that's a good thing.