Entrance Slip - A shift from grading to an emphasis of learning

After reading Sarte and Hughs article, one particular idea that stood out for me was stated by Clinkenbeard

"Instead she recommends a move towards an environment in which learning is seen as an end in itself and feelings of competence are found through personal improvement" 

This reminded me of a school visit to Burnaby South where one of the teachers handed out multiplication tables at the beginning of class and they had five minutes to fill in as much as they could.  He didn't put any emphasis on their scores, instead, all he emphasized was whether they were individually improving or not.  If students filled in the entire time table within the five minutes he would challenge them to finish it faster.   Clinkenbeard also says that letter grades produce unwanted competition between students and that we can overcome this through use of comments.  Even though this unwanted competition was something I found highly motivating throughout highschool, this is clearly not the case for every student.  One of the purposes of grades is to provide feedback for the students which is of course a positive thing.  However, I would have to argue/agree with Clinkenbeard that comments provide feedback as well, but in a more specific and beneficial way.  This got me thinking that maybe instead of giving letter grades or percentages we could have some sort of charting system where students could see whether they improved, stayed the same, or worsened as well as providing them with feedback.

Some unintended side effects and one of the main arguments against grading in Sarte and Hughes article was that tests and grading causes high levels of stress in students and we as teachers should try to alleviate this.  While I agree with this, I am sure we have all experienced the stress that comes from a provincial exam or a midterm worth fifty percent of your mark, I would have to argue that a certain amount of stress is healthy.  Also, as students enter the "real world" they will face extremely stressful situations. High school can be a precursor to prepare them for some of these situations they will inevitably face.  As teachers, we need to find a healthy balance of not too much , but not too little.

Also, as secondary educators it is one of our jobs to prepare our students for post secondary education.  To my knowledge, colleges and university are still placing high values on grades.  So how can we give accurate assessments to these colleges and universities without adhering to their own ways of assessing?

As said above, my "student bird" thoughts on grades were positive,  especially in highschool.  I enjoyed the competition it created.  Letter grades let myself, my parents, and my fellow colleagues know where I stood.  My "teacher bird" thoughts on the other hand differ a bit.  I still think grading is necessary just because post secondary education relies so heavily on it, but in terms of actual learning, I don't think it is the best form of assessment.  I think most students would appreciate a verbal or written comment instead of a percentage or letter grade.  So while we are forced to give out percentages and grades because universities require them, we can also give better feedback in the form of comments.  This is something I will try to incorporate in my teaching.

Can I imagine a math or physics class without grades? No, I think it will be way to hard to break the cemented approach of grading and I also think it will be way to hard to motivate students otherwise.  Sarte and Hughes say they accomplished this by giving choice to students about learning topics.  But can we get away with that all the time?  I think our curriculum is to restricted to be able to give students a range of topics they can study out of their own interest?

Also, I have coached for four years now and every single year I find that most of my athletes are motivated because its simply something they enjoy doing.  Yet I still find that putting a reward or punishment gives them the necessary motivation needed.  For example, I might say, "losing team owes me twenty pushups."  Something as simple as that will get them to play at a higher level even though they are already motivated because it was their choice to play.  I don't know if I am making my point clear, but basically giving students a choice of their interest may provide motivation but adding in that letter grade or percentage pushes them to the level they need to be.  

Overall I found the article extremely interesting and I am not even sure where I fall on the spectrum of grading or no grading.  One thing I can say is that I think our society relies on grades far too heavily.  Sure a 95% student looks good on paper but can you really judge a person just based on that information?