10 – Grades

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The end of the semester is here and as a result so are the grades for my students. Grades are just one aspect of education that can hold a wide range of emotions. On one side is a student that gives them self a stomach ulcer because of stressing over their grade and on the other is a student who appears to purposely try to earn the lowest grade possible. The parents, who commonly reflect their children, are on the exact same spectrum. There are those parents that will strategically battle over a few points and then there are those who take no responsibility in their child’s grade. I must admit that I am out of touch with the parent side since I now teach college students. However, constantly I witness similar attitudes towards grades from eighth graders as with college students, suggesting a trend or habit that student’s carry through their education experience. In the same light, my perspective towards grades is the same as when I taught eighth grade. Is this fair? Should my attitude towards grades be dependent on the level of the students that I am teaching? What I do notice is how my attitude towards grades when I was student easily transferred over to when I first began teaching. How common is this? Do teacher’s perspectives about grades stem from their perception as a student? Well, I guess to truly understand how I feel about grades is to accept that currently I have only viewed them as student and now is the moment for me to define my perspective as a teacher.

Grades are those things that I have yet been able to to effectively use a tool. My grade turnout usually follows the bell curve, meaning the lump of my grades fall range from a D to a B, and then F’s and A’s scatter the edges. I have never taken a moment to reflect on how my grading mirror any possible personal or educational beliefs I may have. I want to be clear with myself that I am not reflecting on the philosophy of grades. Grades are just one way to assess a student and I believe that there is no difference in giving them a check system, an alphabet scheme, a four point rubric scale, etc. because each is attaching a value to student’s academic success. I want the reflection to be guided on how I personally view the numerical value of grades, the possible indications from a student’s grade, and how the distribution of grades can be a service in improving the impact of an assignment or the class as a whole.

One issue with grades is that each person in education, teacher, students, administration, parents, legislation, etc, can have a different perspective about what a specific grade means for them. For instance, a teacher may interpret an A differently from how a parent views an A. This can cause confrontations such as when student earns an A in math three years straight and is expected to continue this trend in my class. Yet, a student earning an A in my class might be like a student earning a B in another class or vice versa. This makes me question if a school should use a school wide rubric of grade interpretation. But this task seems to constrain a teacher from implementing their own unique ways of challenging their students. One teacher may push their students in one area while another challenges them in a different area. This adds diversity to the school are able to be themselves when teaching. Overall, it is important for me to communicate with other teachers about how they are grading their students so that I can compare if my method is appropriate. Then I am not being stagnate in perspective, rather I am challenging myself about how I grade, and at the same time, I am providing teachers the opportunity to do the same.

Some times I appreciate those students who will not put forth effort towards my assignments more than those who blindly complete the assignment with flying colors. These non-working students challenge me on how I can improve the assignment because if I can them involved then most likely all other students will follow. Yet, both students are sort of in the same group because the both blindly perceives the assignment out of habit. Either they blindly do it or the blindly don’t do it. Therefore, a goal of mine is to create assignments that student toss their blinders on the side and work towards an exploration of understanding instead of the thought of completion. Then their grade can possibly represent understanding and not just work ethic. When this does occur, the grades are usually high. But then I have this peculiar concept that my class is too easy if the majority of students are earning A’s. Are grades able to be an indicator of the difficulty of a class? I just had a student tell me “That had to be one of the hardest classes but I learned a lot.” His grade was a B, and I could see another student making the same statement but earning a F, D, C or A. I should point out how I was thinking that I made the class too easy to earn a B. So perhaps I need to be aware that I have an erroneous belief about correlating grades with the difficulty level in my classes. Only trying to make my classes more challenging when there are too many A’s is not what I do. I always want to discover ways to challenge my students through math and as a human, and my motivation to accomplish this should not be based grades.

I have to take an honest moment here to reflect on whether I truly want my students to earn A’s in my classroom. On one hand it seems like if a student is earning A’s in my classroom then they are reaching a deep understanding of the topic and that they do not need me anymore in helping them learn. Again, I appear to revealing an ironic aspect of my class. I say that I want to develop independent learners, meaning that I do not want them to solely depend on me for their learing. However, it seems like I am able to take them right to the edge but my perception of grades is my final attachment that prevents them from taking an independent flight of academic success. Why I am uncomfortable with this idea of pushing students to reacher academic heights? Commonly students will ask me what their score is on an assesement by saying “Is it good or bad?”. My reply is, “I don’t know what is a good score for you and what is a bad score for you.” My intent for this to not offer students my judgment. I want bring awareness to how they are judging themselves towards the outcome of an assessment. This scenario also shows how I can distance myself from a student’s grade. Finally, the most important point is how as student I fell in the middle of the grade spectrum. I was able to succeed in my schooling, but I never took the risk in earning grades that required more effort. I was more comfortable sticking with the grades I knew I could get and the possible failure of not reaching that higher grade was masked by the thought of “Well I could do it if I wanted to.” Now, as a teacher, relating to all of my students about grades is difficult because as a student I have not experienced the highs or the lows in the grading spectrum. My parents influenced me to do my best, however they never encouraged me challenge my understanding and my study habits in order to reach a higher garde. I continue this perspective with my students and my lack of experience makes it difficult for me to motivate and push students to their next level. But now that it is in my awareness, I can make it a goal for me to reach.