Lessons I Learned from my Students' Blogs

It is my pleasure to have Al Gonzalez provide today's guest post. Al is a teacher in Washington State that I learn from via Twitter and blogging. He is a member of the Grading Moratorium, and he blogs here.

By Al Gonzalez

I create blog accounts for all my Science students every year. I have students blog about what they are learning in class. Sometimes the blog post is the assignment, sometimes the blog post is a reflection, sometimes the blog post is to share lab conclusions, observations and/or data, sometimes the blog post is a follow-up question or asking students to think about something further than what was done in class, and sometimes I even encourage students to blog about anything they like. The beauty of blogging is that my students get to share their learning, their experiences, their ideas, their thoughts with anyone in the world. I ask parents to read their child's blogs and I encourage all students to showcase their blogs at their student-led conferences in the spring. I also actively seek out classes that we can share with so that they leave comments on my student's blog and my students leave comments on theirs. I find this very powerful and something 21st century kids should find quite natural, being connected.

Over the years I've learned some things about student blogging that people like Alfie Kohn have known for years. I guess I'm just a little slow to learn these things. For example, it took me a few years to learn that even though it's blogging, even though they get to use technology in school, even though they can connect with kids in other schools, sometimes all over the world, less than a handful of kids ever blogged when I assigned it as homework. I guess I kept assigning blog assignments as homework year after year because I just couldn't believe that my students wouldn't do it just because it was homework. I mean, don't they use technology at home? Aren't they able to get online at home and blog? Not if it was homework. So I learned my lesson and I went from five to ten kids out of 140 blogging to all of them blogging. How did I do that? I have them blog in class. I do not assign any homework and I certainly will not assign their blogging as homework. Do some of them still blog from home? Yes, but it's on their own terms and they blog about what they want to blog about.

The second lesson I learned is along very similar lines. I used to grade, yes grade, their blogs. Ugh, just writing it leaves a bad taste in my mouth (funny, I'm not typing this with my mouth and I'm not even saying it out loud and it's leaving a bad taste in my mouth!). I started by making each blog worth 10 points. Why? Well to motivate my students to write them and to reward them when they finally wrote them. It was a disaster. So first I assigned them as homework, then I had to give over 130 kids zeroes over and over again because they weren't writing their blogs! Could I have been any worse? What started as a small part of their overall grade turned into a drop of a letter grade for many of my students. So I made blogs worth five points instead of ten to make it better. Yeah, that didn't fix a thing. It still sucked.

Well, ever since I abolished grades, thanks in a huge part to the blogs, DM's, emails and support of Joe Bower, I think my student blogs are flourishing. Let me show you some examples:

Here are a few 8th graders who have beautiful blogs:

saraha (some of this student's blogs weren't even class assignments!)

levic (check out this student's glogs and his slideshare!)

natalinac (we do use little paper but when we do I love scanning it and having students put their work on their blog)

And here are a couple of 6th graders who have even taken me up on writing about more than just what we do in class:

kyrstens (I love this student's Unit blogs. Totally creative, and no, I didn't pick this one just because she said I'm cool)

shanyan (great use of pictures in this blog!)

If you have students who are blogging point them our way. We do NOT participate in commenting competitions (comments from competing kids sound so insincere and they always write, "comment me back," which we are a bit sick of hearing) and my students practice thoughtful commenting that begins with actually reading the other person's blog. So if your students want to share information and get some new readers, I have over 130 students bloggers at MrGonzalez.Org.

I love learning from my students. I am practicing listening to them more because they know what they want and they know what they're doing. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in being the professional in the room that I forget to listen to them, especially when they aren't telling me directly.

Grading Moratorium: Alfonso Gonzalez

Alfonso (Al) Gonzalez
Middle School Grades 6-8
Environmental Science, Physical Science, Life Science

At what stage of the abolish grading game are you?

I started teaching 4th and 5th grade bilingual Spanish students in South Central Los Angeles in 1991. I taught there for five years when my wife and I moved to Washington state. In WA I’ve taught grades 6 through 8th. I’ve taught most subjects and now I mainly teach Science. In those 19 years of teaching I have used traditional grading methods all but the last trimester of the 2009-2010 school year. That last trimester I gave no letters, marks or numbers of any kind. For the mandatory report grades I gave all my students a Pass unless they specifically requested a letter grade (which just were all A’s).
So I’m at the very beginning stage of the abolishing grading game!

Why do you want to or why did you abolish grading?

I have been tweaking how I grade every single year. I’ve written more and more detailed rubrics to explain what I mean when I assign letter grades. Time and again I hear students asking what their grade meant. “I got a C, what does that mean?” “I got a 74 out of 100, what does that mean?” I kept finding that in explaining what their grade or score meant I was giving the feedback that students and their families really needed. I was hooked on striving to improve the way I give feedback to my students after attending a workshop on feedback. I’ve experienced how students focus so much on the letter or the score and getting their averages that they lose sight of what they are learning. Learning becomes a chore when they work for a grade. I want my students to enjoy learning and have fun instead of seeing it as work and a chore or just something to get done for a grade.

What do you do in replace of grading? How do you establish a grade if you have no grades?

I’m working on improving how I give feedback to my students. It’s a challenge because each year I have anywhere from 130 to 150 students. So first and foremost I want to have my students collect evidence for their portfolio. I want to show students how to self and peer assess. To encourage my students to become independent learners I don’t want them to always rely on me for feedback, especially with a 1:150 ratio!
Students and their families need to know what they are expected to learn. My school district has all the teachers working in teams to choose power standards. That basically means that we get to choose which standards we will focus on so that we don’t try to cover too much. That way I can share with my students the standards that they will be learning. I have written essential questions based on the standards so that by answering those questions students can demonstrate how well they are learning the standards. I can use that information to share with students and their parents how they are demonstrating understanding. I use words so that they won’t focus on a number. So it is a form of standards-based grading minus the grading part (I hope!).

This is all a work in progress! For mandatory grading, midterm and final grades, I asked students how they wanted to be graded. I think I will do that again with every new class of students. I don’t mind giving them that choice because it’s not about the grade anyway. I can give a Pass or an A if that’s what they really want. So far I wasn’t planning on doing anything in between. I just gave families the option of Pass/No-Pass or A or F. I really don’t see anyone getting a No-Pass or an F unless they never show up to class. How can I fail a student if that student learned something and did some work? And honestly why should I or families worry about an A or an F when it literally makes no difference. In middle school flunking every single course rarely if ever results in being held back so why bother? I used to fight with students to get them to turn in work to raise their grades. Now I spend that time encouraging them to learn and regain control over their learning without worry about getting more points. I’m so tired of punishing my students when I’d rather be enjoying them and learning with them.

What fears did you have about abolishing grading?

Oh man it was hard! I mean after 19 years of giving grades I was worried that without the carrot my students would stop working! If mine is the only class where there are no grades then every other class will take precedence over mine. My class won’t matter and I think Science is very important! I was also afraid of what parents would say. I didn’t want to upset my students’ parents. I need them on my side. Well, my fears did come true because there were a few disappointed and unhappy parents. The parents of the students who are on track for college and doing well in the current system, meaning they know how to get A’s, were not pleased. 
So how did I deal with the unhappy parents? I was as available as I always was to share how their child was doing. All I had to do was check their blogs and look through their notebooks to tell their parent what they had done and what they were missing. I also had no problem giving those students an A on the report card. Those students are successful no matter what I did so it was fine. 

What challenges did you encounter with abolishing grading?

Besides disappointing a few families not much really. My principal was very supportive. My staff supported me even though they either didn’t agree with what I was doing or even though they wouldn’t do it themselves. I do appreciate talking this process over with the other teachers in my building because I get to hear the so-called other side of abolishing grades or why they think grading is still important or pertinent. The fear of students doing less work or no work at all and not learning is what I hear the most. When I recommend they read Alfie Kohn I get the kind of polite agreement that we all know means they they don’t feel they have the time to read another book. My Twitter PLN has been the best support I’ve had and I wouldn’t have done this, at least not yet, without their advice, support and guidance. I think the best way I’ve recently thought about abolishing grades is that if differentiating instruction is the way to go then we have to differentiate assessment and the best way to do that if to give students feedback in the form of information.

Are you willing to speak with others who are interested in abolishing grading?

Yes -


Email: al_gonzalez@csd49.org
Twitter: @educatoral
Skype: educatoral
Blog: http://educatoral.com/wordpress/