Here is an interview I participated in from CBC's The Current where we talked about abolishing grading from school.
Check out this page for all of the blog posts I've written about how and why we need to abolish grading.
Here are a couple posts that I would like to recommend:
Detoxing students from grade-use - Here's how my students responded to a learning environment with no grades.
Real assessment for learning - Students should experience their successes and failures not as reward and punishment but as information.
No Good Reason to Grade - here's why there really is no good reason to grade
Grading without Grading - here's how I abolished grading as much as I could even though I had to place a grade on the report card.
The day I abolished grading - here's how it happend for me
My de-grading philosophy Q & A - here's a quick Q & A where I answer some of the most common questions about how I assess with no grades.
If we don't grade, how will we know if children are learning - Real learning is found in children not data, and unfortunately, there is no appropriate shortcut to collecting or sharing this information.
Loved your interview today. I totally agree. I have four boys in the system. It works for one of them and not so much for the rest. We need changes.
ReplyDeleteYour contributions to the Current are bang on! Thank-you for advocating for a healthy, inspiring & nurturing education system for our kids.
ReplyDeleteWish you were my kids' teacher :)
Joe, your arguments truly advocate the love of learning! Recently I read from theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com: "There’s a threshold of desperation in schools, beyond which grades become a currency. It wasn’t much of a healthy learning environment, so passing grades for each day were typically offered in exchange for good behavior and a boring worksheet." Thank you, Joe, for encouraging us to find the most meaningful ways to support kids' learning!
ReplyDeleteAs an "unschooling" mom of two young adults (college students), I have long known that grades detract from real learning, and from the joy of learning. My kids were homeschooled until they went to college, without grades or tests, and their learning was self-directed and interest-based. I'm so happy to hear one more voice calling for abolishing grades, and assessing kids' learning progress in more meaningful ways! (Why are there so few?)
ReplyDeleteHave you read the book "What Does it Mean to Be Well Educated? And Other Essays on Standards, Grading, and Other Follies", by Alfie Kohn? If you haven't read it, you should - and then you should recommend it to others!
Views on grades are influenced by how we view curriculum and pedagogy in general. The prof clearly believes in core curriculum and having kids throw it back
ReplyDelete