Transcript Tales of Horror and Non

Tales of Horror and NonCongruence
A Highly Personal Take
on
Grades and Homework
Steve Unruhe, [email protected]
We need great teachers
More importantly,
we need good schools.
Horror Story #1: Una lección
de baile en Ecuador
• Salsa for two left
feet?
• 6-count? 8-count?
• Dancing towards the
exit
Horror Story #2: Lily
• Single mom, often working two jobs
• Mom’s ex-partner intermittently involved
• Unmotivated, easily frustrated, but not
hostile
• Frequently missed school
• Failing math due to zeroes for
homework and projects
Should Lily Repeat Algebra I?
Part I: Grades
• What are we trying
to accomplish
through our grading
practices?
Goal for Grading:
A fair assessment
of content knowledge
• Should student advance?
• Into which course?
Congruence Problem #1
• Do grades accurately reflect content
knowledge?
• Scenario - student does B work on three
assignments; fails to turn in fourth
assignment
Three Grading Schemes Three Grades
Which grading scheme
accurately reflects
content knowledge?
Horror Story #3:
How Estelle Failed
Lunch Duty
• What if teachers
were evaluated the
way students are
evaluated?
Congruence Problem #2
• What does a student learn by repeating
a course?
• What does a student learn from a zero?
• Why do we put a kid in another
teacher’s classroom who already knows
enough material to pass the class?
My grading practice
• Use A-F scale, translated into numerical
points (60-100)
• Students fail for not passing assessments
(tests, quizzes)
• Students do NOT fail for missing work; they
fail for not knowing content (or, more to the
point, pass if they know enough content)
Part II: Homework
• What are we trying
to accomplish
through our
homework practice?
Goals for Homework
• Practice
• Learn new material
• Learn responsibility
Congruence Problem #3 Homework Reality
•
•
•
•
Copied
Scribbled
Wrong
Time-consuming to
grade
Solution
• Give more, harder,
homework
• Grade all
homework, every
night
• (Just kidding)
Horror Story #4
• “Calculate the lateral
area of an octagonal
prism lying on its
side…”
My homework practice
• All homework problems have answers
• Homework is practice
• Homework counts for a grade only to
help a student
Data Imperviousness
• Teachers (all humans?) resist data
• Teachers (all humans?) learn by
anecdote
• Math teachers live for the counterexample (“What about…?)
• Data “slides off” when it hits anecdotal
counter-example
Still, here’s the data….
• Retention: “In summary, the research indicates that
grade retention provides limited or no
academic/social advantages to students”
(Retention: The
Balanced View: Social Promotion & Retention; Prepared by Westchester Institute For Human Services
Research. Available at http://www.sharingsuccess.org/code/socprom.html. Undated)
• Homework: “No research has shown that homework
is necessary to help students learn….Nor is there a
shred of evidence to back up the folk wisdom that
homework builds character, promotes self-discipline,
or teaches good work habits.” (Homework: “The Tougher Standards Fad Hits
Home” Alfie Kohn in Rethinking Schools, Vol 21, No.1; Fall 2006)
In search of congruence
• Teachers are heroes - we will go to
almost any length to help a student
succeed
• Teachers are martyrs - and this is not a
good idea
• We must connect homework and
grading practices to realistic goals
We need great teachers,
and we need good schools