Handouts are available below

Big Idea

Today, I’m talking about the one thing we don’t talk about as teachers – the one thing we should be talking about. And, I’m sharing what I did with my department to get us started talking about this one thing. This is all inspired by a book I am currently reading called Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman.

One thing that Feldman mentions in his book that stuck with me was the fact that grading is important and yet we rarely talk about it. As a result, we end up having teachers who teach the same course but assessing it very differently. Now, some teachers may say that that’s just the way it is because every teacher teaches differently or stresses different things. But, from a student or parent perspective, having part of a student’s mark dependent on which teacher they get isn’t fair- a student’s mark should be a reflection of the student’s ability alone. And, each student should have an equal opportunity to achieve the same mark regardless of whose classroom they’re in.

Getting the Discussion Going

So, to get teachers talking about grading, I developed this worksheet called What is the Purpose of Grading. It’s got 6 statements on it, and these statements come directly from Feldman’s book. For example, one purpose of grading that Feldman mentions is to motivate students.

On this worksheet, I had my department members circle whether they strongly agree, slightly agree, slightly disagree, or strongly disagree with each statement. Then, I had teachers rank each purpose from most to least important.

We briefly went over the statements on the worksheet as a group. For the most part, people agreed and disagreed on the same points. But, it really didn’t matter what we wrote because this worksheet was just a springboard for us to start thinking about grading.

Follow Up Discussion

My follow-up question generated the biggest discussion: How do we make sure grading is equitable between classes – especially between courses taught by multiple teachers? Consider the following: if one educator views grading as a way to motivate students, then he/she may be more inclined to give bonus marks or completion marks for homework; and, as a result, that teacher may have grades that are lower or higher than a teacher who doesn’t view grading homework the same way.

I got some strong opinions from my department members for the follow up question. Some said it’s not possible. Some said it’s possible if we assessed competencies or skills instead of content. Some asked whether it was more for lower grades but not so in higher grades or vice versa. We didn’t finish our conversation – we only had 10 minutes for this activity, but it got people thinking about how they assessed and it primed us for future discussions.

If you’ve tried or am trying this with your colleagues, please email me and let me know! 

Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk science again soon.

Resources

Handout(s): Handout – What is the Purpose of Grading? 

Our resources are free. We aren’t collecting emails for our resources. However, it would help us out if you liked us on our Facebook page and subscribed to our Youtube Channel. Thanks!