So often we complain about students in our class that are behind. Whether it's second grade or twelfth grade, we all have students that are not in grade level. We spend a lot of time complaining or questioning why this happens. I know I for sure have over lunch or happy hour with other teachers time and time again. The reason why is pretty simple, we pass students that are not ready and have not mastered the material. Each year students are passed again and again until they are so far behind a high school teacher has to review elementary TEKs. Yes I have actually had to review elementary standards in high school.
There are a lot of things we could do to help the situation, but here is one idea, let's not pass students that have not mastered the content. If they don't know the material , they don't know it. So why would we send them to the next grade that builds on previous knowledge? We shouldn't. We should help the student learn what they need to know. So what if we grade based on content mastery not participation? I'm at fault of this. I give do now grades, participation grades, completion grades because I think participating in class is important and want to reward students for that, but that means students can pass my class that haven't really mastered the content. That's not good. That means I contributing to problem. As I think about this more, attending trainings, and researching this idea I am coming to the conclusions that ALL grades should be content based. No completion, no fluff, grade what they know. Yea, I may have a lot more students fail at first but the hope is to catch students up. Focus make up work not on filling out a worksheet but on making up any gaps in learning. Students pass when they know it. It's fine if it takes them multiple tries to master it, it's fine if they review over and over again, the point is not that they did something, the point is that they learned what they need to learn. It would be a big change in my class and instruction but hopefully have big results as well.
There are a lot of things we could do to help the situation, but here is one idea, let's not pass students that have not mastered the content. If they don't know the material , they don't know it. So why would we send them to the next grade that builds on previous knowledge? We shouldn't. We should help the student learn what they need to know. So what if we grade based on content mastery not participation? I'm at fault of this. I give do now grades, participation grades, completion grades because I think participating in class is important and want to reward students for that, but that means students can pass my class that haven't really mastered the content. That's not good. That means I contributing to problem. As I think about this more, attending trainings, and researching this idea I am coming to the conclusions that ALL grades should be content based. No completion, no fluff, grade what they know. Yea, I may have a lot more students fail at first but the hope is to catch students up. Focus make up work not on filling out a worksheet but on making up any gaps in learning. Students pass when they know it. It's fine if it takes them multiple tries to master it, it's fine if they review over and over again, the point is not that they did something, the point is that they learned what they need to learn. It would be a big change in my class and instruction but hopefully have big results as well.
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