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This. Honestly high school should be converted to a credit hours system rather than a time based system, just like college.
You have requirements to graduate (X credits in A, Y credits in B etc) and if you satisfy those requirements, you get to graduate. Doesn't matter if you do it in 2 years, 4 years, 10 years.
When was the last time you were in high school, because this is EXACTLY what it is like in CA, and in all other states I interact with professionally. In my district, you need 220 credits to graduate.
Hmm I wonder who will fill/take all of our executive /engineering/science/dr. Jobs in the future. Hmmm,
People like my daughter and son. So what did we do right to have academically successful kids? We de-emphasized grades and emphasized learning. We encouraged them to try difficult things. When our kids failed assignments or exams, we didn't criticize them. Instead, we said things like, "It looks like you have mastered 55% of the material. What can we do to support you in learning the other 45%?" We talked to them about our academic struggles and how we overcame them. And it worked. Learning is a continual process, and it often progresses in fits and starts. Unfortunately, the traditional grading scheme doesn't teach children that.
I think the next big push from the zanies that run our schools in America is to get rid of grades all together because grades are inherently racist, according to them.
Status:
"I don't understand. But I don't care, so it works out."
(set 9 days ago)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stone26
Back when I was in a classroom, this is how I conducted my classes, for the exact reasons you stated.
1. Tests could be retaken once for full credit. Student would be allowed to choose which test to count (in case the second test was actually worse than the first, which happened on occasion.. lol).
2. I only accepted 100% homework. So if i scored your paper and you got less than 100%, i handed it back to you so that you could correct the wrong answers and turn it back in. The assignment did mot get entered un the grade book until it was at 100%.
3. I only marked CORRECT answers, instead of incorrect ones. And I only used green ink, instead of red. The thought behind this is that students will see all the answers they got correct FIRST, instead of all their mistakes. They STILL had to face their incorrect answers because of #2 above.
4. Whenever a whole class got a D or F on a test, I saw that as MY failure, not theirs. I started enacting short, daily quizzes that were pass/fail, graded immediately as a group, and were on the previous day’s material. It was my way to see if the students were learning the material like I planned. If the majority got certain answers wrong, we quickly re-covered that material to start class, then moved on to new material.
5. The students actually created all the questions for each test… or at least that’s what they thought. One of the study activities we did was to have students come up with 10 test questions and answers on the material for the next test, and I would choose the best ones and credit them on the test. Truthfully, I already knew what was going to be on the test anyway, and just chose the student’s entries that were already asking my preselected questions. More importantly, it showed me what the students thought was the important material to know for each section. If they all seemed to focus their questions on trivial stuff, it alerted me that I was focusing too much attention on that stuff, and needed to reteach the material before giving out the test. Lastly, kids really enjoyed seeing their names by the test questions, which only encouraged them to research more possible test questions.
6. I ALWAYS accepted late work, up until the day I had to turn in grades. My job is to teach, not just keep records. Failing a student because they turned their work in late does nothing to help me or the student.
I have been out of the classroom for at least 15 years now, but if I were ever to return, I would conduct my classes in the same manner.
You sound like a fabulous teacher. One of my kids had a teacher like you, and although he would have preferred to get a C on a project instead of doing it over, all the projects had to earn an A. So you could either put all the work in upfront, or redo it because you weren't going to be allowed to just turn in shoddy work. Great system.
Having mixed classrooms can be a negative factor for students at both ends of the spectrum. Having classrooms with more like abilitied students allow the teacher and the curriculum to be more tuned to those abilities. It's an incredibly rare teacher that can effectively handle a classroom with significant differences in abilities while maximizing the opportunities for those abilities. Trick of course is not to create walls between these classrooms (hence why "segregation" isn't the correct strategy), it's a tricky balance, but at least the goal is to maximize potential vs equalize outcomes.
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