I didn't "grade" for a full unit and here is what happened (Part 2)


I didn't "grade" for a full unit and here is what happened (Part 2)

Image result for no gradesImage result for panic

Today was an awesome day. I was nervous to see how my students would do on their summative assessment on our Developmental Unit. I had not "graded" anything, but I had given feedback on their formative assessments and they self-assessed continually.

Students Initial Concerns/Comments
- Why would I do anything if you don't grade it?
- I am not going to try now
- This is stupid
- Go back to the way we always did it
- This is too hard and a waste of my time
- Wait, so I decide how I am scored? Can't I lie?
- How do I get points?!
- This is great, I get to pick what I can do

Many of these questions I was able to answer by discussing the difference between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. I also referenced the fact that I did not "grade" any of their in-class work throughout the year, but they still worked diligently on that (I am lucky and have some pretty great and motivated students).

What did I learn?
1. Many of my students worked just as hard as they did previously
2. Many of my low-level students worked even hard than they previously did
3. My students were more engaged and asked high-level questions that created conversations as opposed to me creating discussion questions
4. The median grade on the exam was an 87% (previous exams were just below 80% regularly)

What did will I change?
- A lot
- I need to have criteria for many of the ways students rate themselves - here is the new spreadsheet for our next unit where students will rate their effort on coming to class prepared.

Highlight: The thing that made me most happy throughout this unit was the fact that one of my students who struggles to get a D on each exam and does put in a lot of work earned a B+ on his exam. I could not wait to email home and talk to his parents, who equally shared their happiness and their pleasure that he had challenged himself to take an AP class.

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