Oct 10th - Exit Slip

 Today’s debate was lively! I was a bit disappointed to be a judge initially, but during the debate I very much enjoyed myself. I went in feeling as though I was biased against the ‘pro-grades’ group – I think this encouraged me to listen more closely to what they had to say. A few stand-out ideas that kept me thinking after the fact:

Grades ability to shape community & classroom culture

I felt this was one of the most interesting ideas – both sides were explaining why their respective position was most beneficial for classroom community and culture building. Do grades make it easier for students to find other students ‘on their level’? Is it better to group students such that there is a range of skill, or is it best to group students with similar understanding? Should we be using grades and/or feedback to group students at all? There were good arguments on both sides.

Moving forward, I personally might use my understanding of student proficiency to AVOID some situations – for example, pairing very weak and strong students - but generally I don’t think I would want to lean on grades too heavily for community building.

My favorite argument from those not in favor of grades came from Saiya:

If we were being graded right now, in this debate, would you be acting in the same way? Would you want to be acting in a different way?

This reflective idea helped me realize how damaging grades can be for personal creativity. In this debate, the absence of explicit assessment was liberating. I was comfortable taking risks and was focused on MY learning, rather than demonstrating that I understood some specific learning goal.

After hearing this, I thought we had a clear winner. However, Mark’s closing statement offered a perspective that has kept me thinking:

Grades are not the issue – it is our relationship to them.

Mark supported this idea with an example – a student who discusses his assessments with both teacher and parents. The teacher is very pleased with the student – they are putting in effort and improving. They are proficient and striving towards extending. In contrast, the student’s parents see ‘proficient’ as ‘not extending’ – they feel he ‘could be doing better’, and so leverage this assessment in a menacing way.

This example was eye opening. It brings my attention to the fact that our relationship with grades is the most important element. Instead of asking ‘Should we use grades?’, we should be asking ‘What is a useful way to think about grades?’. Only if we cannot find a satisfactory answer to this question should we disband grades altogether.