Grades?

To follow up on our discussion about grades we will read an article today:

Alfie Kohn - "The Case Against Grades"

Afterwards, write a response to it on your blog, including the following points:

1- What is the author's main point / position / thesis?
2- How does s/he support that point?
3- What, if anything, does s/he say about opposing views?

Follow this with a response of your own in which you agree / disagree with the author's point and make your own about this issue.

Position and Thesis

We started class today, after talking about our winter breaks, by answering these questions:

• Should there be grades in school?
• How do grades affect learning?

From these we talked about crafting a position statement and a thesis, as well as how we supported / defended our argument.

Factors:

• school would be too easy without them
• affect on placement in future classes
• student motivation
• performance on tests
• tangible / documentable
• track progress / effort
• outsider understanding of your work
• cause stress
• more / less important to different students
• attention / focus
• affects understanding
• future performance
• too much emphasis on grade as greater than learning
• helps teachers reflect on the effectiveness of their teaching / testing
• student awareness of how they are doing
• too easy if just pass / fail
• cause a person to give up if not successful
• confidence
• impact on future college choices
• affects engagement with learning
• how much you like the class linked to grades