February 28th, 2012.
Ryan has found himself in an unfortunate situation. He has struggled all semester with his Language Arts mark, and he has finally made some progress. His mark has risen from the 30-40% range to the 50-60% range. However, his teacher is forced to take all the marks equally into account, putting his final grade at 45%. This young man improved his mark, and was not rewarded for it. I think that final grades should be more heavily weighted than earlier ones. It is foolish to expect that every student to cross the threshold of a classroom has a solid understanding of the course material. Students will struggle, but great progress can be made. For the students who struggle, their early marks will likely be poor. It has taken more practice and more work for them to understand concepts, and their self-perception as learners is very fragile. Their earlier marks should be weighted far less than their final work. For students in situations like this, their progress should be weighted very heavily.
In grade 12, I was required to take Gym. I wasn't thrilled about this, since I had never been an athlete or enjoyed gym. By the end of the semester, I had worked myself up to 7 pushups, which was amazing progress! I had made progress in almost every area of my mark, and as far as I can remember, that was weighted heavily in my final grade. I hope to be able to mark my struggling future pupils in this way.
No comments:
Post a Comment