I mostly learned that I have strong feelings but…When looking at the 3 big ideas I’ve taken away from this course there are some very clear front runners.

We want to create learners instead of do-ers. Grades are a way to check in on the progress of learning on the individuals road, not a determination of their intelligence. Placing less emphasis on the grades themselves will boost intrinsic motivation, and lower the cheating rate — which in a rapidly more AI accessibly space this seems very pertinent.

Retakes might be the most recent, but the ability to turn summative into formative feedback to enhance learning is something that really turned my head. Allowing students to take their feedback and revise work or reattempt tests just seems like the best practice to encourage a deeper understanding of the content. Why judge a student on one take, when they could delve deeper as a learner and present information again or in a new way and demonstrate their learning better.

My top dog take away, though, was that the 4 point proficiency scale might be our current best option but it has led me to look more at why that is so. It is more standardizable than a 100 pt scale sure, and the range of the grades allows for flexibility, but the emphasis on exceeding expectations is where I draw the line. My argument would be to pivot to a 4 pt scale that is only Insufficient Evidence, Emerging, Developing, and Proficient. Exceeding should be in the notes, as it seems to pertain more to the work habits and effort than in the content itself. This conclusion comes from conversations around the grading systems, and with other teachers. I was challenged in my thoughts when I was told it was sad that I didn’t want my learners to strive for Exceeding, but I remain unswayed. Once a learner is proficient in the content I have asked them to learn, there isn’t more above that without going onto the next grade level expectations– which I was explicitly told would NOT constitute Exceeding. If a student put massive amounts of effort to make their demonstration of knowledge beautiful and detailed it would be acknowledged in comment or in person praise, but would not get them a higher value grade. To make it simpler, IE means they haven’t given me enough evidence to assess their learning. Emerging would be the learner just getting on the path towards the knowledge, with Developing being well on their way. Proficient means that they have demonstrated themselves to have learned what I asked of them, and shown me it.