After reading the article "What I've learned about effective reading instruction" and the first two chapters of Classrooms That Work I feel excited about the challenge ahead of me. The textbook and the article cover many of the same points and ideas. What I found to be the bottom line is that to have a class of successful students, reading and writing need to be emphasized in every area of learning.
Aspects I found interesting were things that went against the typical routine/norm of elementary education. The readings sort of stripped away the excess unproductive parts of instruction and got to the core of learning.
I especially liked the idea of making the classroom more conversational. Kids love to talk and tell you what they know/think. Kids don't love 100s of worksheets a week. This type of learning allows students to practice reading comprehension in a more real-life way.
I also really liked the concept of grading proposed in the article. It explains how effective teachers determined grades by effort and improvement, not achievement and assessment. I think that this is a great idea because in addition to learning subjects and facts, elementary school is largely about learning how to be a student. This type of grading allows students of all levels to be achievers, setting up a fair playing ground for each child.
Questions:
1. How can teachers overcome administrative guidelines to 'go against the organizational grain'?
2. What are the pros and cons of grading by improvement and effort rather than achievement and assessment?
I think some pros of grading for improvement and effort are that it motivates students, more students feel success, and hard work by lower grading students is shown. Some cons are that some students at higher levels may be overlooked, if everyone is making an A it seems less significant, and how a teacher knows the "effort" a student put in.
ReplyDeleteI think that there should be a mix between the two with grading.