Learn Like a Pirate Part 4 - Improvement Focus vs. Grade Focus

Improvement Focus vs. Grade Focus

Another pillar of the student-led classroom is the shift towards personal growth and away from grades. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” The premise being that when grades, rewards and punishments are the child’s only motivation for doing well in school, he or she will find ways to work the system and miss much of the educational value of our lessons. We have so many students who struggle just to make it through the school day that all the focus on grades tends to wear them down and cause them to hate school and hate learning. On the flip side, if grades are the end all be all, a bright student who gets a high grade on an assignment with minimal work, will have no motivation to improve his work.

How do we change this age-old paradigm for measuring success in school?

1.   Start by downplaying grades and placing priority on personal growth and improvement.

2.   Grades shouldn't earn rewards or privileges, nor should they earn negative consequences or         

punishments.

3.   Shift the focus from extrinsic motivators to intrinsic ones.

4.   Focus on formative assessments that take students from point A to point B. They will learn to focus on their growth and begin to love learning. They will also see that learning is never “done.”

5.   Take the time to create meaningful rubrics to evaluate student work. 

6.   Have students create ongoing ePortfolios. These will vary from task at to task and subject to subject, but the basic format is as follows:

          a. Completed as a Blog Post

          b. A title that describes the big idea or concept

          c. A picture or video of the process or final product from the activity.

          d. Answers to reflection and synthesis questions that guide each child to successfully demonstrate their understanding of the concept. 

          e. Provide meaningful feedback or create mechanism for peer-review. Students need to learn how to give critical peer feedback in a way that is constructive and honest but still kind and esteem-building. They also have to learn how to accept critical feedback as a means of helping them, rather than an attack on their abilities. 

                    1. Solarz calls this Quality Boosters. It is the term used so everyone knows this term will bring along some constructive criticism. 

                    2. Start and end with a specific complement.

                    3. Write your suggestion as a question rather than a statement. Instead of telling your peer what to change, ask them if it might sound better if…. or you wonder if people would understand it better if…

The goal is to get students to use their imagination and stretch their thinking. The questions should ask students to reflect and synthesize, not remember and regurgitate. 

CLICK HERE for more information on creating and managing effective ePortfolios. 

Improving Through Effective Feedback 

Offering effective feedback to students is a skill that needs to be learned and developed over time. It is something that teachers should study, practice and collaborate about with peers. Solarz suggests that the key is remembering that every child is at a different point for different tasks, and that some tasks are more significant than others. Your feedback should focus on what is most important to each child at that moment in time.

Solarz offers feedback to students in different ways. Sometimes leaving comments on their Google Docs, sometimes a whisper in their ear. Sometimes he pulls them aside to discuss his observations. Other times he sits with a team and works through a problem with them. Sometimes the feedback he shares with one team can benefit the rest of the class. In those cases he will to a “Give Me Five” and share it with the entire class.

Solarz also reminds us that for a student to accept your feedback, he must trust you and believe you have his best interests at heart. In other words, building a relationship with the students is also a key factor in the student-led classroom. Try speaking to students in the present or future tense as a trick to getting them to be more open to receiving constructive criticism. Whereas speaking in the past tense makes students feel there is no way to fix their mistake. Speaking in the present or future shows the student that learning is a process. For example, instead of saying, “you shouldn't have done it this way,” say it “next time, I would like to see you do it this way because….”

Improving Classroom Behaviour 

We all know that most classroom behaviour problems come about as attention seeking behaviours or power struggles. Solarz asserts that nearly all discipline problems will go away when students constantly have the attention of their peers and you’ve given them so much power that they have nothing left to fight for. When done correctly, empowering students to run the classroom and direct their learning eliminates most discipline problems.

Solarz has one rule in his classroom - “Be a good person.” Sounds easy, but to teach the students what it means to be a good person, Solarz uses the Six Pillars of Character outlined  by the Josephson Institute Centre for Youth Ethics and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. One could write numerous blog postings just on these lists and books, but I will leave that for the reader to explore on his own and I will simply list the pillars and habits below.

Character Counts 

Respect, 2. Responsibility, 3. Trustworthiness, 4. Fairness, 5. Caring, 6. Citizenship

Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Be proactive, 2. Begin with the end in mind, 3. Put first things first, 4. Think Win-Win, 5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood, 6. Synergies, 7. Sharpen the Saw.

CLICK HERE to buy this best selling book and CLICK HERE for more information.

Consequences for misbehaving 

Solarz suggests that when all of this is done right, their should be only minimal discipline issues. He also reminds us that getting frustrated,  yelling, and/or giving the entire class a negative consequence are not effective ways to handle student misbehaviour.  To maintain consistency in his classroom, he uses the following system:

A Warning - this is a gentle reminder to follow the six pillars of character.

A Behaviour Point - this is a second warning for a similar misbehaviour during the same day. 

A Work-It-Out - A student receives this for a 3rd strike on a given day OR for a more serious offence where a warning doesn't seem appropriate. The student is asked to go into the hallway and fill out a “think sheet” regarding their behaviour. The teacher later meets with the student privately to discuss what happened and discuss how to act going forward. Solarz’s goal is to make sure the student takes this seriously and cares enough, but not enough to bring them to tears.



Links to Interesting Articles:
1. Comprehensive Guide to Peer Coaching
2. Improve Classroom Practice with Effective Coaching
3. Report: Teacher-Controlled Video Observations Improve Teacher Assessment Process

Links to Interesting Web Tools:

Google Forms as an Information Gathering and Formative Assessment Tool
          1. Jeff Rothman Video #1
          2. Jeff Rothman Video #2
          3. Lots of Google Forms Resources
          4. Automatic Grading for Quizzes - Flubaroo and SuperQuiz

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