Saturday, June 1, 2013

Should we give grades?

So this is something I want to focus on over the next few months; Grading; giving assignments for marks etc. Yesterday I took my grade 12 Tourism class to the Aquarium and Granville Island in Vancouver an on the bus ride back we discussed how fun the trip was. Then all of a sudden they started asking "So will we get extra marks for this? You should put this in as our participation and growth mark because half the class didn't even come!"

So it made me think: Should I be giving them MARKS for attending class trips? Isn't the trip itself supposed to be the reward? Not the mark? It just perpetuates that getting good grades is supposed the prize for learning; but shouldn't the learning/experience be the prize?

1 comment:

  1. This is an interesting question, Mary. AND bravo for taking your students on a field trip! I see your point about making the journey be the reward but I also think the trips we take with students should be a part of a culminating assessment in some way.

    The few times I have attempted field trips, I have always considered the trip a text form. Meaning that I do before and after lessons around the trip so that students can search for the relevance of the trip in relation to the curriculum. It sounds like not all of your students attended the trip though so you would have to add a "text" for the rest of the class to do so that everyone could be a part of it.

    Thanks for sharing this. :)
    JL

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