On grades coupled with feedback
By now, you are probably aware of the growing and convincing body of research that suggests that students will learn more, try harder, and demonstrate the positive attributes of a growth mindset when given feedback instead of grades. Even when coupled together in a traditional grading system, students will ignore the feedback, focus on the grade, and make little attempt to improve or grow as they see the grade as a fixed condition. As a result of this research it is now en vogue among the Twittersphere of education to promote the idea of a gradeless classroom in which the teacher gives only verbal or written feedback to the student instead of a grade. Problem solved? The new paradigm of education has arrived! No more grades!
Except, no. I'm going to make up a statistic here so bear with me. 99.9% of teachers are still charged with giving a grade at some point (often frequent, regular points) in the school year. They cannot unilaterally choose to not give grades. Their school board, administration, colleagues, parents, and students all expect a grade to be given as the formal means of feedback. Teachers can no more easily stop giving grades as they can stop showing up on Monday mornings or start taking 3 hour siestas.
So is there a solution for teachers who want to use the latest research to promote growth mindsets, grit, and ultimately learning but are stuck in a system that appears to work in direct contradiction to that research? Yes! I do not mean to imply that what I propose here is the only prescriptive method for fusing usable feedback with a necessary grade, but it is how I believe I've achieved that success for my students.
An administrator from my career who shall remain nameless once told me about this teacher who made this crazy, terrible change to his pedagogy: he stopped putting a grade on the top of the paper. The administrator told me this as we chuckling, as if to say "can you believe that? How silly!" I gave that uneasy chuckle that you might give to someone when you realize they might actually be a serial killer. "Yeah! He he...how....silly!" Then I slowly backed up and walked away, not making either eye contact or sudden movements as I went to contemplate the genius of the idea. Too often, I had seen students in my class and others simply look at the grade and then either jump for joy and crumple up the assessment and turn attention somewhere else. By not putting the grade on the top, where would students' eyes go? Well, I still put both written feedback and, for example, -4 next to each problem that needed attention. So, naturally, my students' eyes went to where there was writing: the problems that needed attention. Right where I wanted their eyes and mind! At worst, my students' would need to flip through the assessment and add up the total deductions to determine the grade. Even if that's all that was done with the assessment at least they had to do some math to figure out the grade!
The grade on top was removed, but what incentive would a student have to do more than what I suggested above? What would cause a student to return or devote attention to the feedback on the page? Re-assessment! Feedback is absolutely useless to student who cares about the grade but has no opportunity to act on the feedback. I give daily skills-checks that include spiraled, interleaved topics give students the frequent opportunity to demonstrate growth from the feedback. To be sure, you don't have to offer re-assessment but there should be some opportunity for students to demonstrate improvement and that they have acted on the feedback.
Feedback, however, can and perhaps should have a broader purpose. Edu-guru Dylan Wiliams (whose actually sitting across the table from me right now!) says that "Feedback should be aimed towards improving the student rather than improving the work." To me, this means that feedback should not be merely about what was right or wrong, but be focused on the process or thought progression or characteristics of study evident in the work.
A suggestion for utilizing this approach and still giving a grade could be to merely delay giving a grade on work for which feedback was offered. When the assignment is returned, it is accompanied only with the feedback. If you believe the feedback should require a response from the student, only give the grade once the student responds. Perhaps part of the response would be for the student to compare their work to an established rubric, give evidence supporting a particular grade that they would give the work, and an explanation about why not the next highest grade. (This demands that the student plan or reiterate their own path for improvement!) If the feedback does not require an immediate response, let a day or two pass before giving the grade.
These are just a few suggestions. Teachers more creative than I will no doubt be able to offer more compromises that get the best out of feedback while still fulfilling the mandate to give a grade. It is important that teachers feel empowered to practice the best pedagogy, supported by research, but that the pedagogy fit within constraints that the teacher has no control over. Are there other evidence-based practices that need this kind of scrutiny? Please, share you thoughts!
Except, no. I'm going to make up a statistic here so bear with me. 99.9% of teachers are still charged with giving a grade at some point (often frequent, regular points) in the school year. They cannot unilaterally choose to not give grades. Their school board, administration, colleagues, parents, and students all expect a grade to be given as the formal means of feedback. Teachers can no more easily stop giving grades as they can stop showing up on Monday mornings or start taking 3 hour siestas.
So is there a solution for teachers who want to use the latest research to promote growth mindsets, grit, and ultimately learning but are stuck in a system that appears to work in direct contradiction to that research? Yes! I do not mean to imply that what I propose here is the only prescriptive method for fusing usable feedback with a necessary grade, but it is how I believe I've achieved that success for my students.
An administrator from my career who shall remain nameless once told me about this teacher who made this crazy, terrible change to his pedagogy: he stopped putting a grade on the top of the paper. The administrator told me this as we chuckling, as if to say "can you believe that? How silly!" I gave that uneasy chuckle that you might give to someone when you realize they might actually be a serial killer. "Yeah! He he...how....silly!" Then I slowly backed up and walked away, not making either eye contact or sudden movements as I went to contemplate the genius of the idea. Too often, I had seen students in my class and others simply look at the grade and then either jump for joy and crumple up the assessment and turn attention somewhere else. By not putting the grade on the top, where would students' eyes go? Well, I still put both written feedback and, for example, -4 next to each problem that needed attention. So, naturally, my students' eyes went to where there was writing: the problems that needed attention. Right where I wanted their eyes and mind! At worst, my students' would need to flip through the assessment and add up the total deductions to determine the grade. Even if that's all that was done with the assessment at least they had to do some math to figure out the grade!
The grade on top was removed, but what incentive would a student have to do more than what I suggested above? What would cause a student to return or devote attention to the feedback on the page? Re-assessment! Feedback is absolutely useless to student who cares about the grade but has no opportunity to act on the feedback. I give daily skills-checks that include spiraled, interleaved topics give students the frequent opportunity to demonstrate growth from the feedback. To be sure, you don't have to offer re-assessment but there should be some opportunity for students to demonstrate improvement and that they have acted on the feedback.
Feedback, however, can and perhaps should have a broader purpose. Edu-guru Dylan Wiliams (whose actually sitting across the table from me right now!) says that "Feedback should be aimed towards improving the student rather than improving the work." To me, this means that feedback should not be merely about what was right or wrong, but be focused on the process or thought progression or characteristics of study evident in the work.
A suggestion for utilizing this approach and still giving a grade could be to merely delay giving a grade on work for which feedback was offered. When the assignment is returned, it is accompanied only with the feedback. If you believe the feedback should require a response from the student, only give the grade once the student responds. Perhaps part of the response would be for the student to compare their work to an established rubric, give evidence supporting a particular grade that they would give the work, and an explanation about why not the next highest grade. (This demands that the student plan or reiterate their own path for improvement!) If the feedback does not require an immediate response, let a day or two pass before giving the grade.
These are just a few suggestions. Teachers more creative than I will no doubt be able to offer more compromises that get the best out of feedback while still fulfilling the mandate to give a grade. It is important that teachers feel empowered to practice the best pedagogy, supported by research, but that the pedagogy fit within constraints that the teacher has no control over. Are there other evidence-based practices that need this kind of scrutiny? Please, share you thoughts!
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