Grades

Grades are good. They offer prompt feedback to students about their work, letting them know WWW and EBI. Further, everyone understands the currency of grades even if they disagree with the logic of the system. What’s key is dialogue with students about grades, the criteria used, and how they can be achieved.

At the moment, though, I feel that there is so much focus on grades that we are beginning to miss what we’re all about. The focus is very much on measurable outcomes and the pressure for results is high. Instead, we should strive for an environment in which students constantly reflect:
Who am I? What do I care about? What kind of a person do I want to be? What's my responsibility to others? What do I hope to accomplish? How can I do that? Etc.
We are currently having some real trouble motivating Year 11 students in the run up to their exams but I truly think that if we were engaging students in these types of questions all the time questions of motivation would be made redundant.