Providing Feedback to Promote Student Growth
Just as a coach provides feedback on improving a baseball swing or long jump form, I provide feedback on the use of historical evidence, thesis construction, and other discipline related skills.
Improve Understanding with Video Feedback
Andrew Burnett uses video to augment the power of verbal and written comments in his feedback to students.
Towards a Culture of Learning
Taking away grades signals a fundamental change in the power dynamics of a classroom, and students need to be supported in order to thrive.
My Room: Accepting the Mantle of Classroom Culture
I am a teacher. I am a room. I am a space to fill. I am a culture to create. I am a world to shape.We are teachers. We are rooms. We are spaces to fill. We are cultures to create. We are worlds to shape.
Make Time for What You Believe is Right and Good
We should be focusing on “better” practices, as what is “best” today may not be best for the children we teach in the future. With that in mind, we need to continue to be on the lookout for teaching practices that we feel are right and good for the children we have in front of us.
Learning Culture: My Perspective as a Montessori Graduate
So the question is: How do we, people who are interested in making education better for students, help traditional schools adopt some of the things that made my education so far fantastic?
Introducing the Gradeless Classroom to Students
With feedback, students know exactly where they stand and what to do to move forward. That is empowering.
Creating a Gradeless Class in a School That Requires Grades
Having spent a good deal of time learning about creating a gradeless classroom, I returned to the classroom ready to make a change.
5 Reasons to Go Gradeless
In a gradeless classroom, students are expected to be creative, take risks, fail, and learn from their mistakes in the name of improving themselves and gaining knowledge. In my classroom, students assess their own work and one another's.
Six Steps to Going Gradeless
Last summer I made the plunge to finally go gradeless. I was ready for my classroom to be centered around learning, not grades. I had visions of motivated students, a continuous flow of feedback, and energy for reviewing student work.
Teaching the Teacher: Lessons Learned in Shift to Gradeless
Much of the evidence for the gradeless movement focuses on its positive effect on students, as it should. However, when reflecting on the impact of deciding to shift away from traditional grading practices, I realize how much it taught me.
AP English Literature and the Pedagogy of Whiteness
Does AP English Literature and Composition by its very nature privilege whiteness and a white view of literature? Why content and the canon are only part of the problem.