Conceptually, I really like the idea of gradelessness. In practical terms, though, it's a bit of a mixed bag--and the difference seems to be entirely one of buy-in: students that are already invested in the broader goals of education are cheerfully engaged with the new directions and activities of the gradeless classroom. Students that were not particularly invested are sometimes floundering.
I am in a pretty ideal position for doing field observation on this dichotomy. I currently teach a highly-motivated and mostly university-bound 3U English class, a significantly less-motivated and mostly trades and college bound 4C English class, and--to complete the split--a stacked 4U/C Writers' Craft class: a little bit of everything.
The 3U class mostly loves this. They are embracing the opportunities to revise, to teach themselves and each other, to choose texts and topics that are of personal interest. And they are learning. We have done less "work," but we have done it more intensively and more focused on particular individual needs, and it is already paying off. My 3U class, like most 3U classes I've ever taught, was generally a productive and engaged roomful of people helping each other get better at the task at hand.
The 4C class, on the other hand, is for the most part languishing. They're nice people, don't get me wrong, but there is not a strong built-in culture of self-improvement in this room--at least, not as regards English skills. Around a third of the class has directly told me that they just "want a 51% and to get the hell out of high school," and they are playing this class the same way they have played every other boring high school course they've ever taken--look for the quickest, easiest way to meet the minimum requirements, then stop.
Trouble is, this class is different, and the expectations are different, and what they're doing is not likely to result in a passing evaluation at midterm. The change has been too dramatic for some of them, and others simply do not take me seriously--the only part of the talk about what a gradeless classroom looks like that has sunk in is the half-misunderstood notion that they "get to give themselves their own grade."
All my efforts to impress on them that "the bare minimum" is no longer sufficient for a pass are currently falling on deaf ears. When I give them checklists asking them if they've done the process work, they blithely check every box, even if there's no evidence to support it. When I remind them that one of the important considerations is how they use class time, they nod sagely and then surreptitiously return to playing games on their phones. "Don't worry, sir," they reassure me; "it'll get done"--as if "getting it done" was all that was required.
Gradeless classrooms shouldn't be reserved for academically-inclined students. But much more work needs to be done both to explain and to sell the concept to my disinclined students; much more work needs to be done (probably much earlier in their academic careers, mostly not even within the walls of the classroom) to create a cultural expectation that we do not go to school with intent merely to demonstrate minimal proficiency, but with intent to set personal goals, work hard, and show progress.
Of course, that should be--and for the most part is--the aspiration of every teacher for every student in every course; and yet we find ourselves, time and time again, facing a wall of resigned apathy from disenfranchised senior students like some cold war detente: "Don't make me work too hard," they seem to say, "and I won't make your life difficult."
Ah, well. End rant. Back to the task of not just teaching English, but of trying to shift the cultural needle in the room. More specific and productive ideas in my next post.
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