Took a moment yesterday to remind my kiddos that grades don’t exist in the Project 180 Classroom until they and I sit down at the end of the term and come to an agreement, and only then do they come into being. Everything else up to that point is simply a record of the learning evidence that they have gathered over the course of our experience. And so to reinforce that notion in many of their unsettled minds, I made a quick, unrehearsed, candid Screencastify video.
It’s new to them, and so I have to remind them. And since the distance has prevented me from reinforcing and reassuring as much as I’d like, I felt compelled yesterday to have a “face-to-face” conversation.
The result? I don’t know fully know yet, but I have begun getting work from kiddos who heretofore had nothing in the book. Could I have gotten the same results with a scare-them-into-compliance, fear-the-fail approach? Maybe. But I can’t well do that since I told kids from day one that they can’t fail my class, that “F” marks are not option. There is no “fear-the-fail” card in my hand to deal, so I have to deal differently. Yesterday’s video message was the card I played.
As my longtime followers of Project 180 know, I have no interest in compliance. I am seeking their commitment, not to me, to their learning and to themselves. And so, that is what we focus on–learning and selves–until we have to come up with a mark at the end of the term, and then when that time comes, we make that mark together. It has to be together. It’s their learning. It’s their story. I just help them record it.
Happy Thursday, all.
Do. Reflect. Do Better.
I like that it’s “their commitment to learning and themselves” and “it’s their story.” I’d be interested to know how you handle plagiarism.
Hi, Linda. I work hard to give my kids authentic writing tasks where there’s no need to copy someone else’s work. In the rare event they do, it’s an opportunity to discuss the bigger picture and purpose of our writing experiences: growth. Copying someone else’s work carries no benefit. I want my kids to benefit from the beautiful struggle that writing can be.