Fixing Broken Grades

One of the fixes that stood out to me was Fix #15.  Don't leave students out of the grading process.  I rarely if ever involved the students in grading when I taught.  I now realize that was a mistake. Students should certainly understand from the beginning of a lesson what the learning objectives are and how grades will be determined.  Students are users of the information that comes from assessments, so the purpose must be clear to them.  Student involvement in assessment presents a powerful opportunity for learning. Students can be involved in creating grading criteria, applying criteria to their own work, giving feedback to peers, and going over test results. Each of these assessment situations can generate further learning.

It becomes clear that having students track their achievement and then communicating their learning with other students, teachers, and parents is very powerful.  When students are reflective they begin to understand their strengths and areas for improvement.   As Chappuis (2009) states, "Providing students with opportunities for a combination of peer feedback and self-assessment causes them to achieve at significantly higher levels, without more instruction.  These two practices increase their sense of ownership of the responsibility to learn." 

Maybe student led conferences would allow our students to take more responsibility for their learning?