Tagged: grading

Providing Extra Credit: Positive or Negative?

The decision to give students “extra credit” should be closely tied to a teacher’s reasons for grading, says teaching coach Barbara Blackburn. Do you grade to measure understanding, provide accountability or compare students? She includes a “redo” tool – her preferred option.

The Year I Figured Out Student Self Assessment

It took Stephanie Farley 21 years to solve the student self-assessment equation. The solution? Teaching students to explain their thinking as they revise and improve. The result was transformational; they gained confidence in their work and were far less anxious about grades.

Barricade Yourself from Burnout Starting Now

Where there are challenges, there are also opportunities for creativity, novelty, and adventure to put a barricade between us and burnout. Stephanie Farley offers strategies to help teachers avoid or at least soften the sense of emotional exhaustion that leads to collapse.

What Kind of Feedback Best Motivates Students?

Teachers are feedback machines – “we do it all day long!” – writes classroom teacher and popular blogger Larry Ferlazzo. Here he focuses on ways to give feedback that’s particularly effective at enhancing students’ sense of competence and encouraging intrinsic motivation.

A Guide to Expanding Virtual Teaching Skills

Building on the surge in virtual and blended teaching during the pandemic, the authors show how teachers across content areas can further develop their virtual and digital skills. Their well-organized book sustains an accessible, mentoring tone throughout, writes Theresa Wood.

A Fresh Look at First Aid for Teacher Burnout

While coping strategies can help those facing burnout, teaching careers are more sustainable when educators also slash workload and stress-inducers. Jenny Grant Rankin looks at the burnout pandemic and urges teachers to reduce grading and focus on planning quality lessons.

A Teacher’s Journey: ‘Student, Grade Thyself’

For much of her career, middle level teacher Stephanie Farley felt confounded when students “told me they didn’t understand where their grades came from.” Then her principal set her on a path of discovery that’s led to competency based learning and students eagerly self-grading.

Giving Our Students the Key to the School

How do we give students the key to success in school? In every aspect of assessment, teachers engage and empower them by offering opportunities for student voice, choice, self-assessment and self-reporting, writes ASCD bestselling author and school leader Myron Dueck.