For the Love of Learning

Today I found this article on the Go ROWE website about using a results-only approach in the classroom. Last year I taught English at a highly competitive international school in France where feedback is offered purely using the French marking system. Students take tests or give oral presentations and are given a mark on a scale of 20. Generally speaking, anything less than an 8 is problematic, but getting a 10 to 15 is really solid work while a 16 through 20 is rare and considered beyond excellent. This is a weird system by American standards, hence my lack of ability to describe it any further than I've done here. My point is that the system is perhaps the exact opposite of a results-only environment. Instead, the teachers are forced to preach at their students for days or weeks, followed by a very stressful preparation period and then finally a big event such as a major exam or presentation in which the students are given a single numerical mark to sum up their efforts for the previous days or weeks.

My students were often stressed out beyond belief and their marks were rarely a true reflection of their efforts and abilities. I'm especially reminded of one of the girls I tutored as a side job. She was 16 years old and very serious and keen. She enjoyed English a great deal, but often had mechanical problems with her written essays. I worked with her every week, gave her extra work for practice and grammar drills. In the end her marks only increased from an all-time low of an 8 to an all-time high of an 11. Her efforts weren't being rewarded partially, I suspect, because her opportunities to produce were being micromanaged by the school's grading system. Had she been in an environment focused on the results of her projects I have no doubt she would have been at the top of her class simply because she was willing to do the work for perfect marks, while her classmates had better grades in spite of doing less work.

As a teaching assistant I had no choice but to conform to this grading system. In fact, I rarely gave grades but sometimes was asked by my supervising teachers for my opinion of what the grades should be. I tended to be harsher on students who took their tasks less seriously or were less prepared and easier on the ones who I could tell really wanted to be successful even if their voices waivered from nervousness. Is this unfair? Maybe so, but it seemed like the best way to work within the strict parameters of the school's grading system. I wanted my dedicated students to have positive feedback for their efforts and the arrogant ones who goofed off to get a wakeup call that they needed to take their work seriously because other people don't like to have their time wasted.

On the other hand, I helped one of the more dedicated and talented teachers at the school put together a play with her French 14 year olds. The play was adapted from a book they'd read and was produced and performed entirely in English. There were sets, costumes, sound effects, the works. It was an incredible amount of work, and the students had to continue producing some written assignments in addition to their acting responsibilities, but in the end we had a beautiful theater production to share with the school and parents. It was one of the proudest times of my life so far. The students were graded for this project, of course, as it took up several weeks of the term. In the end they received a series of marks depending on their "results" for learning and delivering lines, being responsible for their costumes and props, behavoir, etc. Everything was considered and, for the most part, the students received excellent marks because they were so engaged and excited. They also learned an incredible amount about the subject of the play and their spoken English improved remarkably from practicing their lines and working with the four teachers involved with the production solely in English.

My point is that I wish I could go back and create a results-only environment for my students, but I didn't know about this at the time and I don't think it would have been possible because of my assistant status. I'd like to give more points and positive feedback to my most serious students who understood the life benefits of having strong English skills along with the focused and naturally gifted students in my class. Likewise, I'd like to give no points to that kid who always showed up for his current events oral presentation without a newspaper article or anything substantial to say about it. He always offered to tell me a story from his life. Was that the assignment? No! He produced almost no results and shouldn't have been receiving acceptable marks.

What I can do is try to create an environment like this for my own children in the future. I grew up with almost no structure and learned to be responsible the hard way (I knew nobody would be there to catch me if I fell). The "result" was a positive one, likely only by the Grace of God, but I want to be really involved in my kids' lives, so I guess this is a way to teach them responsibility without leaving them to feel as though they're not cared for. I can give them a series of tasks to manage their own lives and only focus on whether they produce results by the given deadline. I won't micromanage when they do the tasks or how they go about it, just that they're done before the deadline and to high standards.

But then again, I'm only 26 and my kids won't be born for another few years, so what do I know? ;-)