Giving only A's
I told nobody what I was about to do. On the first day of school I greeted my students: “Welcome to social studies. I’ve been looking forward to you. You are my 8-1’s, the top section. I’ve noticed that my upper level students seem more concerned about grades than about learning. Therefore, I am changing my grading policy.
“As of today, each of you has an A for the year. You do not have to worry about your grade. You will be free to focus on learning. That’s it. However you choose to approach this class, I will enter an A on your report card for every marking period and for your final grade.”
It was a wonderful year! They worked hard. So did I. They received their A’s as promised. And I was relieved of having to input and average grades in my grade book.
My commitment to the 8-1’s freed me to take liberties. We focused on ideas from primary sources, paperbacks, and handouts I created. I felt more open to experimentation. And I was free from having to calculate grades from quizzes, and tests in my grade book, a boring and time-consuming task.
I can’t imagine teachers trying this today. But I can imagine them taking hold of their teaching, committing to ideas and methods that will intrigue, doing whatever they can to bring learning to their students. In this age of banned books and revisionist history, this is a challenging task. But every effort is important.
