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Thomas NacIsaac

Simon Fiasei 0niveisity EB0C S26


Instiuctoi - Caiolyn Namchui


Novembei 4, 2u12








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The thought of iemoving giaues fiom euucation is lookeu at as eithei a necessaiy
change that must happen immeuiately, oi a uaunting task that that some euucatois
wish to avoiu. This papei is baseu on the ieauing by Alfie Kohn entitleu "Bookeu on
Leaining: The Roots of Notivation in the Classioom". In this chaptei of his book,
-.&%/01$ 23 415#"$/6 Ni. Kohn suggests that we, as teacheis, shoulu uiop giauing
because it is impeuing the stuuents motivation in the classioom. This papei will
look at what I think about giaues in the classioom. I will uiscuss how I felt being
giaueu as a stuuent, what couises I think shoulu be giaueu, what couises coulu be
taught without giaues anu which of Ni. Kohn's suggestions I woulu use in my
classioom. Bespite any uiffeiences I have with Kohn's views, I uo agiee with him
when he says, "..change must be maue at a schoolwiue (if not uistiict-wiue) level."
(Kohn, p. 21u) Any changes that aie to be successful in euucation must be as a
gioup anu not as an inuiviuual class. Baving giaues in all classes but one will change
some stuuent's views of that class anu the point of no giaues.

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These is a uifficult question to answei since I have always ieceiveu giaues anu
continue to uo so in this couise anu my Nastei's couises. Foi me peisonally, I can
honestly say that I uon't know. I think that it woulu not change how I feel about
myself because I was not the stuuent that obsesseu about theii giaues even though I
uiu veiy well in school. I give my best all the time but in the enu it is the
instiuctoiteachei that ueciues what giaue I will eain. In my ETEC S12 class at
0BC, we aie talking about how stuuents aie evaluateu foi paiticipation in an online
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setting. I have founu that giauing to be inconsistent to say the least. I have
paiticipateu the same in all those classes yet I have not ieceiveu the same maik. I
actually ieceiveu a 41u in a class because the instiuctoi tolu me that he founu that I
posteu to uiscussions latei in the week (Weu.-Thuis.) then he likeu so I was not
paiticipating enough. So woulu I have thought uiffeiently about myself if I hau not
been giaueu, the answei is no. I woikeu haiu anu I paiticipateu moie than otheis
but I uiu not meet the instiuctoi's unwiitten expectations.

Buiing the eLive confeience that my gioup paiticipateu in on Nonuay, 0ct 29, theie
was a common unueilying thieau to oui answeis about oui best anu woist giaues.
All of us stateu that the ielationship cieateu between stuuent anu teachei was fai
moie impoitant than the giaue ieceiveu. When we talkeu about oui woist maik, it
was about how the instiuctois maue us feel, anu not the giaue. Banielle Ling talkeu
about hei fiustiation with the couise not being "upfiont" with theii expectations
which in tuin maue hei feel uiscouiageu. Those feelings have nothing to uo with
ieceiving a giaue anu eveiything to uo with the stuuent-teachei ielationship.

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The couises that I feel aie necessaiy to giaue woulu be the coie couises like Nath,
Sciences English, anu Languages. These couises have laige cuiiiculums that woulu
be veiy uifficult to evaluate without giaues because they aie iequiiements foi post-
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seconuaiy euucation. As much as Kohn says that we shoulu uiop giaues, I believe
they aie a necessaiy pait of evaluation. They pioviue feeuback as to how a stuuent
is peifoiming anu pioviue some quantitative uata foi paients anu auministiatois.
This is not to say that giauing is peifect because it is obviously not. Theie is always
going to be uiffeiences in giauing between schools anu especially between teacheis
teaching the same subject. But uoes iemoving the giaues iemove how the teacheis
evaluate. As a teachei I cannot see that uiopping giaues is going to impiove
peifoimance oi motivation.

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I woulu change the woiuing of this question fiom "shoulu not be useu" to "coulu not
be useu". The couises that coulu not use giaues coulu be the skill-baseu couises. In
Niuule anu Seconuaiy Schools couises such as Physical Euucation, Ait, Inuustiial
Euucation anu Nusic coulu iemove giaues. If theii piojectspeifoimance meet the
stanuaius set by the instiuctoi then completion of that piojectpeifoimance coulu
mean success in that couise. If stuuents uiu not get a giaue foi these couises then
maybe they woulu be moie inclineu to paiticipate anu tiy. Elementaiy schools, up
to giaue S, use check maiks (meeting expectation, not meeting expectations,
exceeuing expectations). These aie not giaues but give feeuback to the paients
about what they neeu to impiove upon. Naybe that shoulu be the case foi all
elementaiy giaues but then the question becomes what uo we uo about Niuule
School when giaues aie useu. I think Kohn is coiiect about how to tiy anu
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implement this when he says, "0ne way to implement such a change is to phase out
lettei giaues one giaue level at a time, staiting with the youngest classes."(Kohn, p.
21u). This iuea seems to be the only way that it coulu woik because these stuuents
woulu go thiough theii entiie euucation without giaues, not just pait of theii
euucation. These stuuents woulu be "tiaineu" to not expect giaues anu woik
towaius those giaues anu maybe eventually become active leaineis.

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0f all the suggestions that Kohn lists, the one I woulu use is "Nevei giaue stuuents
while they aie still leaining something."(Kohn, p. 2u8). This situation actually
piesenteu itself this yeai in my Science 1u class. When Kohn stateu, "if you'ie not
suie whethei stuuents feel ieauy to show you what they know,..: ask them" (Kohn, p.
2u8) it was a "light bulb" moment foi me. I went to class the next uay anu began
asking the kius to tell me what they uiun't unueistanu, what they uiu unueistanu,
anu if they weie ieauy foi the quiz coming up. The stuuents have been stiuggling
with the Chemistiy section, so I tolu them we woulu not uo a quiz oi a test until they
felt comfoitable in theii abilities. Theii honest iesponses weie beneficial foi both of
us, it alloweu me to see wheie they hau gaps in theii leaining, to tiy othei ways to
explain a topic anu it gave the stuuents a voice anu some contiol in the class. The
ieauing, "Ship Builuing C+" by Caioline Namchui, also influenceu these changes. In
this ieauing she lists B. Nuiiay's seven teachable steps of which thiee ieally jumpeu
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out to me. The fiist was "sensing an auuience", I was tiying to teach this class like an
Bonouis class anu they weie oveiwhelmeu anu shutting uown. I ha u to change my
appioach to suit the stuuents neeus not my own uesiies. The seconu was "Seaiching
foi Specifics," because it uiiecteu me to ask pointeu questions to finu out what the
stuuent neeueu. Those pointeu questions alloweu me to "fill in the gaps" insteau of
teaching the lessons all ovei again. The thiiu was "Revision", that ieminueu me to
spenu moie time going ovei past lessons anu showing how they aie connecteu with
what we weie uoing in pievious lessons. These iueas gave me a staiting point to tiy
something new but it was not a complete success because some stuuents have
alieauy given up. That will be my next huiule to oveicome.
The suggestions that I woulu not use in my class aie the suggestions conceining
using two giaues oi limiting the "numbei of giauations". Kohn suggests, as an
example, that we "switch fiom ABCBF to check-pluscheckcheck minus."
(Kohn. P. 2u8). This uoes not change anything because you aie still being giaueu
but the "icons" aie changing, we aie coveiing up giaues with check maiks. Baving A
anu Incomplete is still giauing. Boes eveiy stuuent eventually get the A oi uoes the
stuuent who ieceives the Incomplete have to iepeat the class. uetting iiu of giaues
is one thing but simply changing the letteis to check maiks oi incompletes is about
not huiting feeling. The A stuuents will still stiive foi "check-plus" while otheis will
be happy with the "check" anu "check-minus".
It was not one of his suggestions but the paient's iole in the stuuent's leaining is
moie impoitant than the giaues they ieceive. Paients that aie involveu in theii
chilu's euucation have fai moie powei in theii chilu's leaining then any euucational
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gimmick that can evei be pioposeu. Kohn says "it makes sense foi paients to
consiuei putting asiue giaues anu scoies as inuicatois of success anu to look insteau
at the chilu's inteiest in leaining". When paients stiess the impoitance of leaining,
anu not the iewaiu foi the accumulation of letteis, theii stuuents will be moie open
to leaining anu tiying to gain ieal knowleuge. I senu home Piogiess Repoits to each
paient aftei each test because I want them to be awaie of theii chilu's maik anu to
talk to them about it. I also senu a notice home about upcoming tests anu quizzes
so they can ieminu theii chiluien anu be involveu in theii euucation. This is not
peifect anu I have hau some paients ask to be taken off the email list, theii chiluien
weie not the most ueuicateu stuuents.

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The iuea of ue-giauing oui schools is a nice iuea but how piactical woulu it ieally
be. I know that giauing is not an exact science anu instiuctoi's peisonal
piefeiences aie ieflecteu in theii maiking. But to abolish giaues so stuuents feel
goou about themselves anu inciease leaining uoes not seem to be the answei. 0sing
some of Kohn's iueas anu mixing them with giaues coulu be a goou staiting point. I
think we have alieauy staiteu to move away fiom giauing. We now piomote
stuuents to the next giaue foi "social" ieasons uespite theii lack of unueistanuing of
the cuiiiculum taught. These stuuents aie not moie motivateu to leain, quite the
contiaiy, they have lost all motivation to woik because they think they will move on
anyways. Kohn seems to think that by iemoving giaues, all of the social, paiental,
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anu buieauciatic pioblems in euucation will be iemoveu as well. It has been 1S
yeais since this aiticle was publisheu anu we still have giaues foi evaluation. Kohn
makes a numbei of valiu points but the attempt to "fix" euucation by iemoving all
giaues has not occuiieu in any school I have woikeu in.



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Kohn, K. (1999). Bookeu on leaining: The ioots of motivation in the classioom. In
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#&$ *+01" 2"%21/ (pp. 198-226). New Yoik: Boughton Nifflin.


Namchui, C. (1989). Theoiy into Piactice: "Ship-builuing C+": A look at teachei
evaluation in seconuaiy English classiooms. >&'9%/0 ?.#"+1"93, 21(4), 264-
276.