Even for people that don’t believe in grades very much, grades are often seen as a measure of one’s ability to learn.
But I don’t think that grades are an accurate measurement of a child’s learning ability. Not at all.I do think, however, that grades are, in an indirect way, an accurate indication of whether or not a student has acquired one skill that is absolutely necessary for lifelong success.
It’s the skill of self-correction.
Tthe “A” student turns in work that he or she has already edited and corrected. They correct their assignments before the teacher does. It doesn’t mean they understood everything perfectly. It just means they realized they didn’t understand something and then went about figuring out what they still needed to know.
Self-correction. It’s taking ownership of one’s education, doing whatever it takes–reading an article, asking someone for help, rereading a chapter, working extra problems–that sets students apart.
The “A” students in a traditional school setting do this. (I’m not really talking about gifted kids here. Although, they may be going through the same-processes of self-correction. If they are, it may be that they don’t need external resources to validate the accuracy of their work.)
From my experience, there are three ways to teach students to self-correct.
1. Include self-correction as an assignment.
When I teach writing, I don’t accept rough drafts. I do, however, have my students turn in first final drafts. Then I give them checklists to edit their work. After they make corrections, they turn in the real final assignment. I’ve included self-correction as part of the loop of writing a paper.
My middle son takes math lessons from a teacher at a University model school. This teacher teaches math the same way. He gives assignments and grades those assignments really hard. He takes off for everything, but he returns the homework to the students and allows them to correct their homework for a new grade. Just as I do with writing, he has made correcting the work part of the loop when learning math.
2. Tell them to edit and correct their work by themselves.
It seems odd to say this, but sometimes kids just need someone to tell them–if you don’t understand something, then go figure it out and learn it. Some students need a formal assignment to be independent. Because of this, I make announcements in the classes I teach that I want the students to take charge of their writing. If you don’t know something, do some research and figure it out.
3. Focus on their passions
Give assignments on topics that students are passionate about. This helps to encourage self-correction because students want to know and understand more about topics they’re passionate about. In this situation, you have to allow the students to choose their topic or, as a teacher, you have to know the students and know what they’re passionate about. This is probably the best way to teach students to self-edit and self-correct because their motivation is internal, and, to me, internal motivation is better than external motivation.
Recently, I sent out a writing checklist that older students can use to edit their own writing assignments. If you didn’t download it, you can still grab it here.
Hope this is helpful in some way,
Kimberly