No Letter Grades?
Recently in
Surrey schools, the school system has gotten rid of the letter grade system
meaning that instead of giving A's or B 's, they offer more detailed
information on how the student did in projects and other tasks. With this new
method, students can discuss with parents where they can show improvement.
There have been many mixed reactions; some parents like the new format while
others strongly dislike it.
First, people
didn't like the new idea because they thought the grade system was something that
actually "inspired" kids to get better grades. Some felt that when
they saw a low letter grade on their report card, it pushed them to improve
their mark. Others argue that there was nothing wrong with the letter grade
system in the first place. With a F or D in a certain subject, parents can
easily see their child isn't doing too well in that subject already without the
need of extra explanations.
The people who like
the new system argue back that in elementary school, we got "Needs
work" or "Outstanding" instead of an A or C+ so why can't we
continue that into high school. They felt that although the letter system had
nothing wrong with it, adding extra comments stating where the child needs
improvement also isn't a bad thing. It shows students constructive criticism to
let them improve for the best.
In my opinion, I
am stuck in the middle. I think that we just have both grading systems and the
feedback system. Without getting graded on our performance in school, it's just
like getting a medal for participating instead of winning first or second
place. I agree that seeing a bad grade on my report card makes me want to get
better marks, yet the feedback system can help me improve my weak points to get
better grades. I like the feedback system because instead of focusing on just
grades, I can get criticism to improve my work. Overall, I like both of the
systems and I think we should have both on our report cards.
Hi Arianna,
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you getting ahead on your homework. Here are a couple of quick reminders before we work on the second part of our current events blogs - learning how to give constructive feedback in the form of comments.
Remember we are trying to work towards our formal language and tone in these posts. This means we want to avoid the conversational tone, including the "i" voice where possible. Additionally, we are using blogs as a format to learn how to create posts that might be more varied - we want to take advantage of things like the ability to attach or embed photos, diagrams, audio/video files, etc.. Can you think of places that you could make some links in your post so that the post gets more attention? Eg. Perhaps a link to the original article that prompted your response.
If you make changes before Friday, please do one of the following: copy and paste into a second draft post (so you will have your original post and the new one as evidence of the changes you have made) or edit your post and use a different colour to highlight changes from the original..
Paragraphing looks good. Will spend more time on that next time. Great start!
Hi Arianna,
ReplyDeleteWell done on those paragraphs. Im happy to see your opinion as well. Next time link the website so the people reading will have even more information. Its really good that you had alot to say!
Hi!
ReplyDeleteGood job on your paragraphs, they are really descriptive and explain the issue really well. They are really well written too, Good job.