You Don’t HAVE To Give an F if You Don’t Want To

By Bill PagecloseAuthor: Bill Page Name: Bill Page
Site: http://www.teacherteacher.com/
About: About Bill Page ... Bill Page, a farm boy, graduated from a one-room school. He forged a career in the classroom teaching middle school “troublemakers.” For the past 26 years, in addition to his classroom duties, he has taught teachers across the nation to teach the lowest achieving students successfully with his proven premise, “Failure is the choice and fault of schools, not the students.” Bill Page is a classroom teacher. For 46 years, he has patrolled the halls, responded to the bells, and struggled with innovations. He has had his share of lunchroom duty, bus duty, and playground duty. For the past four years, Bill, who is now in his 50th year as a teacher, is also a full time writer. His book, At-Risk Students is available on Abebooks, Amazon, R.D. Dunn Publishing, and on Bill’s web site: http://www.teacherteacher.com/ In At-Risk Students, Page discusses problems facing failing students, “who can’t, don’t and won’t learn or cooperate.” “The solution,” he states, “is for teachers to recognize and accept student misbehavior as defense mechanisms used to hide embarrassment and incompetence, and to deal with causes rather than symptoms. By entering into a democratic, participatory relationship, where students assume responsibility for their own learning.” Through 30 vignettes, the book helps teachers see failing students through his eyes as a fellow teacher, whose classroom success with at-risk students made him a premier teacher-speaker in school districts across America.See Authors Posts (56)
 

extra credit but it is in lieu of regular credit. The bonus concept at its lowest level would be “Look, if you’ll sit there, keep your mouth shut and not cause me trouble for the whole quarter, I’ll give you a D.”

For some students, bonuses like these would probably be appropriate: “If you’ll bring your book everyday and be on time every period, I’ll give you 40 points on the final.

7.  An Experiment

An article by Doug Reeves in Educational Leadership, February 2008, says, “Try this experiment in your next faculty meeting. Ask your colleagues to calculate the final grade for a student who receives the following 10 grades during a semester: C, C, MA (Missing Assignment), D, C, B, MA, MA, B, A. I have done this experiment with thousands of teachers and administrators in the United States, Canada, and Argentina. Every time—bar none—I get the same results. The final grades range from F to A and include everything in between.”

8.  Consider the Impact Of Any One Of These Statements On Test Day

“I will use the median test scores rather than the average test scores.”

“Instead of giving the test today, I will use the day for additional review and clarification.”

“You may spend the next 20 minutes with a classmate reviewing for the test.”

“Spelling will not affect your grade, but you will need to learn any misspelled words later.”

“You may ask me privately any question you have about a test item.”

“You may substitute one of your essay questions for one of mine.”

“You may delete one (or more) of the test questions to not count but to be discussed later”

“You may write a comment to me challenging a question, the appropriateness, or vocabulary.”

“You may take three questions as open book homework questions.”

9.  Some Concluding Personal Thoughts

When I chose a goal of making sure my kids learned, zeroes, Fs for missed assignments, marks for behavior, or as punishment became unimportant, and I sought ways to reduce grades for anything other than improved learning or achievement.

Every learner is different.  It is not fair to treat every learner the same, especially in testing and grading procedures.  Fairness does not mean treating all kids alike.  It means providing whatever each kid needs to help him/her achieve.  The most unfair thing we do in school is try to be fair.  There is nothing more unfair than the equal treatment of unequal learners.  Allowances must me made for individual differences.

With Joy in Sharing, Bill Page

Comments and questions are welcomed and are answered.  billpage@bellsouth.net. For Bill’s free monthly “At-Risk” Newsletter visit www.At-RiskStudents.com and also for a Free Download Article, “Teaching Kids Who Don’t, Won’t, Or Can’t Even Try To Learn, Behave, Cooperate, Or Follow Procedures.