The Master Teacher Blog

Frustration around the expectation to entertain while educating has grown in frequency and intensity as technology, social media, and other sources of entertainment increasingly compete for the attention of our students. Fortunately, we do not necessarily have to choose one or the other. We can provide students with experiences that feature both entertainment and education. It is possible to hold two ideas in our thinking at the same time. We can focus on standards and learning goals while seeking the best ways to achieve them.

The Cambridge dictionary defines edutainment as “The process of entertaining people at the same time that you are teaching them something, and the products such as television programs, software, and others that do this.” Edutainment might be thought of as a continuum featuring entertainment and education. There is a time and place for edutainment and time for an exclusive focus on learning. Of course, overreliance on edutainment can lead students to believe that learning should always be colorful, entertaining, and fun. They can reach the conclusion that they are the audience and educators are the entertainers.

Stories, analogies, humor, examples, videos, role play scenarios, games, and simulations can provide a context, stimulate interest, and present crucial information to support learning. However, we must be careful not to focus so heavily on the supporting activities that shortchange or abandon the intended learning. Edutainment might be thought of as a resource and strategy to support a learning effort or activity. It is not pedagogy.

Building motivation and activating engagement play important roles in learning, but they are not learning. They can prepare students for learning, but they are not ends in themselves. Our work is to help students to develop cognitive connections and structure. This work requires thinking, reflection, and application. It may feature multiple attempts before success is achieved. It can be enjoyable and rewarding, but it is not always fun.

So how might we think about the role of edutainment in our classrooms without assuming that we must be entertainers? Here are six elements to consider:

1. Think of edutainment as a strategy. We might use it as a hook to build interest, a means to renew or build background knowledge, or an experience to make a connection.
2. Start with learning goals and outcomes. If we choose to engage in or enlist some form of edutainment, we need to be certain that it aligns with and supports what we want students to learn. If we don’t and they fail to make a connection, it is just entertainment.
3. Include multiple learning modes. The more ways in which we expose and engage students to hints, previews, visuals, sounds, and actions related to learning, the wider the range of students we are likely to engage.
4.  Search for emotional hooks. Some of the best options for engaging students involve love, hate, outrage, compassion, irony, intrigue, and other emotional connections. Compelling stories, persuasive analogies, heart-tugging examples, and other invitations for students to care can generate surprisingly strong motivation and engagement.
5. Find ways to involve students in creating the experience. Students might design games, develop role play scenarios, create videos, or other engaging activities to introduce and support learning.
6. Follow up edutainment activities. The value of this type of activity is found in the connections and reflections that students make. Observations, analyses, discussions, and even debates can move students from passive listening to active thinking.

Meanwhile, we need to be mindful of several cautions:

• Avoid activities that are overly simplistic and superficial. Our goal is to prepare students for the learning that lies ahead. Activities that lack depth and connections can leave students confused and unable to grasp the intended purpose.
• Resist over-engineering edutainment activities. Time and other resources are precious. Too much time spent preparing and conducting introductory activities can distract and compromise the focus on the time available for learning.
• Use edutainment sparingly. Overuse of fun, entertaining activities can reduce students’ attention spans and leave them impatient and intolerant of extended and rigorous learning.
• Make sure that students have access to necessary resources. Some students may not have the technology and other material resources necessary to participate. Check to be certain all students can participate before presenting an edutainment experience.
• Don’t confuse entertainment and instruction. The real work of learning comes after an edutainment experience. Explicit instruction, reflection, practice, application, and formative assessment are the elements that make learning happen.

The bottom line is that educators do not have to be entertainers. However, finding ways to engage students in experiences that make learning more interesting, intriguing, and compelling can build intrinsic motivation and support deeper engagement.

The workshop model of lesson construction is designed to focus student attention and activities on building understanding, developing ownership, and fostering independence. It also offers the advantage of application across disciplines and subject areas and has been proven to be successful when put into practice.

While there are variations in the ways workshop activities are labeled and described, they share core elements that help to accelerate, solidify, and extend learning. The following are six learning and teaching components common to widely accepted workshop approaches, and a description of how each component accelerates the learning process.

Component #1: Prepare students with engaging opening activities. We might start with a compelling narrative that reveals the relevance and importance of what students will be learning. The activity might reveal and reinforce connections to prior learning. It could be a challenge activity that invites students to solve a problem or find an answer that will be revealed in the upcoming lesson. This activity also might be a pre-assessment task that reveals what students need to review or may still need to learn.

Accelerator: Preparation activities activate thinking and help students get ready to learn.

Component #2: Present brief, focused, relevant mini lessons. Lessons that generate the greatest amount of learning are not long. In fact, maximum attention and information absorption typically extend only for about 10-20 minutes depending on the age and maturity of students, the complexity of the content, and the compelling nature of what students will learn. While we might be tempted to extend our explanation, provide greater detail, or delve into specifics, research shows that students’ attention will begin to wane when the information we share extends beyond this relatively short time span. The key is to discern what is most important for students to learn next, organize the content in the most understandable and manageable format, and present the information with energy, commitment, and authenticity. Mini lessons do not have to be provided through direct instruction. Flexible strategies and variations can be employed to expose students to new learning content.

Accelerator: Short, targeted instruction taps into students’ energy and attention while they are at their peak.

Component #3: Provide opportunities for reflection. When the lesson is finished, students need time to absorb and make sense of what they have heard, seen, and experienced. Often called “brain breaks,” these are important opportunities for students to place what they are learning in working memory where it is sorted and prioritized for storage in long-term memory. We might have students physically move, engage in a mindfulness activity, or another activity that does not require significant mental energy. As little as 3-5 minutes can be adequate to accomplish this goal.

Accelerator: Students’ brains immediately begin to organize and store new information in working memory.

Component #4: Design opportunities for students to interact with what they are learning. Activities such as peer teaching, think-pair-share, and drawing pictural representations and mind maps help students to process new information, strengthen their grasp of information, and articulate their understanding of what they are learning. Students may work alone, in pairs, small groups, or large groups, depending on the content and activity.

Accelerator: Students practice sorting new information, clearing up areas of confusion or misunderstanding, and readying new learning for long-term memory.

Component #5: Arrange for application of new information or skills. Using new skills and applying new understanding to relevant, purposeful, and challenging activities further solidifies learning and builds confidence in using new knowledge. Practice activities also provide additional opportunities to clear up remaining confusion and dispel any misconceptions.

Accelerator: The shift to application and practice completes the transition from learning dependence to independence.

Component #6: Debrief for clarity and understanding. As a concluding activity, debriefing provides an opportunity for students to reflect on their learning. Reviewing strategies, noting areas of struggle, and owning progress and new understanding helps to complete the learning process and move new information toward long-term memory. This can also be an opportunity to identify areas or elements of learning that still need support and review in the future.

Accelerator: Debriefing helps students to understand their learning journey, develop ownership of what they have learned, and provide us with feedback to use as we plan future instruction.

The workshop approach also offers the flexibility to be compressed or expanded depending on the content, amount of time available, and student readiness. Some components might be introduced one day and followed by remaining components the next day. Or, if time allows, the entire process can be accomplished in a single session.

Think about how you already employ elements of the workshop model. Are there areas or aspects you might strengthen or add? How might you adjust your approach depending on the content you teach, the age and maturity of your students, and schedule constraints you face?

Some of the most important tasks to accomplish during the first weeks of school are to learn what students know and can recall, where they may need to review and refresh their learning, and what will need to be retaught before moving forward with new content. Of course, it is best if we can engage students in activities that generate the information we need, while also reinforcing what students already know and building their confidence. A bonus is to have the process be interesting, engaging, and enjoyable. 

There are many potential approaches and strategies for gaining the information we seek. Here are five activities to consider.

Have students build “This I know” walls. For this activity, briefly refer to or describe a concept or skill that students have learned previously. Then ask students to write what they remember on sticky notes and place them on a wall poster you have labeled with the target concept or skill. You may have to offer some gentle probing and nudging to assist students to inventory their memories but resist reteaching at this point. Once students have finished placing their sticky notes, ask students to help you group the notes into subtopics or connected ideas. Follow with a discussion and debrief about what students know and where there are gaps that will require further attention. This activity can be a catalyst to ignite curiosity and motivation for students to fill in their understanding and be ready to move their learning forward.  

Provide student teams with blank or partially completed graphic organizers, timelines, or outlines to complete. Identify a previously learned multi-component concept, multi-part skill, sequence of events, multi-step process, or other content that is comprised of multiple parts, steps, or components. Have teams fill in the blanks with what they know about the components or relationships. The activity might involve a scientific process, a series of historical events, or a mathematical concept, or other content important to future learning. Depending on the age and maturity of your students and the concepts and skills involved, you might fill in some key blanks and gaps in advance to give students hints and guidance. It also might be advantageous to allow students to access resources that can assist them with the task but not immediately provide the answers.   

Design an information scavenger hunt. Create a list of questions that tap into learning from the past year that can help to set the stage for learning that lies ahead. Short answer and fill in the blank questions may work best for the purpose of this activity. Divide students into teams of two or three. In the first phase of the activity, students will respond to the questions they already know the answers to, without accessing resources other than their team members. When they are finished have them designate the answers they generated and with which all team members agreed. Responses to which there is not agreement should be deferred to the second phase. When students are ready, designate resources they can utilize to answer the remaining questions. You might limit the options to the textbook, tangible resources in the classroom, other teams, or you may open the options for students to search online. When the teams are finished, spend some time debriefing the activity, including what they already knew, what they learned, and where they remain uncertain. This activity can be a good stimulator for recall of past learning while also providing you with information about what may need to be reviewed and retaught before moving forward.

Give low stakes quizzes with a twist. Rather than only collecting question responses related to past learning, provide space next to each question for students to indicate whether they are certain their answer is correct, sort of sure, not sure at all. By collecting this next level of information, you can discern where students are solid and confident with past learning, where they have some recollection but may need review, and areas where more extensive review or reteaching will be necessary. Armed with this information, you can plan what needs to be reviewed and retaught, form flexible groups for instruction, and decide when students are ready to move forward with new learning.

Create retrospective anchor charts. Identify key concepts and skills that students typically struggle to recall or likely will need refreshing before they are ready to move forward. Capturing this information in a few anchor charts and posting them as you introduce new content will make it convenient to provide students with real time reminders and support you to offer quick reviews for students. They can also provide subtle reminders for students to access if they need reminders to fill in some gaps but do not need reteaching.

Armed with the information we have collected, we can plan the next steps in instruction and decide how best to group students in the initial weeks of school. Of course, any of these activities might be employed or repeated later in the year when we are ready to introduce new content or skills and need to know what students already know and can do. 

One of the most persistent challenges we face is convincing students to focus less on grades and more on learning. Unfortunately, unless we are careful, grades can get in the way of learning rather than support it. Multiple research studies have shown that when students are presented with a grade followed by feedback, they give their attention to the grade and often ignore the feedback. Yet, learning growth is far more likely to result from heeding and using feedback than from information communicated by a grade.

It is not that grades are not important or do not have a role to play. Well-constructed and anchored grades can give parents and caregivers a general view of how their child is doing. They can serve as a broad indicator of how well a student has performed in a subject area or discipline. They can even be reasonable reflections of how well students manage self-discipline, persist with challenges, and maintain effort toward important goals over time.

We also need to recognize that grades do not produce the results that many educators assume. Grades are not particularly strong or sustaining motivators of learning. In fact, grades are the leading source of school-related stress, especially for older students. Grades often tempt students to prioritize tasks and challenges according to what “will count,” not what will best support their learning. Additionally, grades can promote a focus on assessment performance over learning. They can leave students vulnerable to a “learn, test, forget” mindset. Finally, grades typically communicate how well a student performed, not how much they learned.

Meanwhile, excessive feedback may not be the answer either. Despite the effort we might give to developing and sharing detailed feedback on every aspect of every piece of work students complete, too much feedback can quickly overwhelm students and leave them ignoring the valuable insights and guidance we offer. Feedback that students are most likely to use is targeted to the intended learning, specific, timely, and actionable. It is digestible and useful for the next steps in learning.

So, where might we turn if we want students to rely less on grades to tell them how they are doing and provide them with the guidance and support they need to keep learning? We might consider options such as:

• Frequent low-stake quizzes and other non-graded practice activities. Removing the pressure of a grade can encourage students to focus on what they are learning.
• Rubrics that support student self-assessment. Providing students with
  anchors to assess areas of strength and opportunities for growth and improvement can promote ownership for learning
• Student goal setting and progress monitoring. When students set goals and monitor their progress, learning often accelerates, motivation grows, and confidence develops.
• Reflection and journaling. Students can reflect on their struggles and triumphs and gain more awareness of their progress
• Peer-to-peer feedback. When students provide feedback to their peers, their peers can be more open to heeding and using it. Additionally, students tend to improve their own work when they offer constructive feedback to others.
• Timely, targeted teacher feedback. Our feedback, when not attached to a grade, can feel less threatening and critical. In fact, our feedback can feel more like coaching than judging.

Of course, the reality of grades and grading remains for most of us. What are some practices that prioritize learning in a world that still expects grades? Here are five places to start:

• Delay assigning grades as long as practical. The more we can delay assigning grades, the more learning growth we are likely to capture. When students are given a grade, they typically assume that the learning involved is complete and reduce their attention and effort.
• Create space between providing feedback and giving grades. Giving students time to reflect on feedback before receiving a grade helps to prevent grades from hindering learning.
• Confine grade-associated feedback to learning targets. Additional and extraneous feedback can add to the distraction and leave students even more likely to ignore everything but the grade.
• Consider sharing “temporary” or “practice” grades that can be improved by heeding the feedback we provide. For students who are focused on grades, the opportunity and guidance for how to improve can focus their attention and learning efforts.
• Utilize a variety of data sources to develop grades. Portfolios, one-on-one conferences, demonstrations, presentations, and other performance opportunities can provide a wider range of opportunities for feedback and more ways for students to learn.

Shifting students’ focus away from the primacy of grades and toward learning can, obviously, lead to more learning. It can also reduce the amount of time we spend collecting data, calculating scores, and creating grades.

Reference:

Kuepper-Tetzel, C., & Gardner, P. (2021). Effects of temporary mark withholding on academic performance. Psychology Learning & Teaching, (20)3, 405-419. https://doi.org/10.1177/1475725721999958

Grades play a crucial role in today’s educational world and students’ educational experience. The general perception is that grades are intended to report students’ academic performance, but many people include in grade calculations information such as participation, extra credit, and other behaviors that are not direct contributors to or reflective of learning. Most people are familiar with the traditional A-F grading system, but even cursory examination reveals multiple shortcomings in its application and ability to communicate the whole picture.

Most experts advise that we need a better way to communicate the nature, amount, and quality of student learning. We need a reporting system that tells those who depend on it the story of what they want and need to know. However, there remains considerable confusion and debate regarding what story grades should tell.

It makes little sense to try and change the current system without having considered the ways in which what we do now falls short and what features would make a new system more effective. Before making any changes, we need to gain greater clarity about what a system for reporting on learning should be able to communicate. Once we know what we need, we can decide how best to shape the system. Of course, this conversation needs to include a full range of stakeholders if we hope to achieve understanding of the need and create support for any change. Here are seven questions to start our reflection and discussion:

• Should grades reflect a student’s learning journey or just their knowledge end point?
• Is it fair for a student who already knows much of what we are teaching to receive a higher grade than a student who began the current unit knowing little and having few related skills but who gave maximum effort and made huge progress throughout the unit?
• If you were to hire someone, would you rather understand what they know or how able and motivated they are to learn?
• Should grades reflect students’ ability to apply what they have learned, or is it enough to show that they can recite, repeat, or record what they were taught?
• Should grades reflect the knowledge and skills students are able to retain or just concept and skills they know at the conclusion of instruction?
• In what ways does the dominant A-F grading system fall short in giving intended audiences enough information to determine what students know and can do?
• What features would you include in a perfect grading system?

Around this time last year, we posted an article regarding the debate invited by the first question asked above (Debate: Should Grades Reflect What Students Learn or What They Know?), and we heard varied responses from our followers. Regardless of where you align on that topic, though, notice how that question is one of many—and more that are not listed.

If, in the end, we might conclude that no single grading system can meet all the needs we identify, we may need to create multiple reporting mechanisms. If this is where we find ourselves, what might those reporting tools look like and do? And what stories would they tell?

Homework has been a part of formal education for as long as anyone can recall. As such, it is assumed to play a crucial role in learning. Yet, research on the effectiveness of homework as it is typically employed is mixed. Some educators and researchers argue that the practice of assigning homework should be abandoned. Others note that homework is expected by most parents, and it is seen as a key component of learning outside of the classroom. Still others advocate for better designed homework and confining it to specific tasks and roles.  

Obviously, such variation of opinion presents a dilemma. As teachers, we face expectations that homework be assigned, but we also want the time and effort students give to homework to be worthwhile. Here are some cautions and options to consider regarding the design and role of homework, should we decide to assign it. 

Homework that is not done does not result in learning. When students are unable or choose not to complete homework, no learning reinforcement occurs. We need to design homework that students will do if we hope to have it contribute to learning. Assignments need to be purposeful, realistic, interesting, useful, and accessible to maximize the probability that they will be completed.   

Assigning more homework does not necessarily generate more learning. Lengthy homework can overwhelm students, leading to increased stress, frustration, and resentment. The quality of time and effort students give to homework is more important than how long they spend doing it. In most cases, when homework is designed as reinforcement, practicing a relatively small number of tasks or solving a few problems can solidify understanding and build adequate confidence. Assigning more items and activities will generate negligible, if any, further confidence or learning.   

When students are confused or uncertain about a skill or concept, homework can reinforce errors and solidify misconceptions. Assigning homework before students fully understand and are confident in their learning risks students being unaware of their misunderstanding and making confusion-based mistakes. Unfortunately, the more times students repeat mistakes and practice incorrect processes, the more those errors become embedded in their learning and memories. Consequently, efforts to clear up confusion and help students grasp correct information and processes become even more challenging than if they had done no homework in the first place.  

Homework can reinforce and magnify existing inequities. When homework is dependent on technology, transportation, adult involvement, or other resources for completion, students without these supports can be at a significant disadvantage. Further, when homework assumes prior knowledge and experience that is not shared by all students, it can require significantly more time and effort for completion. Having to search for, learn, and apply information and skills not previously possessed can be a major disincentive for students to complete work.  

Grading homework does not necessarily increase learning. Many believe that if homework does not count for a grade, students will not do it. It makes sense that if students do not see value in the work they are asked to do and there is no accountability, some students will not do the work. Of course, we typically design and decide what homework to assign. If we cannot create homework that is engaging, useful, and accessible, we might consider not assigning it. Further, homework should be practice, not performance. Rather than assigning a grade, we might ensure that homework completion is instrumental to successful participation in class discussions and other activities. We might provide feedback on homework without assigning a grade. Or we might keep a record of homework completion to use as data to investigate should students struggle to make progress.     

The decision to assign homework deserves more than identifying which problems to solve or tasks to complete. Homework that matters is thoughtfully and purposefully designed, calibrated to reinforce learning, interesting and engaging, and can be completed by the students to whom it is assigned. 

As human beings, it is inevitable that we sometimes make decisions that seem logical and right in the moment only to discover later that we sacrificed something important and necessary. In these cases, and with varying degrees of intentionality, we neglect to consider long-term consequences and how we might actually be undermining the very outcomes we seek.

Consider the multi-decade trend to reduce the focus on—and support for—the arts in the school curriculum, “the arts” encompassing the many various branches and presentations of creative activity and expression. It may have seemed that placing greater focus on and giving more time to academics would lead directly to higher test scores and greater student academic success, yet progress has been a struggle and greater pressure has not led to expected levels of achievement. Meanwhile, student behavior seems to have become more challenging and traditional consequences have become less effective.

It's time to reconsider the role of the arts and explore how the presence of arts education in the core curriculum can help us to achieve our goals of increasing academic performance and building learning and life skills. Rather than defaulting to the perception that the arts are extraneous “nice-to-haves” or simply scheduling add-ons, we should consider what multiple research studies tell us about the impact of the arts on learning and life skills. Here are ten areas of impact to consider:

• Better critical thinking. Experiences in the arts can increase students’ abilities to closely observe and remain focused. They nurture analytical skills. The arts ask students to practice introspection and interpretation, and engagement in the arts encourages exploration from multiple perspectives.
• Stronger communication skills. The arts offer multiple ways to express oneself. They are a means for connecting with others, reinforcing the importance of communication while broadening its application. The arts value rich descriptions, interesting images, and varied expression, all of which support the development of crucial communication skills.
• More effective problem-solving skills. The arts often present interesting questions and beg for creative responses, thus inviting novel ideas and innovative approaches to resolve a dilemma or address an issue. Students are free to try multiple approaches and discover unexpected answers. Rather than attempting to calibrate a response to a predetermined outcome, the arts invite risk and exploration in resolving conflicts and solving problems.
• Greater willingness to take initiative. The arts are less driven by templates and restrictions than some other areas. Students are encouraged to develop ideas and create products that are meaningful to them. As a result, students are freer to follow their preferences, express themselves, and take initiative than in many other formal learning contexts.
• Improved self-discipline. The arts reinforce the importance of practice, persistence, and progress before becoming proficient. For example, learning to play an instrument or master a certain visual technique is not necessarily self-reinforcing in the early stages of skill development. Goal pursuit, progress monitoring, strategy selection, and aligned effort are key elements for success in the arts.
• Greater responsiveness to constructive criticism. The arts typically tolerate multiple responses or answers to a challenge or idea. Since there is no single right answer, the arts can lead to multiple final products, all with value deserving of celebration. Consequently, students learn to accept constructive criticism without feeling that they have made an error. They learn to gracefully receive a critique and use it to improve.
• More creativity. The arts can help students see connections and patterns and can build confidence to imagine. They provide a reason, context, and motivation to be creative. Originality is encouraged—and celebrated—in the arts.
• Stronger teamwork. The arts encourage interpersonal skills within a context of purpose and in pursuit of achieving a shared outcome. Through the arts, students can experience authentic, constructive interactions with other students. These experiences help to build interpersonal skills and give students opportunities to learn to manage their emotions and express their viewpoints effectively.
• Increased empathy. The arts offer exposure to different viewpoints and types of people. The arts help students to see the world outside of themselves, with experiences in the arts helping students to become more tolerant of the ideas of others. The arts encourage students to become more compassionate and accepting of diverse thinking and perceptions.
• Better stress tolerance. While the arts build skills and emphasize processes, they are less insistent on a single answer or outcome. The arts can offer permission for students to have fun. When students experience more freedom to express and be themselves, they typically experience less stress while, at the same time, build more tolerance for it.

It should come at no surprise that many studies have shown that students who are engaged in the arts do better academically, are better behaved, and graduate at higher rates. The arts build key skills and nurture foundational characteristics that are easily transferred to and applied in academic subjects and life. We do our students a disservice when we do not include arts education in the core curriculum.

The Master Teacher is the creator of the new Museum of Art + Light (MOA+L) in Manhattan, Kansas. It was built at this time because the research is so clear that children who are in the visual and performing arts in our schools out-perform all other students, and this is particularly important in this new high-tech era. The Master Teacher passionately supports the arts and advocates for arts education to be an integral component within the public-school core curriculum. The first of its kind, the MOA+L boasts its unique vision to explore the limitless convergence of visual art, the creative process, and digital technology. Its mission is to bridge 21^st century technology with the visual and performing arts to incite positive emotion, cultivate meaningful connections, encourage artistic exploration, and spark innovation.

Grades play a complex, multifaceted role in most classrooms. While they are intended to communicate what students know and have learned, grades are often used to influence behavior and communicate information well beyond their stated intent. Consequently, grades become a highly attended to, but often confusing vehicle for communication.

Reminding students and others who pay attention to and depend on grades that they are to reflect learning—not the purpose of learning—can be an important first step in dispelling confusion. However, our grading practices also need to reflect this intention.

Unfortunately, many commonly accepted grading practices are not consistent with a commitment to have grades solely reflect what is learned. Nor do many grading practices reflect the realities of learning challenges in the lives of students. Here are five common, but often overlooked, grading practices that are worthy of reflection and adjustment.

Mistake #1: Giving equal weight to early learning efforts and late-stage performance. Students come to learning challenges with a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and levels of readiness. Initially, those students who possess limited background knowledge and experience related to what they are asked to learn may not perform as well as those with greater background and related knowledge. Consequently, early assessment information is likely to be more of a reflection of prior knowledge than current learning. On the other hand, later assessment information is likely to be more reflective of learning and thus deserves more weight in grade calculations.

Fix: Give extra weight to student performance demonstrated later in the teaching and learning cycle, thus capturing true learning rather than rewarding background knowledge.

Mistake #2: Refusing to change grades once assigned. We want grades to reflect what students know and have learned. Yet, an initial assessment can reflect partial understanding, existing confusion, or the presence of distractions. Subsequently, learning may continue, confusion may be cleared up, and distractions may be removed. What a student ultimately knows may not be reflected in an initial grade.

Fix: Provide flexibility for grades to be modified as students demonstrate additional learning. Our flexibility can encourage students to continue to reflect, learn, and be recognized for additional progress.

Mistake #3: Giving significant grade weight to work intended to be completed out of school. Traditional homework is deeply embedded in the perceptions many people hold regarding a rigorous education. However, expectations for learning intended to be completed outside of school raises significant concerns. Some students may not have access to the tools necessary to complete the work, such as access to technology devices or internet. They may not have the appropriate space or environment to complete the work. Or they may have responsibilities that compete with homework completion. Further, research on the effectiveness of homework to support learning is mixed at best.

Fix: Give students options for completing assigned work within the class period or school day or provide options for completing the work that are not dependent on access to technology, family support, and other resources.

Mistake #4: Grading almost everything. Of course, we want the grades we assign to be representative of what students have learned and be based on an adequate amount of information. However, choosing to grade too much can work against this goal. Some work students complete may represent early practice, informal progress checks, or formative assessments. While these pieces of work product can inform further learning efforts and provide guidance for our instruction, they may not necessarily qualify for a formal grade.

Fix: Carefully choose assessments, projects, and other work products that offer credible evidence of learning. While having multiple data points on which to base a grade is important, mixing practice and informal assessment information can compromise the extent to which grades accurately reflect what students know and have learned.  

Mistake #5: Using grades to force compliance, motivate, or punish students. Multiple research studies document the lack of consistent power of grades to motivate learners. In fact, over-reliance on grades can lead students to look for shortcuts to high grades while skipping the work necessary for learning. Grades should reflect learning, not be a tool to drive compliance. When grades include teacher-pleasing behaviors, socially adept students tend to benefit while traditionally marginalized students tend to be disadvantaged.

Fix: Avoid using grades for any purpose other than to communicate learning attainment and progress. Encourage students to focus on accomplishing learning goals and meeting learning expectations. Never threaten to hold a grade hostage to non-learning-related behavior.

Grading can be a daunting challenge. However, when we commit to having grades reflect learning and avoid other uses and influences, the challenge becomes more manageable, and grades also become clearer and fairer to students.

As much as we might want to believe otherwise, grades as they are typically employed are not very effective learning motivators. Certainly, they can be used to get students to do more work, avoid embarrassment, sidestep punishment, and achieve status—but they can also cause students to find shortcuts to avoid true learning. In common practice, grades operate mostly as an extrinsic motivator, and unfortunately, the more grades are used to motivate, the less effective they become.  

Grades too often become the goal of learning rather than a reflection of learning. We even say things like “Work hard so that you get a good grade!” when we should be encouraging students to work hard so that they learn. When they do, their grades will generally take care of themselves. 

Nevertheless, grades are deeply embedded in the life and culture of most schools. As much as we might sometimes like to ignore or abandon them, grades remain a part of our reality. The question is, are there ways we can position grades and our grading practices to motivate students and encourage them to focus on learning? Here are five strategies to consider.  

First, we can support and build motivation when we grade against clear criteria or rubrics (criterion-referenced assessments) and not other students (norm-referenced assessments). The best motivation for improvement comes when students compete with their own past performance. Motivation grows when students see next steps and the path to success. Grading that compares a student’s performance to the performance of other students can undermine motivation for those who might believe they may not measure up or cannot catch up. Further, grading against the performance of other students does not tell students whether they have learned what was intended, just how they did relative to other students.  

Second, we might emphasize learning and progress in addition to performance. Students typically become more motivated when they can see and track their progress. We might collect data regarding what students know at the beginning of a learning and teaching cycle in order to gain an understanding of their prior knowledge and create a baseline to track future progress. We need to avoid grading what students know before they are asked to learn. Data from initial work can be compared to performance at the end of a unit or learning cycle to document learning progress. As a result, we have access to what knowledge students have gained as we consider assigning grades, not just what they know and may already knew prior to the learning and teaching cycle. 

Third, and related, we can delay the assignment of grades as long as possible. Multiple research studies have documented the motivational power of timely, specific, objective, actionable feedback, especially when it is not attached to a grade. Unfortunately, when grades are attached to feedback, they tend to overshadow the information, and feedback is ignored. Further, students often see assignment of a grade as a sign that learning is complete, and they no longer focus on learning effort. 

Fourth, we might give students opportunities to have their best work considered for grading. The purpose of grades is to reflect what students have learned, so it makes sense to consider the work that best represents their learning. As examples, when students submit multiple assignments, complete multiple assessments, or create multiple products, we might allow them to choose the pieces of evidence that best represent their learning to be evaluated for grading. Another option is to allow students to have a lowest score dropped to avoid them giving up if they did poorly on a single task or assessment. Limited and targeted retakes or resubmissions can also motivate students to keep learning.  

Fifth, if we choose to award extra credit, we can award credit for extra learning. The practice of awarding extra credit for actions unrelated to learning may compel students to work toward a higher grade, but it does little, if anything, to move learning forward. On the other hand, we can recognize additional learning. As examples, students might choose to pursue greater understanding of a concept, dig deeper into a topic, or explore an implication associated with what we have been teaching. The opportunity to receive credit for additional learning and have their work reflected in a grade can be a learning motivator.  

It is true that over-emphasis on grades can corrupt learning. However, with deployment of thoughtful grading practices, we can minimize the distraction grades can present and build motivation for students to learn.