Curriculum and Assessment

Grades.

It seems there’s a lot of mixed feelings about Grades. Wouldn’t have thought that before this program. The amount of times I’ve heard students complain about not getting graded for something meaning that they have no motivation to do well… It’s common feedback from removing grades, but it’s not supported by science. I think that’s interesting. That we have this perceived notion that we won’t do well at something unless we have a carrot at the end of the stick. But for science not to support that theory at all?

For example, let’s take a look at what Dan Pink had to say about the carrot on a stick method in his Ted Talk about motivation. It’s only effective for increasing performance when it comes to mechanical or technical tasks. That means, when it’s a straightforward problem or task, we will perform it better if there’s a cookie at the other end. But as soon as you add the layer of creative thinking to the mix, having a cookie at the end of the race actually LOWERS performance. For some reason, having a reward affects the way our brain works on problems.

The proof is in the pudding, however. Or rather, it’s in the science. So then, how does this impact grades?

The grades are the cookie. For some kids, getting a good grade is the only reason why they put in effort. So then, what about separating assignments into technical and creative categories? If you have a technical assignment, give a grade based on performance. However, if you have a creative assignment, it’s a pass as long as they do SOMETHING. How would this impact performance in the classroom? I’d be curious to play with this in the the future.

Curriculum:

BC’s curriculum, at least from what I read in the music section, wasn’t anything particularly surprising to me. All the skills outlined are part of music education. It makes sense to have a list of them, if only to do your checklist of “yes, did this, did this, did this…” I think it serves its function in regards to making sure that there is consistency across the board when it comes to BC schooling. Functionally, however, I think it will be a useful entry point for when I start building my plan for my future classes. I’m a big ideas person, since I’m a writer and a creator of many things (knitting, sewing, tablet-weaving looms being a recent project this month), so when I looked at the curriculum, all I started wondering to myself was, “Ooh, I could come up with a fun assignment to hit that mark. That’ll be fun to come up with.” Up until looking at the actual curriculum laid out, I was worried about meeting the expectations, but once I saw it laid out like a list, I thought “Oh, so I’d just build a curriculum that fits this. Huh.”

It feels kind of weird to say it’s just as simple as that, but it feels… just as a simple as that. Now, I’m very familiar with music, so I might be less comfortable coming up with a plan for like Biology 8 or something. We’ll see what the future holds.