It is rubric and reporting time again and I’m looking at the results from the various assessments. I always ask myself as both a teacher and a parent; are my expectations too high or low as to what the kids should achieve?
My middle son is currently finishing Year 11 and I look at how he has gone during his collegeing life. As parents we’ve chosen not to apply the pressure of achieving high results and performing well in tests. We’ve chosen to hold him and the other boys accountable for their behaviour and work ethic and not the grade on the report.
I recently read an article where Alfie Kohn points out the old college mindset. This being that (young) children aren’t yet able to understand long-term consequences. Therefore, we need to tell them what to do. We then devise rewards or punishments to make sure they’re properly fitting the criteria to achieve.
Age shouldn’t matter if we want our kids to start empowering themselves academically, emotionally and intellectually. Lilian Katz (an early-childhood educator) raises the question; “do we overestimate young children academically while underestimating them intellectually?”
Connecting this to the classroom, I think that a group needs to find their own level from both a behaviour and academic perspective. While this may seem controversial, I think that a type of ‘control’ in the classroom does not correlate to an increase in effective learning.
It takes time to build an environment where kids are willing to challenge their own behaviour and determine what they want to learn. I must say though that most end up realising that it’s up to them, not up to a ‘system’ to provide controls in order for them to achieve. I feel as though my class is well down that path.
Anyway – just some food for thought and if you want to read Alfie’s article go here: http://www.alfiekohn.org/blogs/high-low/
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