It’s Just Practice

Dear Ed Inquiry,

My high school student received a below average grade in one of his classes. I love that his teacher has her gradebook broken down into categories, but one of the categories is really bothering me: Practice. Not to mention, this practice category weighs in at a hefty 30% of the overall grade. 

Let me give you specifics:  There were three failing grades (30/100, 50/100 and another 50/100) for assignments labeled Cornell Notes Practice. Really?  I just don’t know what to do with that. 

Should practice be graded?  My feeling is that practice is just that: an opportunity to learn and hone the skills needed to show mastery.  Shouldn’t only mastery activities be graded?

Help!  I don’t want to sound uniformed or ignorant when I contact the teacher about this issue.

Sincerely,

It’s Just Practice

Dear It’s Just Practice,

It depends on who you ask. In the sports arena, practice is judged all the time. Kids earn or lose positions and the opportunity to start based on what coaches see in practice.  We expect that. We accept that. 

However,  in the classroom, I think it’s risky business to put a numerical value on practice. How do you determine what is fair?  What if one student needs more practice opportunities to demonstrate proficiency than the others?  Should that student face punitive consequences in the form of a bad grade?   If students cannot work on skills without fear of being issued a failing score, that is a problem when trying to create a safe and positive learning environment. 

Now, because I am a teacher, my first instinct is to defend other teachers. So, I am going to assume that the teacher has modeled the skill, allowed for whole group and then small group practice before grading independent practice. Or, maybe they just couldn’t think of a more appropriate name for the category. A better label may be classwork/homework. Some teachers give a grade for this, but do not penalize for wrong answers.  It also could be that the teacher has been told to have a specific number of grades in the gradebook and feels compelled to include practice to hit that quota. 

I would definitely schedule a conference with the teacher and perhaps have the Assistant Principal of Curriculum in the room.  Find out what kind of instructional model is employed and what supports are offered before practice is graded.  

It may just be practice, but practice can be a great formative tool. I just don’t feel that it should graded like a summative one. 

Sincerely,

Ed Inquiry