Regular Radical Readers know that the joy of my life is my ten year old daughter, Reece. She’s something else, that’s for sure.
But check out her bedroom this morning:
If you were to give her a grade for her room cleaning ability, what score would you give her?
That’s a solid F, right?
Easy-peasy.
But here’s the hitch: If I told Reece that she’d earned an F on room cleaning, it wouldn’t change a thing, would it?
She wouldn’t be surprised to hear that she’d earned another F for the state of her bedroom. Her room looks like this more often than not — and her parents grumble about that over and over again. So there’d be no sudden change of heart brought on by the embarrassment of earning a low grade today. To Reece, your F would be just another low grade in a long list of low grades for room cleaning.
More importantly, she wouldn’t have any extra information about how she could improve her room cleaning abilities. She doesn’t need anyone to tell her that she’s bad at cleaning her room. She needs someone to give her specific suggestions about how she can close the gap between where she currently stands as a room cleaner and where we’d like her to be.
Stated more simply: Reece needs feedback, not another grade.
Let me give you a few examples: Did you notice that the vast majority of Reece’s mess is the result of unfolded blankets lying around everywhere? Soft blankets are an obsession in my household — and while that’s fine, if Reece would take a few minutes to fold those and put them up properly, her room would look dramatically better in no time.
There are also Stuffies scattered all over her bed and her floor. A bit of extra care towards her lovie-things would go a long way towards maintaining a room that mom and dad won’t grumble about.
But there are also reasons to celebrate in the train-wreck that is Reece’s room.
For example, there’s no food or drink containers in the picture above. That’s a win — because it is something that we have been working on with Reece. She’s a human hamster that likes to nest – so the after school snack is often eaten cuddled up under a blanket with a Squishmallow ((yup…that’s a thing). She’s now bringing those snack containers and drink cups to the sink.
And there’s not a whole heck of a lot of clothes laying on the floor. That’s something else that Reece has gotten better at over the last year — and something that I need to praise her for. There have been times in the past where it was tough to tell where the clothing stopped and the carpeting began in her bedroom. She’s got that figured out.
Are you following me, y’all?
My point is a simple one: Grant Wiggins was right when he said that “grades are utterly useless as a form of actionable feedback.” Here’s why: Grades don’t give learners enough information to gauge where they are as compared to where they need to be. Worse yet, grades don’t give learners any sense of the steps that they can take to close that gap.
Sure, they might make us feel good. Yes, they might be easy for everyone to understand.
But if our goal is to help kids improve, feedback > grades.
#trudatchat
If you are interested in learning more about shifting your classroom/school from a culture of grading to a culture of feedback, check out this book that I wrote with my good friend Paul Cancellieri. You might also be interested in checking out the first strand of conversation on The EduNerds — an ongoing discussion I’m having on YouTube with a few good friends of mine.
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Related Radical Reads:
https://buildingconfidentlearners.com/2013/04/27/three-reasons-grades-are-worse-than-useless/
https://buildingconfidentlearners.com/2015/09/18/if-grades-dont-advance-learning-why-do-we-give-them/
https://buildingconfidentlearners.com/2015/09/03/feedback-should-be-more-work-for-the-recipient/
