Entrance Slip - Oct 14^th

As a student, the anxiety comes from tests and exams has permeates my entirely academic learning process.  Math is a particular competitive subject in universities. When I did well on the test, I would think that others probably also did well.  Since our grades were always curved, therefore, a good test result didn’t necessarily lead to a higher grade. The kind of stress from tests had really shifted my focus on the learning outcome to a tendency of chasing for higher grades.  

For most students who strive to purse higher academic study, lower GPA is not acceptable for there is a minimum entrance requirement at University level.  One way, as secondary teachers, we want to emphasize and improve on learning outcome. The other way, we have to adapt a grading strategy to make sure our students are also competitive when applying universities.  Then the question comes down to what the grades we assigned to students truly mean.  Are they a genuine reflection on their learning outcome?  Or are they just some averaged or skewed test results?  If one student who always strives for learning new knowledge but always fails to perform better on tests due to test anxiety, then with percentage-based grading strategy, she is not a perfect candidate for university.  If we were to define this student in such a way, not only we fail our role as educators, we also block her path from becoming a confident and aspiring individual.

Is it possible to teach math or science without giving grade?  My answer probably is no. However, I realize that in new BC Curriculum, our grading strategy has moved towards a new direction which students are evaluated based on the four criteria: emerging, developing, proficient and extending.  I like this new grading strategy because we could use it as a grading guide.  By following this grading criteria, we can provide more detailed comment-based information after each unit which allows both the students and parents to know their strength and weakness.  They can focus on improving their areas of weakness and make learning adjustment accordingly.  In the end of the term, if a student has showed an improvement or upward trend in learning outcome, I will not be hesitated to give a more satisfactory grade (it is usually higher than average out the percentage through the whole term).  I think it will make the students enjoy more in learning and reduces their test anxiety.  I believe this new trend will make a significant impact on our grading strategy.