I've long been opposed to giving extra credit. I've seen it as a frivolous padding to a grade. In most cases, the students who already are excelling in a class are the only ones who take advantage of the opportunity. So why give it?
Well... my view of extra credit has been challenged recently. In a mentor-mentee meeting earlier this semester (yes, I've been busy, so I'm just getting around to writing about this now), Tony Winger challenged my idea by sharing his view on extra credit. He said that, to him, extra credit should be another chance for students to learn what is essential. WOW. Isn't that something. Once he said that I can't figure out where I got the idea that extra credit is some waste of time, extra, worthless handout. The fact is: extra credit should be another chance to learn what is essential or to expand upon it for the proficient students.
This doesn't mean that I am offering it this semester, but it is possible in the future...
Showing posts with label Rigor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rigor. Show all posts
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Rigor
As a second year teacher we have meetings with other teachers new to the building along with our mentors and some other important people from time to time. Today we discussed "rigor" and what it means.
Personally, I'm not a fan of the term rigor as it is defined by dictionary.com: "strictness, severity, or harshness, as in dealing with people." When I think of rigor it means always engaging students at K+1 (where as K=students' level of knowledge) with the aim of encouraging and inspiring each student to become an independent learner in order to be a productive global citizen. We discussed this term in groups and came to some similar conclusions.
A theme that stuck out was the fact that representatives from most departments feel that we try to teach too much, but we don't go into enough depth. One person from my department commented that she felt it was more important for students to be able to "put it all together" rather than know a bunch of random vocabulary. I was excited by that comment and with the agreement of others in my department.
It's disillusioning to have so much curriculum to "cover" but never really feel like the students are getting it. It's frustrating to get to the end of the semester, just to realize you're standing by yourself and your students have been gone since week 2. It's comments from colleagues like these that give me hope that the change I'm trying in my classroom, will be validated and will give others the opportunities to try changes they wish to see.
What is rigor to you in the TPRS/CI/WL classroom? What small victories have you had lately, since at this time of year, no victory is too small to celebrate?
Personally, I'm not a fan of the term rigor as it is defined by dictionary.com: "strictness, severity, or harshness, as in dealing with people." When I think of rigor it means always engaging students at K+1 (where as K=students' level of knowledge) with the aim of encouraging and inspiring each student to become an independent learner in order to be a productive global citizen. We discussed this term in groups and came to some similar conclusions.
A theme that stuck out was the fact that representatives from most departments feel that we try to teach too much, but we don't go into enough depth. One person from my department commented that she felt it was more important for students to be able to "put it all together" rather than know a bunch of random vocabulary. I was excited by that comment and with the agreement of others in my department.
It's disillusioning to have so much curriculum to "cover" but never really feel like the students are getting it. It's frustrating to get to the end of the semester, just to realize you're standing by yourself and your students have been gone since week 2. It's comments from colleagues like these that give me hope that the change I'm trying in my classroom, will be validated and will give others the opportunities to try changes they wish to see.
What is rigor to you in the TPRS/CI/WL classroom? What small victories have you had lately, since at this time of year, no victory is too small to celebrate?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)