What are some Alternatives to Letter Grades?

While the letter grading system has been a staple used across the nation, it has proven to be ineffective in truly assessing a child’s abilities and preparedness for college or the workplace. See, the problem is that students are given a lecture, provided practice for a limited time and then given a test on how well they learn the material before moving on to another skill. The teacher grades the tests and assigns letter grades for them. Sometimes teachers even give completion points without checking to see if the practice is correct. You either did it all, or you didn't. Ten points or a zero. However, there are better ways to assess a child's capabilities, and it is time schools consider alternative grading systems so that parents and students aren't misinformed about the real value of the learners’ minds.

Gaming

One method that has seen success in the classroom is gaming. Gaming is when the educator runs the class like a video game with the following criteria: narrative, grouping, earning of points, retrying for points, and, of course, online work. It is considered useful since kids like video games. By running lessons in this format, students are engaged because they are having fun. They are learning content because they get to try repeatedly to pass a level. Furthermore, they get instant feedback by being leveled up or told to retry. The teacher can assign grades based on XP or experience points.

Digital Portfolio

This type of assessment is effective because it allows the student to choose his or her best work for evaluation. To start, the teacher must create a rubric that outlines criteria for the portfolio utilizing standards. The collection of work is ongoing in that the teacher can provide feedback and allow students to correct or improve problem areas in the portfolio. By making the portfolio digital, parents, students, teachers, and administrators can see the work in progress and, more importantly, look at the improvements made by the students. Schoolchildren can have creativity in how the portfolio is created by choosing the content and providing self-evaluations—a crucial element to the success of this type of evaluation.

Publishing

If a teacher really wants to improve the quality of work that a student produces, then having students publish their work in the real world is vital. Students do not like to be embarrassed and will work harder to apply critiques for improvement when a real audience is identified. Doing a unit on geography? Have your student write a letter to the principal with their proposal for a garden on school grounds along with a geographical representation. Discussing diseases in science? Have students publish a newsletter covering critical points about an assigned or chosen disease to pass out to students and parents.With a little creativity, educational leaders can change the stigma of letter grades and genuinely prepare students to be educated citizens.

References:

https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/dear-parents-heres-know-letter-grades/

https://www.learning-theories.com/gamification-in-education.html

https://creativeeducator.tech4learning.com/v05/articles/Digital_Portfolios

https://elt-resourceful.com/2012/12/06/real-world-writing-activities/