Category: Grades & HW

These are blogs where I write about grades and homework in an effort to challenge the traditional use of the two.

Aug 13

Results Only Learning Environment #RoleTalk

By Alfonso Gonzalez in Grades & HW, Science
August 13, 2013

Monday night Mark Barnes held a Results Only Learning Environment or ROLE Twitter chat based on his book, ROLE Reversal. I read his book earlier this summer and I’m totally going to transform my classroom into a ROLE classroom. I’m actually quite close to having a ROLE classroom. For years I’ve been trying different things …

Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/08/13/results-only-learning-environment/

Jul 26

Growth Mindset

By Alfonso Gonzalez in Assessment, Ed News, Grades & HW
July 26, 2013

[This is part of a series of posts I’m writing as I reflect on another online course I’m taking this summer, Stanford University’s EDUC115N How to Learn Math. Sure, I’m a Science teacher but I have taught Math so I’m familiar with Math instruction. Besides, we do use Math in Science so it’s not like …

Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/07/26/growth-mindset/

Jul 25

Teacher Moves

By Alfonso Gonzalez in Assessment, Ed News, Grades & HW, Science
July 25, 2013

Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/07/25/teacher-moves/

Jul 24

Changing Math

By Alfonso Gonzalez in Assessment, Grades & HW, Science
July 24, 2013

Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/07/24/changing-math/

Mar 13

Gamification Alternative to Grading?

By Alfonso Gonzalez in Gamification, Grades & HW
March 13, 2013

One thing that’s really cool about Twitter is that you’re allowed to be nosey. People know that anyone who follows them can read what they’re tweeting. Now that may be obvious to everyone but I tend to by shy even online. I know, it’s weird to me too. It’s way easier for me to lurk …

Alternate Forms, Badges, Blog, Cards, Conversations, Feedback, Gamer, Joe Bower, Leap, Love, Nosey People, Parents, Report Cards, Shyness, Snippet, Twitter, Weird, Work Samples
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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/03/13/gamification-alternative-to-grading/

Jan 25

Student Survey Time

By Alfonso Gonzalez in Grades & HW, Science
January 25, 2013

Midterm is upon us and I reminded my students of how things are different at this time in an ungraded classroom. I hear them talking about what grades they are getting in their other classes because at midterm teachers prepare progress reports for families to see how their child is doing halfway through the trimester. …

Anonymous, blogs, Clouds, Clouds The Clouds, Exit, First Class, Frustration, Goals, Google, Lot, Progress Reports, Reminders, Science Education, Student Survey, Survey Questions, Survey Time, Surveys, Tears Of Joy, Verge
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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/01/25/student-survey-time/

Jan 24

More Reasons to Go Gradeless

By Alfonso Gonzalez in Grades & HW
January 24, 2013

I came across this post on SmartBlog on Education written by Paul Cancellieri (@mrscienceteach) on grading. Paul makes another great case not only for NOT using grades as carrots and sticks but also for doing away with grades (my take away from reading his post). Here’s his post: Grades as Measurements

Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/01/24/more-reasons-to-go-gradeless/

Jan 22

Why Go Gradeless?

By Alfonso Gonzalez in Grades & HW
January 22, 2013

Â Coming up on three years ago, after 19 years of teaching, I began to question grading. I wrote a blog post titled, Do Grades Help or Hinder Learning? I knew that grading, the ways I had tried it until then, was not working. Grades were not motivating all of my students, it was the focus …

19 Years, Check Marks, Constituents, Nbsp, Nuance, Obsession, Photo, School Grades, Stockvault, Student Grades
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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/01/22/why-go-gradeless/

Jan 06

HW and Trust

By Alfonso Gonzalez in Grades & HW
January 6, 2013

Thinking about homework again I’ve heard some of the reasons for giving homework and it boils down to trust. It seems, by the way some teachers talk, that they don’t trust that parents are properly preparing their children. Some teachers worry that parents don’t read to their kids or don’t encourage their kids to read …

Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/01/06/hw-and-trust/

Oct 15

Letter to the President

By Alfonso Gonzalez in Assessment, Ed News, Grades & HW
October 15, 2012

Diane Ravitch writes, speaks and blogs about education reform. Not the kind of reform that jeopardizes education but the kind of reform that will make education a priority for all children (click on my education reform tab for more info). Ravitch is coordinating a Campaign for our Public Schools on her blog. She’s urging us …