Continuous Progressions

So we talked about Policy of Continuous Progress today. Wow did that ever bring up a can of worms with the class and me. Just to inform you, my reader I’m gonna cover some of the bigger points. Some of these points are really quite poignant and interesting. When talking about the Policy of Continuous Progress, we ran across the idea that students will self label. Now this idea strikes me hard since I’m currently reading Malcome Gladwell’s Blink right now, and this is the very topic that the book deals with. If the teacher and/or student and/or peers of the student gets the impression of “Jimmy is Stupid” then to what extent will this idea follow Jimmy around? What can we as future educators, and continuing learners, alleviate ourselves of these conceptions? I do believe that we, as a species, are hardwired to make snap judgements about people, judgements that are very powerful and does still serve a limited purpose in today’s society. However, I do feel that this relic of an instinct is more of a hindrance than of value… but I digress. If we do have a preconceived notion of stereotypes and prejudices it might lead us, however much we try to avoid it, to preemptive grading. I promise to you my reader, that if I ever catch myself executing preemptive grading, I will kick myself extremely hard. But even if I kick myself really hard, what is to prevent me from doing it again next time? I think that I will personally try to get students to write not their names but their student IDs on assignments and heavily weighed tests. This subconscious thing bugs me thought, what is to prevent me from over- or under-compensating for a particular student, whether this be in the form of grading assignments or giving assignments. I really don’t want to catch myself thinking… awww little Jimmy is having such a hard time, well if I give the entire class a series of really easy assignments that’ll get little Jimmy’s mark up. I think that I really have to rely upon my previous training as a behavioural tech. to ‘subject-ify’, distance and ‘rat-ify’ my students. I will be gathering data off my students as if they were subjects in classical research. They are a number, and the number scored 45%, the number failed this test… yes, he was having a rough time at home, yes he was distracted by the girl beside him, but none-the-less he failed the test.
I think that I will personally try and teach as much as possible to the norm of my future classes. The norm will be indicated by pretesting upon the initiation of the semester, and via statistical analysis throughout the semester. I will plan for the advanced students to fill their extra time with more enriching information. I will try and break down the idea to a more basic level for students that are below the norm. However, I will upkeep my personal belief that if a person is to succeed, they will need to be challenged. I will maintain high expectations for my students. The resulting marks will be what they will be. I will explain some things via comments to explain, flag, denote, underscore… etc. but marks are marks. However, I do think that variability from primary to secondary education is important as well. Primary education does demand more levels of success so that the students don’t hate school. But I do feel that in secondary education, these young adults, should be more adult and face the real world without the coddling of their teachers.

Q