Thinking About Education

I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think. ~Socrates

Grading Practices Today

  Here are the general grading practices across subject areas that are widespread in my area today. I heard from a teacher in Austin, Texas, who verified that such practices are widespread there as well. 1. Teachers assign no grade lower than a 60 to any student, for any assignment. This includes giving a 60 when the student attempts no work at all. 2. For students who do not do well on a.. Read More

First Do No Harm: The Damage of Low Expectations

I had a student once, let’s call her Leah.  She was a transfer during the first few weeks of school. We were alerted that she had some “problems.” I always begin the year with a study of word stems, and expect students to learn certain common roots, prefixes, and suffixes because then they have a base for understanding thousands of words. They memorize 10 or 15 at a time—a list like this one:.. Read More

Skip to toolbar