For many of us our Assessment of the arts class had completely changed and confused our thinking on how we are to evaluate and assess our students. We have been told that bonus marks are a huge no no because they skew the representation of the student's achievements. For myself, and probably some of you bonus marks were a part of my high-school experience. Now that I have been shown "the error in my ways of thinking" I have decided that bonus marks do not have to be a bad thing and if used correctly will not skew student progress. Bonus marks were a huge incentive for me and I still want to offer that for my students. I think that by changing bonus marks to bonus stickers or bonus "insert non mark related incentive" is a great way to engage your students. So instead of giving bonus marks on a test or bonus marks for doing some extra special project, or for great participation that we instead give the students bonus stickers. Make up a chart on poster board and give students bonus stickers then you can have a prize at the end of the year. It could be something you buy (if you want to spend the money) or you could set up an incentive with the class that if everyone can accumulate X number of stickers by the end of the year you will have a pizza party or it could be as simple as handing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place Bonus Sticker Awards (do them up all fancy on nice paper etc...). Or maybe you could buy a trophy and have a large plate that every year the winner gets their name engraved on it, or whatever you can think of). I think this is a great way to incorporate bonus "marks" into the learning without having it cause misrepresentation of the child's achievement.
This was just an idea I came up with the other night during our last Assessment class and I wanted to share it with you. Do with it what you will.
Good Luck on practicums and Merry Christmas
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Good ideas Kathy. I think that in the past marks have been used as the primary form of motivation for students, also to reward good behaviour and sometimes even blackmail students. First of all, this kind of motivation does not work for all students but what student doesn't want to earn a shiny gold sticker? I think we have all been convinced that staying after class to help clean up the band room does not reflect how a student has met the PLOs but it certainly helps us out as teachers and helps our next class run more smoothly. I know my sponsor teachers give out gummy worms as incentives for such desirable behaviours.
ReplyDeleteCandy and stickers aside, I think we as teachers need to find new ways to motivate our students and inspire intrinsic motivation and learning for the sake of learning. I believe that students (and all people) have a strong desire to learn, especially things that are of interest to them, so if we can help them discover the joys of music (or whatever subject we are teaching) then motivation to learn will follow.