Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Grades: Should They Be On Effort Or Results?

Let me just start out by saying I'm pretty sure on this one I am a total hypocrite.

My son has an IEP in place that, in fact, prevents his teachers on grading him on results alone in several areas such as spelling, computation, etc.

But this morning I received an email that has me wanting to challenge a teacher's policy for doing just what it is I usually want - for my child's effort to be valued even if the end result isn't as good as what his peers can do.

My son's class is working on a project that will result in a book published through a vanity press that will be a keepsake for him. It is a book of poems, and writing the poems has been in and of itself a total headache, but he's plowed through each assignment and produced a poem that meets (but definitely does not exceed) the teacher's requirements. His only motivator has been that he is worried about his grade (he is the only one of my kids who has ever cared about his grades), so he is doing his best to produce work the teacher will accept.

The last assignment is the artwork that will go on the accompanying pages. He has been told under no circumstances is he going to be allowed to draw stick figures. This is all he ever draws.

If this were not a keepsake book, I'd recommend that he suck it up and just make the kinds of drawings the teacher wants. But because this is something he will be keeping as a memory, I would at least like him to be proud of his illustrations. I emailed the teacher and asked if she might reconsider about the stick drawings. Her response is that she is grading him on effort, and stick figures show very little effort. So now he truly has to make the choice of whether he wants the better grade or drawings he likes.

I personally don't think stick figures show less effort, but that is my opinion. I am always amazed at the amount of story - action, humor, emotion - he is able to incorporate in just a few strokes on a page.

And so here I am struggling with my own values. Is it about effort or results? I realize I'm wanting it both ways, and that it probably isn't reasonable.

I'd love to hear your thoughts so I'm not looking at this in a vacuum. I have added one of his old drawings here from when he was five - this is what he drew when I asked to him draw a picture of me.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...263327.232507.49045723327&type=3&theater

Personally I think (as both parent and educator) that grades of both kinds are massively over-used. We don't have a grade point average equivalent here, but even so, there are too many grades. There's plenty of evidence that they impede learning, e.g., people take much less notice of the actual content of the feedback they get - the useful stuff, the stuff that tells them how they could improve - if it comes with a grade.

If you have to have one or the other, I'd rather have grades on achievement, because I have no confidence in any teacher's ability to judge effort reliably. I might feel differently, though, if I had a child who tried hard but could only ever achieve modest achievement grades.

DS gets grades for effort, progress, presentation and organisation in every subject every half term (if I've got that correctly). They've been exemplary so far, but every time, I recap the conversation about them being just fallible indicators and not important in themselves, and ask him how he thinks his work is going.

During my bored/annoyed/rebellious phase, the only thing that motivated me to do the slightest bit of schoolwork was the potential embarrassment of receiving a grade lower than a B.

They might impede learning, but they can be exchanged for cash prizes!

I don't know the answer to your question, but I had to say that his drawing reminds me of this site.

Does the teacher realize the detail in his "stick" figure drawings? Maybe show her some examples?

Barring that I would probably suck it up and do what they wanted (see DADD22 response ....Maybe graphic art on a computer?

Reminds of the Art in Diary of a wimpy kid books. My kids love that.

This. Plus, grades told me how seriously to take any supplied feedback. If it didn't cost me a letter grade the feedback was of the "helpful suggestion" variety, and escalated from there.

For something art-related, I think grading on effort is fine.

However, requiring a child draw in a certain way in a class other than art seems rather arbitrary and silly, IMO. Some people are not good at drawing. Some people don't like drawing. Considering it's a skill that is entirely unnecessary in a person's life, what is the point if they aren't concerned with their output?

Wow, that's an awesome picture. He really captured a lot of energy and expressiveness there. I can see you as a superwoman, a whirlwind of Mom-competence, dealing with everything at once!

If his teacher thinks that stick figures show little effort, it's clear that she isn't familiar with XKCD , one of the most popular comics on the Web.

What's her problem with abstract art? If he regularly drew more representational pieces, and just wanted to use stick figures on this assignment because he didn't want to bother making an effort, I could see her point, but that's not the case here: this really is his preferred form of artistic expression. I wonder if she realizes how painful it is for a child, or for anyone, for that matter, to be told that their vision, personal expression, and way of being is wrong and worthless? I think this goes way beyond a question of grades.