To Re-Do or Not?

It’s amazing to me how much school misunderstands and therefore misuses time.

In school learning takes place and is therefore rewarded between 8 AM to 3 PM, August to May. Grades are determined and assigned based on a grading period, usually 6 weeks. Assignments are due on a daily basis, and if late, usually penalizes the student with a reduced grade or a zero.

I ask you, what other system in the world works this way? I can’t think of one.

That’s why an article posted on EducationWeek online titled “Should Students Get a ‘Do Over’? The Debate on Grading and Re-Doing Assignments Deepens” caught my attention.

EducationWeek’s Elizabeth Heubeck writes,

“A student fails a test. Should the teacher allow a redo?”

“Based on recent Education Week polling and coverage, it depends on whom you ask.”

“Somewhat surprisingly, teachers and school leaders are not necessarily in agreement over this.”

“In a nationally representative poll of teachers this winter by the Edweek Research Center, respondents voted ‘the chance to redo assignments’ 11^th out of 24 options offered when asked what they thought was most likely to motivate students. The factor teachers thought would most likely motivate students? That turned out to be ‘offering more hands-on experiences.’”

“Incidentally, that same question posed to students ages 13 to 19 drew a much different response. Student respondents chose ‘a chance to redo assignments if I get a low grade’ as the leading factor (our of 24 options) that would  motivate them to work harder.”

“In a separate (but less scientific) poll posed to readers of Education Week’s The Savvy Principal newsletter, readers – who are mainly principals and other K-12 school leaders – were asked: Should students be allowed to redo assignments when they get a failing grade? Among 241 respondents, 83 percent said yes; 17 percent said no.”

“One school leader, who responded in the affirmative to the poll question, elaborated on her response: ‘Allowing students to revise and resubmit work fosters student reflection on their work, a growth mindset, and the opportunity to improve skills and deepen knowledge. Students learn it’s not about getting work done, it’s about getting it done well,’ said Christine Davis, interim principal at Eric S. Smith Middle School in Ramsey, N.J.”

“Another school leader had a different take. ‘When we allow students to redo work,’ wrote Robert Stephens, the head of Episcopal Day School in Pensacola, Florida, ‘we are inadvertently teaching them there are no consequences for poor performance that results from bad decisions.’”

“What’s behind these differing opinions on the re-do?”

“Rick Wormeli, a former classroom teacher, educational consultant, and author…has given a lot of thought to the re-do, and grading, in general. He has analyzed what grading represents; in what context it can motivate students; and how teachers can us it as part of the learning process.”

“Wormeli is familiar with the arguments teachers make against re-dos, especially the complaint that it will take too much of their time. He counters: It’s the re-learning that takes the time. And it’s the student who must do the heavy lifting, he said.”

“’I have to get across to a lot of teachers that it’s in the re-learning where you mature,’ he said. ‘In the plan of re-learning, students have to submit to that plan.’”

“Denying a re-do gives students an escape from learning whatever was on the original assignment, Wormeli explained. Conversely, allowing students to redo an assignment signifies that what matters is that they learn the material.

“’It’s a cultural mindshift,’ he said. ‘It’s amazing how motivated kids are when they own their own learning.’”

“Allowing students to revise and resubmit work fosters student reflection on their work, a growth mindset, and the opportunity to improve skills and deepen knowledge. Students learn it’s not about getting work done, it’s about getting it done well.”

Yay!

“When we allow students to redo work, we are inadvertently teaching them there are no consequences for poor performance that results from bad decisions.”

Boo!

To me, it’s as simple as the difference between those two quotes.

But, schools aren’t designed to execute on the first quote. Schools are much more comfortable with the second.

That’s why we need a new system of learning, one that embraces the mantra that learning should be the constant while time is always the variable – not vice versa.

Til tomorrow. SVB