More on the Re-Do

Need more reasons to start thinking about what a new learning system might look like for our kids?

Take a look at some of these comments from teachers when EducationWeek online asked them why students shouldn’t be allowed to redo assignments.

Here are some comments falling under the “students might not try their best the first time”:

“Policies like this have eroded any motivation for students to put any effort into being prepared BEFORE an assessment. Why study or do planning/drafts when they can go in cold and see what happens? Throw in ‘just tell me what to do to pass’ mentality, and you have the full recipe for learning nothing.”

“Sadly, what happens is that students learn quickly how to play the game. They put in enough effort to get something done without really learning then redo it over and over. Some never figure out that they have to actually put the work in to learn instead of do it halfway. It puts tons more work on teachers….”

“I don’t always like to. If I’m being honest. It does teach perseverance but for many kids, it gives them a chance to be lazy and do the bare minimum as well. It also is the reason so many kids are in different places. Chaos masked as differentiated instruction…”

Here are some comments addressing “it adds additional work to the teacher’s plate”:

“I do allow students to redo or revise if they genuinely missed the boat (I teach high school). But as an English teacher grading hundreds of essays and a million other things, I cannot simply allow every kid to redo everything. Redos are important, but there has to be a balance with workload and also natural consequences…”

“This is a lot of work on the teacher. How do I move on with lessons AND assignments if they want to redo? How do I avoid cheating and plagiarism with this system? What happens when they get a job/career and their boss doesn’t allow the do overs!!”

“As a high school teacher with more than 150 students, tracking all that revision is a logistical nightmare. I do allow certain assignments to be revised and resubmitted but only while we’re in a particular unit of study. I’m over students handing in assignments from the beginning of the quarter because they ‘suddenly’ realize they’re failing. My students get their revised/completed work to me prior to the test when actually doing the assignments will be beneficial to their understanding of the curriculum. The kids get it and respect those classroom procedures.”

And finally, here are comments that fall under the category of “few students actually are interested in redoing assignments”:

“Ours have the chance to redo assignments, turn in work extremely late, etc. Very few take the opportunity to redo work. They are less and less motivated every single year.”

“I’ve offered students to redo assignments. Only the ones who already try hard in class take it. The ones who don’t care that their grade is D or an F don’t bother. I actually forced one lazy kid to redo his assignments once since it was so dreadful it wasn’t worth grading. He still made a D. He just put zero effort into it both times.”

“My middle schoolers NEVER took the provided opportunities to redo assignments, and when they would come in for a test retake, they did literally nothing to prepare the second time. They often earned a lower score the second time around.”

Long-time educator, now deceased, Rick DuFour taught me (and others) there were at least four different types of teachers inside our classrooms. One of those types DuFour described as the “Pontius Pilate” classroom leader. According to DuFour, the “Pontius Pilate” leader behaved in such a way that everything they were responsible for when it came to teaching was done in a professional manner. Curriculum was followed, assessments were administered, classroom management was enforced. But when it came to learning, the “Pontius Pilate” teacher and administrator laid all that responsibility on the student. The “Pontius Pilate” school leader cried out “I taught it. They didn’t learn it.”

I remember what Rod Paige, past U.S. Secretary of Education and the superintendent who hired me for my first middle school principalship, once told me. Paige said, “Scott, without learning, teaching doesn’t matter – because that teaching didn’t make a difference to that learner.”

Smart man that Paige.

I look at all of the comments above and think – where is the coaching? Where is the leadership? Where is the passion?

Young learners will do exactly what they want to do when it comes to learning, unless the are coached, led, and inspired.

If you are an adult learning leader and can’t coach, lead, and inspire, then what good are you when it comes to helping young learners reach their learning goals?

What I read above, from today’s teachers, tells me that we need to find a new type of adult learning leader, one with positive intentions, a commitment to coaching, leadership traits, and a passion to achieve.

And I don’t think there’s enough of those inside our old, tired traditional school system.

I’ll be away until March 22^nd. SVB