On the Road

Too far back to remember the specifics of whose talk it was, I listened to a TEDtalk given by a school teacher. She told a story about giving a test at the beginning of the year. One student had earned an abysmally low grade (like 3/20). She wrote his grade on the top of the page and put a big smiley face next to it. When she handed back the tests, the student came up to her after class

Student: Teacher, is this a F?

Teacher: Yes it is.

Student: So why did you put a smiley face?

Teacher: Because you're on the road.

What a great attitude for a teacher. What a great attitude for a student. I'm sure Carol Dweck (LINK) would be smiling if she listened to that talk.

Inspired by this unknown teacher, Rachel and I decided to put smiley faces on the quizzes of all of our English students. We give them a weekly quiz to see how much they've learned. Before giving the test, and again before returning the test today, we repeated that the test wasn't for a grade, it was just to measure their learning. Then today, instead of learning new material, the students had to correct their own tests* until everyone had full everything right.

I think grades are important. They offer a measurement of how much a student has learned. But I know grades aren't everything. More important than the grades the students are earning is the sense, in both the students' and the teacher's minds, that they're on the road. The only way for a student to improve is to get on the road with a teacher giving clear directions for how to continue. I hope we're accomplishing that in our English class in Ocongate. At the very least, we're putting smiley faces on the tests.

*or, if they had done very well, help other students correct their tests.