Something that took me completely surprise at the Rokeby School was
the complete lack of privacy with students’ grades. The first class I observed
had a teacher place a breakdown of every student’s grade and where they stand
in the class directly on the board. My first thought would be that some
students may be embarrassed by seeing their low grades next to other students
who were excelling, but actually these struggling students were turning to
their classmates asking for help. A grading curve does not exist in English
classrooms so the only incentive the students had to perform well on their
exams was purely personal and by helping a struggling student, students who are
excelling did not have to worry about where they stood on the curve. Without a
curve, the atmosphere of the English classroom is not as cutthroat as some
American classrooms can be. Grades are so public that the grade the student is
expected to get, which is assigned by the teachers, are displayed on each
student’s notebooks.
This expected grade
also splits the class into different levels. During classwork, students have
the choice to tackle different tasks but are strongly recommended to work on
the task that is on their level or one level higher. The levels used in
instruction at the Rokeby School are incredibly similar to the idea of
scaffolding. Having observed two teachers’ meetings in the humanities
department, incorporating levelling in each teacher’s instruction was of utmost
importance, as it works hand in hand with each student’s assigned grade.
I'm very surprised to hear how public students' grades are at Rokeby School. It's very cool that instead of being embarrassed to see how they're doing compared to their classmates, the students collaborate. I was very surprised to hear this because instructional approaches that divide up students by learning ability, such as in your school, are largely criticized for putting the struggling students at a disadvantage. This is because superior students are typically given more challenging material, and consequently acquire more knowledge and influence in the classroom. On the other hand, students that don't perform as well tend to be less challenged and, as a result, don't improve significantly. It's very inspiring to hear that students can take the initiative to help one another. This is particularly good because students that excel in school reinforce their understanding of knowledge by explaining concepts to others, and students that struggle in school benefit considerably when given individual attention. I'm curious to know how struggling students improve throughout the school year!
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