Let us take a journey into three different classrooms: Each one set in a different discipline, each one serving its students in different ways. These instructors have swilled deeply of the SBG kool-aid, but have come up with wildly different flavors.

First, some stipulations:

1. Grades should reflect learning and nothing else. (i.e.: not behavior, nor organization . . .)
2. Later assessments should outweigh earlier assessments to indicate growth.
3. Practice should be safe, ungraded, experimental, and feedback heavy. (i.e. Homework is not graded)
4. “Skills” and low-level concepts should be emphasized within the context of richer issues.

Aside: Hopefully, someday, grading will be viewed as archaic as corporal punishment, but we are not there yet. As far as I’ve seen, SBG is the common ground between the world of grading and the world of learning. Perhaps it is a liminal stage.

Let’s meet our teachers:

1. Steven Hocking: Math

Reassessment Policy: Students may not initiate reassessments. Concepts are reassessed at the teacher’s discretion through weekly quizzes, projects, observations in class, etc. They are reassessed frequently, and the students are unaware of the schedule. This creates a nearly random system of rewards that students find impossible to resist.

Grade Calculation: Mr. Hocking uses a Power Law calculation, wherein previous grades are reduced in weight and most recent grades are increased in weight. These weighted grades are then averaged. The more assessments given, the less credence earlier assessments receive.

Homework Policy: Homework is given in copious piles. Assignments must be turned in, but the amount attempted is left up to the students. Hocking requires students to indicate — with a red question mark — where they would like specific feedback. Students may not take an assessment without turning in a homework assignment. Hocking spends a lot of time writing specific feedback to the problems that students turn in.

Lesson Design: Dr. Hocking’s lessons are succinct. He does not leave much room for fluff, and he has yet to do a get-to-know-you activity on the first day (and probably never will).

Example: To teach the necessity of definite integration, Hocking asked the students to manage a piece of farmland for a (mock) season. They identified their land using Google Earth, and then began to work out the economics. It soon became obvious that knowing the exact area of their irregular piece of land would be necessary; Hocking then introduced the concept of area with integrals.

Other Notes: Hocking teaches quantitative courses. His students take reassessments seriously, and are often crestfallen when they are not assessed over something that they have recently been working on. They must wait and retain that knowledge for when the content does return on a teacher-initiated assessment.

Students claim that Mr. Hocking cares about how much they learn, but he is very busy, as, in any given semester, Mr. Hocking may have 100 unique students.

2. A. Tickus Fynsh: English

Reassessment Policy: Both student and teacher may initiate reassessments at their fancy. Mr. Fynsh’s room varies from  flooded to streaming with students attempting to demonstrate new knowledge. Mr. Fynsh repeats concepts regularly and scrutinizes every answer for evidence of any standard. Some students receive back quizzes with 10 altered grades delineated, while some may have only responded with enough information to receive a single altered grade.

Grade Calculation: Fynsh uses only the most recent score for each standard. He then averages these most recents to calculate his students’ final marks. He keeps track of every single reassessment attempt in a log so students can identify the concepts they had the most difficult time mastering as retention-assessing, summative exams approach.

Homework Policy: Mr. Fynsh rarely sees his students’ homework. He provides a fair amount for his students to do as practice, and expects them to do as much as they need. He only interacts with his students’ practice when they ask him for help. This is Fynsh’s attempt at preparing them for the responsibility of college.

Lesson Design: Fynsh’s lessons are designed to attack high level thinking skills only. He believes that memorization and practice are best done individually and would be a waste of the large group’s time. Lessons often begin with simple questions that allow the students freedom in their choice of methods for coming to conclusions. Students are often excused from class in small groups to go find other sources for their arguments (e.g.: local museums, university libraries, interviews, etc . . .)

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