Question.501 - Chapter 6: You get a bad grade or you question the point of an assignment (and BTW, why is there so much homework?) and Reading Reaction #6 The first page is a self-reflection, a response to a prompt or “chapter title” I provide in which you write one or more stories from your educational journey (that you are comfortable writing about). This week's chapter title is: "You get a bad grade or you question the point of an assignment (and BTW, why is there so much homework?"). The overall topic for next class is: Grading, Assessment, Homework, What is worth knowing especially now (follows last week's topic). The second page is a reaction to the readings that week (which might include somethings to read or watch or listen to). The goal of these Reading Reactions is to help further your understanding and thoughts related to the ideas addressed in the readings. These should include quotes you found significant, questions the readings raised for you, lists of words perhaps that convey your reactions, responses or questions you might have for the authors and how the reading connects to the topic for the week as well as the guiding questions for the semester.
Answer Below:
Chapter 6 Assignment Student Name University Name EDUC 417 School and Society Professor Name Date You get a bad grade or you question the point of an assignment Each student gets a bad grade at least one time in their life, no matter how talented the student is or how bad is a student in studies. An adult can say, "it is fine, one bad grade is not going to ruin the whole academic year." But does that convince that kid? I personally used to go under a lot of stress and continuous depression if I felt I was not good at understanding the particular subject or got a low score on a test or assignment. Definitely, this happens because we are human beings. We cannot take our failure in an easy way. Well, I was too good at a few courses when I was in school and too bad at understanding concepts of a few courses. I even got failed in few tests and that took away the confidence in me. I felt ashamed to go and ask the teacher about confusion in the subject because first, I was not that popular and favorite kid in that particular class. Maybe, now it feels like I overthought things at that time, like what will the teacher think about when I say I haven't understood the concept? How will the teacher react? What if the teacher scolds me? All these are common fears those show up in a kid. On the other hand, I had another fear after completing a test and felt the test didn't go well, I was always feared of the punishment or scolding I would get from teachers. It was not that I didn't study, so I failed to receive a good score. I studied, I tried to understand, but I failed. Also, it is a common fear in students after tests that what if they get scolded in front of the whole class. Some even go completely down if they take it as a shame. A classroom involves all talented, average and completely less scoring kids. It is not surprising if one student feels bad seeing another kid scoring high in the class. Few may not care what is happening the class but few students doubt themselves for being bad in their studies. This is what we call "comparison". The word seems very common and peaceful, but the influence it has on a human is broad. Theodore Roosevelt quotes, "Comparison is the thief of joy". The culture of comparison exists not only in adults but also in kids who are still at the stage of growing and learning. I had the same issue with me when I was in 4th grade. I was very bad history class as I was not good with remembering historical events and geography in the next grade. Seeing how my classmates were doing good in studying that particular subject made me feel anger on myself that why am I unable to understand the subject when everyone else is good at it. I felt there is something wrong with me which was definitely a stupid thought. Later, I converted that behavior by taking my situation as a challenge that "let me see how can't I understand and score well in the history class?" I believe everything is in our minds. I mean, if we think we are not good at it then we will not do good in it. Similarly, when I decided that I could do good in history class, I did better than I expected. So this is one thing I learned from scoring low in class. This taught me we should change our thoughts and those thoughts should be positive and strong no matter what. Every human being is unique and each has the capabilities to do something; it might not be the same thing, but at least something. No one is weak and it is just in our thoughts. So I learned scoring low in class is not a bad thing and it doesn't mean that our whole life is getting ruined because of it. If we take it as challenge, then there is definitely something better to learn. I loved the articles written by Paloma Esquivel, who demonstrates how the school has modified its grading system for the good of students. The author talks about the new grading system where a high school teacher decided to cancel giving home works to students and instead allow them to take additional opportunities to submit essays, tests, and assignments. This is because the teacher wanted to grade each student based on has the student learned from the course and not on how why they failed to submit an assignment on time or did not complete extra assignments. This is definitely an ideal way of teaching but will this be effective on students? What if the student takes disadvantage of such a method? Another word of this article that took my attention is ""It's teaching students that failure is a part of learning. We fall. We get back up. We learn from the feedback that we get," said Alison Yoshimoto-Towery, L.A. Unified's chief academic officer (Learning for Justice, 2021)." Definitely, the education system is to teach students basic things like win and loss. It means if the student fails in a class, the teacher should create an opportunity to teach the student how to face such instances. This is not helpful in the classroom but this will be a vital lesson for the student throughout life. Today, most students and parents have understood that just because having a low score on the grade sheet is not going to ruin the student's life. Many people who failed at the beginning of their life have given amazing things to the world. An ideal education system should work in such a way that they will make sure that they will give a good education to students where they learn how to socialize, build personality and attitude, and learn such things those they can apply in the future. An article on "Social Justice Standards" discusses some learning outcomes of students such as diversity anchor standards, identity anchor standards, action anchor standards. One of such outcomes is, "Students will respectfully express curiosity about the history and lived experiences of others and will exchange ideas and beliefs in an open-minded way (Learning for Justice, 2021)." Understanding these standards are necessary, they are basic teachings such as student learning about ethics, equality, identity, justice, and actions. For instance, studying history is of no use but implementing past teachings and trying to implement them in real life to build a better society once each student becomes an ideal citizen. The main purpose of education should be to prepare the student for the future situations they would go through. By the end of their education, a student should be capable of taking challenges facing real world situations with confidence without the fear of failure. Learning technical skills is necessary, but when a student is able to do all these remaining things that are for example, if a student is strong psychologically, then he can learn other things easily as well. This is because I believe that being mentally strong is very important because it has control over all of our actions and other abilities to grasp things and extract information from the learning system. To conclude, mental health regulates one's emotions and influence one to be productive. Works Cited Esquivel, P. (2021). Faced with soaring Ds and Fs, schools are ditching the old way of grading. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from, https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-11-08/as-ds-and-fs-soar-schools-ditch-inequitable-grade-systemsLearning for Justice, (2021). A Framework for Anti-bias Education. Retrieved from, https://www.learningforjustice.org/frameworks/social-justice-standardsMore Articles From Education_Teaching
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