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Grading Smarter, Not Harder: Assessment Strategies That Motivate Kids and Help Them Learn
All the talk of closing the achievement gap in schools obscures a more fundamental issue: do the grades we assign to students truly reflect the extent of their learning? In this lively and eye-opening book, educator Myron Dueck reveals how many of the assessment policies that teachers adopt can actually prove detrimental to student motivation and achievement and shows how we can tailor policies to address what really matters: student understanding of content. In sharing lessons, anecdotes, and cautionary tales from his own experiences revamping assessment procedures in the classroom, Dueck offers a variety of practical strategies for ensuring that grades measure what students know without punishing them for factors outside their control; critically examining the fairness and effectiveness of grading homework assignments; designing and distributing unit plans that make assessment criteria crystal-clear to students; creating a flexible and modular retesting system so that students can improve their scores on individual sections of important tests.
Grading Smarter, Not Harder is brimming with reproducible forms, templates, and real-life examples of grading solutions developed to allow students every opportunity to demonstrate their learning. Written with abundant humor and heart, this book is a must-read for all teachers who want their grades to contribute to, rather than hinder, their students' success.
Grading Smarter, Not Harder is brimming with reproducible forms, templates, and real-life examples of grading solutions developed to allow students every opportunity to demonstrate their learning. Written with abundant humor and heart, this book is a must-read for all teachers who want their grades to contribute to, rather than hinder, their students' success.
180 pages, Paperback
First published July 4, 2014
7 people are currently reading
98 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
July 19, 2019
"Unfortunately, schools have trained students to be grade-focused rather than learning-focused."
Dueck focuses on some tough topics that many educators consider challenging, such as grading, homework, and retesting. I wasn't even completely sure of my own stance on some of these topics going in, but after reading, Dueck answered many of my questions and concerns. I would recommend this book for any middle or high school teachers.
Dueck focuses on some tough topics that many educators consider challenging, such as grading, homework, and retesting. I wasn't even completely sure of my own stance on some of these topics going in, but after reading, Dueck answered many of my questions and concerns. I would recommend this book for any middle or high school teachers.
August 6, 2015
The first part was more helpful than the second part. I am going to take the "Late or Incomplete Assignment Form" and use it this year!
March 18, 2017
Of all the complaints I myself have and hear from my colleagues, grading is probably the most frequent and most frustrating topic. Low achievers are unmotivated; high achievers care only about "points"; and parents get upset with us when their kids fare poorly. And we stress out as we "stick to our guns" on our late work and cheating penalties.
In the best case scenario, we take comfort in our principles, but feel the wrath of students and parents who feel neglected and/or wronged. Even if we agree that the results aren't ideal, we can't imagine an alternative policies and practices that seem fair and consistent to all students. Dueck to the rescue.
Grading Smarter is an excellent read for teachers who feel frustrated with their grading policies and practices and yearn for fresh alternatives. By redirecting the scoring focus exclusively to the learning goals, Dueck points the way past inaccurate and inappropriate grading practices that have pretty much been the norm in my 25 year classroom experience. For example, penalizing students for situations out of their control (abusive home situations, poverty, mental illness, executive function issues, etc.) is inherently inappropriate. And doling out zeros won't help. The key to change is found in distinguishing between scoring your learning goals (such as "causes of the Civil War") and behaviors (such as "turning work in on time").
I know. You want to teach your students good habits like punctuality. Me too. But grades aren't the way to do it, and Dueck provides evidence to back up this claim, as well as a slew of alternative practices that more successfully encourage those behaviors.
The shift to emphasize learning goals is really a shift to Standards Based Grading. Grading Smarter doesn't drill down into this topic, but there are plenty of other authors who do (Robert Marzano is probably at the top of the list.) That's a long leg up on the climb to grading smarter and one that will take a significant amount of additional thought and time by most teachers. So the initial shift probably is more time-consuming than staying the course.
But as the title implies, most of the necessary changes don't require more of your time, just a reallocation. That's because Dueck's practice shifts the teacher's efforts from tasks such as scoring homework, to tasks such as re-scoring some summative assessments revised by students who want to do better. Before you balk at the thought of giving kids a "second chance", think about how you yourself learn anything worthwhile. Learning takes time and practice. Expecting kids to get it right the first time, condemns many of them to failure (or a B, or a C, or a D).
For Dueck, assessments are generally traditional tests: multiple choice, short-answer, essay. Allowing students a chance to re-do a portion of a test (using some pretty clever time-saving, but accurate techniques), will be a significant shift in the common wisdom of many teachers. But frankly in my experience, the common wisdom hasn't worked well. That awful feeling I've had about students who fail, or merely limp along with a D or C-, when I know they could be doing much better, tells me these are techniques to embrace. They are practical and doable.
There are two ways that I think Dueck's work could be improved — but they may not be for everyone. First, Dueck uses pen and paper to carry out some of his practices. As a techie sort of person, I have already converted these to Google Forms and Docs and have provided links on my course website. Students have ready access to use these without the need for me to photocopy and store them in my shared classroom(s). And I don't need to collect and organize completed paperwork from them. I can find them all on my laptop.
Second, and more importantly, although Dueck does suggest projects as an alternative, he seems to emphasize traditional tests. I believe these significantly narrow the range of students who will ultimately succeed — even with Dueck's practices. I'm a strong believer in project-based learning (PBL) because it provides more opportunities for student engagement, deeper and more personalized learning opportunities, and signficant practice with skills that are more transferrable.
Nevertheless, there are no conflicts between PBL and Dueck's smarter grading techniques. Grading Smarter is a fresh approach to some age-old schoolhouse dilemmas. In the slow crawl away from factory schooling, Dueck provides the means to take a big step forward.
In the best case scenario, we take comfort in our principles, but feel the wrath of students and parents who feel neglected and/or wronged. Even if we agree that the results aren't ideal, we can't imagine an alternative policies and practices that seem fair and consistent to all students. Dueck to the rescue.
Grading Smarter is an excellent read for teachers who feel frustrated with their grading policies and practices and yearn for fresh alternatives. By redirecting the scoring focus exclusively to the learning goals, Dueck points the way past inaccurate and inappropriate grading practices that have pretty much been the norm in my 25 year classroom experience. For example, penalizing students for situations out of their control (abusive home situations, poverty, mental illness, executive function issues, etc.) is inherently inappropriate. And doling out zeros won't help. The key to change is found in distinguishing between scoring your learning goals (such as "causes of the Civil War") and behaviors (such as "turning work in on time").
I know. You want to teach your students good habits like punctuality. Me too. But grades aren't the way to do it, and Dueck provides evidence to back up this claim, as well as a slew of alternative practices that more successfully encourage those behaviors.
The shift to emphasize learning goals is really a shift to Standards Based Grading. Grading Smarter doesn't drill down into this topic, but there are plenty of other authors who do (Robert Marzano is probably at the top of the list.) That's a long leg up on the climb to grading smarter and one that will take a significant amount of additional thought and time by most teachers. So the initial shift probably is more time-consuming than staying the course.
But as the title implies, most of the necessary changes don't require more of your time, just a reallocation. That's because Dueck's practice shifts the teacher's efforts from tasks such as scoring homework, to tasks such as re-scoring some summative assessments revised by students who want to do better. Before you balk at the thought of giving kids a "second chance", think about how you yourself learn anything worthwhile. Learning takes time and practice. Expecting kids to get it right the first time, condemns many of them to failure (or a B, or a C, or a D).
For Dueck, assessments are generally traditional tests: multiple choice, short-answer, essay. Allowing students a chance to re-do a portion of a test (using some pretty clever time-saving, but accurate techniques), will be a significant shift in the common wisdom of many teachers. But frankly in my experience, the common wisdom hasn't worked well. That awful feeling I've had about students who fail, or merely limp along with a D or C-, when I know they could be doing much better, tells me these are techniques to embrace. They are practical and doable.
There are two ways that I think Dueck's work could be improved — but they may not be for everyone. First, Dueck uses pen and paper to carry out some of his practices. As a techie sort of person, I have already converted these to Google Forms and Docs and have provided links on my course website. Students have ready access to use these without the need for me to photocopy and store them in my shared classroom(s). And I don't need to collect and organize completed paperwork from them. I can find them all on my laptop.
Second, and more importantly, although Dueck does suggest projects as an alternative, he seems to emphasize traditional tests. I believe these significantly narrow the range of students who will ultimately succeed — even with Dueck's practices. I'm a strong believer in project-based learning (PBL) because it provides more opportunities for student engagement, deeper and more personalized learning opportunities, and signficant practice with skills that are more transferrable.
Nevertheless, there are no conflicts between PBL and Dueck's smarter grading techniques. Grading Smarter is a fresh approach to some age-old schoolhouse dilemmas. In the slow crawl away from factory schooling, Dueck provides the means to take a big step forward.
November 27, 2022
I bought this book many months before I read it, and I do not recall what led me to it, but what led me to picking it up today was a desperate reach to crawl out from the overwhelming amount of grading I have. Unfortunately, this title is very misleading. It can be read as lightening a teacher's workload. To the contrary, I imagine most everything offered in this book will add to the workload (with the exception of not grading homework). At first I started skimming looking for answers about late work, which is a huge problem, and I was frustrated by the "solutions" in this book, which all involve policies that are not under my control at all and would need to be addressed by administrators and school structure. No answers, unfortunately, on what I as a teacher could do--at least not in regard to decreasing the problem. The book does, however, address, issues of equity in the gradebook, which is why I am sure I originally bought this book--equity grading. Equity grading, however, does nothing to lighten a teacher's workload. That's what I wanted now. I ended up reading the book even though it did not address what I was looking for today (and I so did not have time for this).
I have mixed feelings about the book. I am open-minded about equity grading and had already revamped many of the ways I had graded previously (after reading Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman). I am on board with many, but definitely not all, of the ideas in Feldman's book, particularly the ones that require teachers to take on even more work in a system that isn't set up for it (for example, a having to use a district-required grading book and report card system that isn't set up for this type of grading), but also not on board with ones that do not seem logical or equitable to me, but like I said I am open to the ideas and willing to try them. In regard to Dueck's ideas in this book, I found many to be frustrating and useless since, as I mentioned, his "solutions" are beyond my control, for example, assigning students to mandated schoolwide lunchtime or afterschool homework centers, Saturday school, teacher free periods to meet with students, and in-school suspension. None of those are currently options where I work, and I can't take on the work to get this going. That's an admin job. I wish he offered options (for policies like logical consequences for not turning in work) that were under a teacher's control.
I did find some interesting ideas in here to explore and implement, but they will definitely take a huge amount of time: two-tiered testing, unit plans with knowledge, reasoning, skill, and product targets that students interact with, double-dipping reassessment, and supplemental response sheets for multiple-choice testing.
I have mixed feelings about the book. I am open-minded about equity grading and had already revamped many of the ways I had graded previously (after reading Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman). I am on board with many, but definitely not all, of the ideas in Feldman's book, particularly the ones that require teachers to take on even more work in a system that isn't set up for it (for example, a having to use a district-required grading book and report card system that isn't set up for this type of grading), but also not on board with ones that do not seem logical or equitable to me, but like I said I am open to the ideas and willing to try them. In regard to Dueck's ideas in this book, I found many to be frustrating and useless since, as I mentioned, his "solutions" are beyond my control, for example, assigning students to mandated schoolwide lunchtime or afterschool homework centers, Saturday school, teacher free periods to meet with students, and in-school suspension. None of those are currently options where I work, and I can't take on the work to get this going. That's an admin job. I wish he offered options (for policies like logical consequences for not turning in work) that were under a teacher's control.
I did find some interesting ideas in here to explore and implement, but they will definitely take a huge amount of time: two-tiered testing, unit plans with knowledge, reasoning, skill, and product targets that students interact with, double-dipping reassessment, and supplemental response sheets for multiple-choice testing.
July 4, 2017
Valuable information that challenges teachers to rethink how they have structured their courses. I like the student-centered approach. Unfortunately, I found that much of the information did not apply to me since I am in a unique position at my school where I do not test students at all, nor am I required to give any kind of homework. Of course, that has nothing to do with the book or the author. I highly recommend it.
December 20, 2020
Dueck’s introduction was eye opening and introduced evidence that challenged transitional schooling. I would say that I poured over the 2nd and 4th parts of the book however, the chapters on units planning and creativity felt repetitive. The author adds valuable personal stories in the margins and I would recommend spending you time reading through those first. Overall, this is a good resource for EBPs.
March 30, 2018
This is one of those rare PL books that truly challenges entrenched beliefs, and it takes on a historically difficult to discuss topic: assessment and grades. I know that my grade book is already looking different and next year my entire approach to assessment, homework and grading will change substantially.
August 16, 2018
I enjoyed the writing voice as well as the personal anecdotes sprinkled throughout the book. It gave me some things to think about, but I was hoping for more.
January 30, 2021
A great look at using assessment as an equity practice in your classroom. Looking forward to trying these ideas in the coming semester.
January 1, 2023
This book was a requirement for a department discussion group. And I guess that’s all I can say about it.
August 2, 2014
This book provides research and strategies in order to help streamline assessment in the classroom. The strategies suggested help to show students what they will learn, and how they will learn it. It also provides framework to help students reach those learning goals through differentiated homework, unit plans, frequent quizzes, tests/retests, and projects. The main idea is that a grade should reflect what a student knows as compared to the learning goals of the course.
December 25, 2016
I liked the content of this book but I feel that the title is misleading.
One of the best chapters of this book, Chapter 3: Unit Plans (69-89), which could have been developed into a book of its own, has little to do directly with assessments. You could make the case that it addresses assessment askance because what is on the unit plan should be what's assessed and it presents students with a checklist and study guide but that case is pretty weak.
One of the best chapters of this book, Chapter 3: Unit Plans (69-89), which could have been developed into a book of its own, has little to do directly with assessments. You could make the case that it addresses assessment askance because what is on the unit plan should be what's assessed and it presents students with a checklist and study guide but that case is pretty weak.
May 23, 2016
I read this for a book study. While I may not agree with all (or even most) of his ideas, it was a thought-provoking book. The author helped encourage me to rethink some of my long-standing teaching habits.
February 14, 2016
This isn't fabulous writing, but it is an unforgettable shake-up of our solemnly-held beliefs about grading and what grades represent. Every teacher should read this and have a conversation with their department or fellow teachers.
December 6, 2014
Some ideas to definitely look closer at.
August 2, 2014
This book affirmed many of the grading techniques I already practice and gave me lots of new ideas too.
August 9, 2014
Easy to read, agreed with most points, had some interesting ideas.
Read
October 3, 2014371.26 D852 2014
April 12, 2016
No evidence. :(
November 26, 2018
Enjoyed it. I will use a lot of his ideas. Didn’t really see the connection for the last chapter on “creativity,” but good nonetheless.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews