As a teacher, I sometimes notice frozen students.
These are students who seem stuck. They are the ones that purposely make themselves invisible and fly under the radar. They are the ones who don't turn in large assignments and don't try. It could be fear of failure--It could be the assignment seems too daunting--but whatever it is, these students are stuck.
Sometimes people need a small stepping-stone-success to go on to bigger and better things. If the task at hand feels too daunting, it is easy get stuck in a negative mind trap.
I went hiking with a dear friend who happens to be way more bad-ass than she thinks. She had never gone hiking before, but she loved the beauty of wildlife and nature. I was excited to take her on her first hike, but I could tell she was nervous.
Her fear was that she would fall and get hurt hiking.
We decided to hike Palos Verdes which has novice trails with little steep offshoots down to the beach. I was so excited she was hiking! So was she! In our excitement, we decided to take one of the steep trails down to the ocean. It was gravely and she fell. Right into a CACTUS!
But she nonchalantly got up, pulled some cactus spikes out of her hand, and said, "Let's keep going!"
I couldn't believe it. The worst had happened!
She said, "Well, the worst has happened, and I'm fine!" Her fear had dissipated. She fell into cactus and it wasn't as bad as she had feared. She had survived that fall with grace and kept going with pride.
Since then, she has done several hikes. In fact, she probably hikes more than I do. That first hike, with the fall, was a stepping-stone-success for her. She had faced her fear and realized she could do it.
This is what Mastery Grading does for our students.
- Mastery Grading allows students to fail and redo assignments.
- Mastery Grading allows students to work at their own pace.
- Mastery Grading allows students to choose their own workload.
When my friend on the hike fell, she is the one that got up, dusted herself off, and decided to go on.
It would have been a much different story if I had scolded her for tripping and said something like, "This is your one opportunity to show mastery in hiking and you blew it!"
That would be ridiculous! She just fell, she didn't blow anything. We all fall sometimes.
So why are we only giving one chance to our students with their assignments? How do we give our students the opportunity to take risks and practice while keeping our own work load under control?
This is where Mastery Grading comes in.
Mastery Grading is student led learning. They are allowed to stumble and get back up. They have choice, buy-in, and ownership of their own learning.
Mastery Grading can also be called Tiered Grading. The way it works is that students complete all of the mandatory C assignments with grade level appropriateness to receive a C in the class. Then if they choose to, they can move on to the B assignments to receive a B, and finally the A assignments to receive an A.
The Principles of Mastery Grading
- Messing up is ok. Just try. Redo assignments if needed.
- Late work is ok.
- Choice of Assignments.
- Assignments must be completed with mastery to get credit.
- Students take responsibility for their success.
- Growth Mindset not Fixed Mindset.
- Not all students decide to do all assignments.
- Assignments trickle in in manageable grading chunks.
- Grading time is built into class time.
- Pre-planned lessons and coursework alleviate workload.
The Grade Book
The grades are weighted into three categories.
Weight of Grades:
- C Assignments: 75% of the grade
- Basic Grade Level Standards Based Assignments and Assessments
- Most of the assignments for the class
- These are either 1 or 2 points. Half credit is given to assignments below a 70% and full credit to a 70% or higher. Everything can be redone.
- B Assignments: 15% of the grade
- Fewer assignments. Larger assignments.
- 10 points each.
- A Assignments: 10% of the grade
- Higher level synthesis projects
- Only one or two a quarter
- 10 points each
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