The Freedom to Learn
See this Sam Chaltain video for his TED Talk on what we know about creating a “high functioning learning environment”.
The Trouble With Grades
We often think about and discuss the effect of grades on student engagement in their learning. It’s a complex issue that deserves attention. Read this quote for insight into some of the considerations we weigh in our work with students.
“Grades are a problem. On the most general level, they’re an explicit acknowledgment that what you’re doing is insufficiently interesting or rewarding for you to do it on your own. Nobody ever gave you a grade for learning how to play, how to ride a bicycle, or how to kiss. One of the best ways to destroy love for any of these activities would be through the use of grades, and the coercion and judgment they represent. Grades are a cudgel to bludgeon the unwilling into doing what they don’t want to do, an important instrument in inculcating children into a lifelong subservience to whatever authority happens to be thrust over them.
Derek Jensen
Motivation
At Model High School, we are concerned not only with what students do, but why they do it. For instance, Robert Coles suggests that the purpose of reading literature is to address what he calls the great moral question, how does one live a life? Reading in order to address this question is a very different experience from reading a book in order to perform well on a test. Attitude and motivation make a difference in how, and to what degree, students engage in their work. We know that students’ attitude towards a task determines both their level of engagement during class, and their future engagement in the discipline or activity once the class is completed.
Daniel Pink has synthesized much of the research on motivation in his book Drive. Please watch this video for a wonderful explanation of some of the underlying assumptions of our work with students.
