It is possible to give extra points for effort, but it is often misused. We often give extra points for busy work and for showing up.

Part of the extra points you can give is simple emphasis on pride. There is this slam poet I like who said “I can make a “C” feel like a Congressional medal of honor and an “A-” feel like a slap in the face: How dare you waste my time with anything but your very best.”

This statement does ring true to me. Some kids are raised in a manner that they get A’s in everything they do. Some try hard and end up with C-‘s and D’s. If you have a student who has shown great improvement, but only earns a C or a C+, it is your job to make them feel it is a great accomplishment and to let them know that you understand how much work they put into the assignment. This gives them encouragement to keep trying and to keep improving.

The key is to remember that students still have a chance. I think that by 7th to 9th grade, parents and teachers have already decided who has a chance, who is prepared and who will fail at life. You always have chances to reach them and to encourage them, regardless of what a lost cause you might feel they are. A big part of this process is to realize your hidden biases. You have little nobs inside of you that help you judge a kid/ teen as a failure or as someone with a chance. Turn those off!

With those biases, many students get passed through because it is assumed that they are smarter and better when the reality is that they have a lot to learn. Meanwhile, many other students try and try and feel the blunt end of your opinion of them every time.

Grading based on the individual and on effort and improvement is a skill that takes several years of teaching. You have to balance your beliefs of the individual with the fact that people must work and do well to earn good grades, and as you say, be prepared for life.

One good method to ease into this style of grading would be a portfolio assessment. Along with assigning papers and giving grades, the students keep all their work. They then create a portfolio with their assignments throughout the year, along with notes from you on where they needed to improve and examples of how they learned and bettered themselves in the areas you felt they needed the most work. This portfolio should not be all their best stuff at the end of the year, but should provide a time-line of their struggles and successes.

The portfolio itself teaches organization, responsibility and the ability to assess ones self and recognize change, improvement and understanding of feedback… all important skills or the real world.

🙂

I teach 2nd grade so this might not work for other grades. We have differentiated instruction in my room. On the report card it says whether or not the subject was graded by differentiated standards. With this theory in mind, all students should be able to get an A because everything is on their level. So, if my student who is in the Reteaching Group scores an A on a test that is on her level, it is different from and A in the other two groups. On the report card, if this student gets an A, I make sure that the next teacher knows what differentiated group the child was in so that they don’t expect the child to get an A according to the regular curriculum. Throughout the year the student’s level is increased but they will probably not be on the same level as some students at the end of the year. I look at how far they have come.

I do.

When I was a student I was a prodigy in Mathematics, scored a near perfect score on the SAT. My problem was that I was always able to find the answer without the use or need of formulas. Many times the answer would just come to me.

I was getting A’s without effort. The teachers only wanted to see the correct answer. They didn’t care about how I got it.

When I got into higher levels of Mathematics, I began to do worse. In calculus, the answer doesn’t just come to you anymore (well me anyway). Because I never used formulas, I couldn’t adapt to these complex ones at all. I failed miserably.

Today I teach a Liberal Arts class at a local college (from math to writing) it is completely different. The effort in liberal arts will reveal new answers that even I may not have thought of. To simply make a point is not making an effort. But to research it, support it, and make a strong argument shows effort. I can even accept the most conservative of answers if they are prepped right (bit of a joke there, I accept all arguments if supported correctly).

I actually failed a student who would simply give me the answers she thought I wanted to hear, In liberal arts it is about the effort. It’s about preparing an argument, supporting the argument, presenting the argument. If they all gave me my own answer, we would live in one very boring society.

There are two examples that show effort is necessary and does teach something of value to students. Both examples reside in two very different areas of study.

I do, not massive amounts of points, but I still reward effort. When a student makes a point of participating regularly in class, and I can tell that they’ve honestly put in their best work on whatever they hand in, I will give them a few extra points – even if they may have missed something that I taught. (This is a sign to me that I need to find a different way to explain it to them – they are obviously paying attention, but something I taught didn’t make sense to them.)

On the other hand, kids who would rather cut off a limb than participate, daydream during class, or just give a cursory effort to their work, don’t get the effort points. They may still make good grades, but I believe that learning – in life and in school – is a combination of effort and skill (like study skills, academic talent, etc.).

I actually do, and I’ll tell you why. See, it is a common misconception that the learning is all on the student–and if they fail, it is their own fault. But I personally believe that the learning may be on the student, but the teacher should understand that a student can’t learn if the teacher doesn’t teach. For this reason, I do believe in accounting for effort, because it may be a flaw in my teaching–a style that differs from the student’s learning style, or a point I missed while I was teaching or didn’t teach thoroughly enough….

I am a student and I don’t believe that teachers should give extra points just for effort. It’s so unfair when a teacher awards someone because that person jsut happened to put in extra effort just for that particualr thing while you alwyas put effort into everyday work.

I’ve had students who went so far beyond the requested task that it would have been an injustice to do otherwise.

I don’t give bonus points on a regular basis but, on occasion, some extraordinary work, research, etc. has been accomplished and deserves to be recognized.

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So, you believe in a grading scale of 0-4 with 0 being F and 4 being A that a person with an average of 3.999 should get a B average and a person with an average of .999 should fail right? I think you should reveal the true person.

effort is very important to ones life.

effort to write legably, effort to communicate in a civil way, effort to complete your projects etc.

without effort there is no work done. so yes, I do add points for effort, but they are minimal and only when there is a scale that needs to be met.

Yes.

I think that there are students who have a hard time learning and need to know that their effort isn’t going to waste.