"Multiple sources recommend about ten minutes per night in the first grade, then add ten minutes for every subsequent grade, for a maximum of two hours in all subjects by the 12th grade" (2. How much homework is recommended, ¶1 [of 1]).
In this post, Stack (2014.08.25) suggested four ways of developing or improving grading practices:
1. Separate and acknowledge the role of both formative and summative assessment.
2. Stop averaging averages to get more averages.
3. Separate academics from academic behaviors.
4. Use rubrics and a rubric scale, not percentage scores.
In this article, Jay C. Percell outlined "issues at stake, address[ed] ... common hesitancies ..., and offer[ed] ... tips for success ... gleaned ... [from] 15 years of alternative grading" (¶2).
Right answers: School teaches that there are right answers.
But, in real life, there are very few right answers.
Bullying and peer pressure
In school there are always other kids telling you how to dress, how to act, how to be cool.
Stifling of curiosity: Isn’t it obvious that learning is really about curiosity?
Adults earn about things they want to learn about. Before the age of 6, prior to school, one kid becomes a dinosaur specialist while another knows all about dog breeds. Outside of school people drive their own learning. Schools eliminate this natural behavior.
Classrooms make no sense as a venue for learning unless of course you want to save money and have 30 (or worse hundreds of) students be handled by one teacher.
Schools cannot work as places of learning if they employ classrooms.
Grades: Any professor can tell you that students are pretty much concerned with whether what you are telling them will be on the test and what they might do for extra credit.
I disagree - Employers do have rating systems, performance evaluations, but most of those are on the whole person, not just technical or academic skills
Parents do not give grades to children and employers do not give grades to employees. They judge their work and progress for sure, but not by assigning numbers to a report card.
Certification: We all know why people attend college. They do primarily to say they are college graduates so they can get a job or go on to a professional school.
So, why is this the student's fault? Why blame, or disadvatage them for this? We should be fighting the system that causes students to work like this, not blaming them for doing it! it is the constant testing and league table system that is wrong.
Confined children: Children like to run around.
Of course in school, sitting still is the norm. So we have come up with this wonderful idea of ADD, i.e. drug those who won’t sit still into submission. Is the system sick or what?
Academics viewed as winners: Who are the smartest kids in school?
Those who are good at these subjects go on to be professors. So those are certainly the smartest people we have in our society.
But, I can tell you from personal experience that our society doesn’t respect professors all that much, so something is wrong here.
Practical skills not valued: When I was young there were academic high schools and trade high schools. Trade high schools were for dumb kids. Academic high schools were for smart kids.
The need to please teachers: People who succeed at school are invariably people who are good out at figuring what the teacher wants and giving it to them.
In real life there is no teacher to please and these “grade grubbers” often find themselves lost.
Self worth questioned: School is full of winners and losers.
In school, most everyone sees themselves as a loser. Why do we allow this to happen?
Politicians in charge: Politicians demand reform but they wouldn’t know reform if it hit them over the head.
Major learning by doing mechanism ignored: And last but not least, scholars from Plato to Dewey have pointed that people learn by doing. That is how we learn. Doing. Got it? Apparently not. Very little doing in schools. Unless you count filling in circles with number 2 pencils as doing.
Government use of education for repression: As long as there have been governments there have been governments who wanted people to think that the governments (and the country) is very good.
School is about teaching “truth.”
Discovery not valued: The most important things we learn we teach ourselves.
This kind of learning is not valued in school because it might lead to, heaven forbid, failure, and failure is a really bad word in school. Except failure is how we learn, which is pretty much why school doesn’t work.
Not accepting students with straight A's only shows your own prejudices. Students can be good at a range of subjects, without being passionately interested in all of them. Lots of people are self motivated, without being teacher pleasers, they just wish to do their best in everything for their own satisfaction.
Why do we have schools? Instead of answering this question by listing all the good things that schools provide, which anyone can do, I will turn the question around: What is bad about having schools?
Why do we have schools? Instead of answering this question by listing all the good things that schools provide, which anyone can do, I will turn the question around: What is bad about having schools?
TeachersFirst offers this model for elementary (or middle) schools to build skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening systematically in a schoolwide model including students, teachers, and parents. The free web 2.0 tools suggested here are by no means the only tools that might work. These exemplary tools were chosen by the TeachersFirst Editors for ease of use and versatility in classroom and home use, and could easily be implemented at grade levels other than those suggested here. As students and teachers master a new tool at each grade level, they develop rich literacy skills and vital technology skills, all in the context of reading, writing, speaking and listening across the curriculum.
A
little known fact about Einstein is that when he was young he did extremely
poor in school. His grade school teachers told his parents to take him
out of school because he was "too stupid to learn" and it would be a waste
of resources for the school to invest time and energy in his education.
The school suggested that his parents get Albert an easy, manual labor
job as soon as they could.
Instead of following the school's advice, Albert's parents bought him a
violin. Albert became good at the violin. Music was the key that helped
Albert Einstein become one of the smartest men who has ever lived. Einstein
himself says that the reason he was so smart is because he played the violin.
He loved the music of Mozart and Bach the most. A friend of Einstein, G.J.
Withrow, said that the way Einstein figured out his problems and equations
was by improvising on the violin.
Another example of how rhythm orders
movement is an autistic boy who could not tie his shoes. He learned how
on the second try when the task of tying his shoes was put to a song. The
rhythm helped organize his physical movements in time.
Classical music from the baroque period causes the heart
beat and pulse rate to relax to the beat of the music. As the body becomes
relaxed and alert, the mind is able to concentrate more easily. Furthermore,
baroque music decreases blood pressure and enhances the ability to learn.
Music affects the amplitude and frequency of brain waves, which can be
measured by an electro-encephalogram. Music also affects breathing rate
and electrical resistance of the skin. It has been observed to cause the
pupils to dilate, increase blood pressure, and increase the heart rate.
Mozart's music and baroque music, with a 60 beats per minute
beat pattern, activate the left and right brain. The simultaneous left
and right brain action maximizes learning and retention of information.
The information being studied activates the left brain while the music
activates the right brain. Also, activities which engage both sides of
the brain at the same time, such as playing an instrument or singing, causes
the brain to be more capable of processing information.
According
to The Center for New Discoveries in Learning, learning potential can be
increased a minimum of five times by using this 60 beats per minute music.
Dr. Lozanov's system
involved using certain classical music pieces from the baroque period which
have around a 60 beats per minute pattern. He has proven that foreign languages
can be learned with 85-100% efficiency in only thirty days by using these
baroque pieces. His students had a recall accuracy rate of almost 100%
even after not reviewing the material for four years.
Group 1 was read the words with Handel's Water Music in the background.
They were also asked to imagine the words. Group 2 was read the same words
also with Handel's Water Music in the background. Group 2 was not asked
to imagine the words. Group 3 was only read the words, was not given any
background music, and was also not asked to imagine the words. The results
from the first two tests showed that groups 1 and 2 had much better scores
than group 3. The results from the third test, a week later, showed that
group 1 performed much better than groups 2 or 3.
One simple way students can improve test
scores is by listening to certain types of music such as Mozart's
Sonata for Two Piano's in D Major before taking a test. This type of
music releases neurons in the brain which help the body to relax.
William Balach, Kelly Bowman, and Lauri
Mohler, all from Pennsylvania State University, studied the effects of
music genre and tempo on memory retention. They had four groups learn vocabulary
words using one of four instrumental pieces - slow classical, slow jazz,
fast classical, and fast jazz.
Surprisingly, the results showed that
changing the genre had no effect on recall but changing the tempo decreased
recall.
One key ingredient to the order of music from the baroque and
classical periods is math. This is realized by the body and the human mind
performs better when listening to this ordered music.
George recognized that Saul overcame his problems
by using special music. With this story in mind King George asked George
Frederick Handel to write some special music for him that would help him
in the same way that music helped Saul. Handel wrote his Water Music for
this purpose.
Dr. Ballam goes on to say that, "The human mind shuts down
after three or four repetitions of a rhythm, or a melody, or a harmonic
progression."
Bob Larson, a Christian minister and former rock musician,
remembers that in the 70's teens would bring raw eggs to a rock concert
and put them on the front of the stage. The eggs would be hard boiled by
the music before the end of the concert and could be eaten. Dr. Earl W.
Flosdorf and Dr. Leslie A. Chambers showed that proteins in a liquid medium
were coagulated when subjected to piercing high-pitched sounds
Rock
music was played in one of the boxes while Bach's music was played in the
other box. The rats could choose to switch boxes through a tunnel that
connected both boxes. Almost all of the rats chose to go into the box with
the Bach music even after the type of music was switched from one box to
the other.
She found that the plants
grew well for almost every type of music except rock and acid rock. Jazz,
classical, and Ravi Shankar turned out to be the most helpful to the plants.
However, the plants tested with the rock music withered and died. The acid
rock music also had negative effects on the plant growth.
One cannot deny the power of music. High school
students who study music have higher grade point averages that those who
don't. These students also develop faster physically. Student listening
skills are also improved through music education. The top three schools
in America all place a great emphasis on music and the arts. Hungary, Japan,
and the Netherlands, the top three academic countries in the world, all
place a great emphasis on music education and participation in music. The
top engineers from Silicon Valley are all musicians. Napoleon understood
the enormous power of music. He summed it up by saying, "Give me control
over he who shapes the music of a nation, and I care not who makes the
laws" .
Mozart's music and baroque music, with a 60 beats per minute beat pattern, activate the left and right brain. The simultaneous left and right brain action maximizes learning and retention of information. The information being studied activates the left brain while the music activates the right brain. Also, activities which engage both sides of the brain at the same time, such as playing an instrument or singing, causes the brain to be more capable of processing information.
eFieldTrips consist of four major components:1. Trip Journal First, the teacher downloads and gives students copy of a printed Trip Journal. It is a simple one page fill-in the blank type worksheet that helps to keep the students focused and provides a way for the teacher to grade student participation if he desires. The students fill-out the Trip Journal while they are completing the next component, the Virtual Visit.2. Virtual Visit The Virtual Visit is an interactive Flash movie that teaches the students about the eFieldTrip topic. It can be completed at anytime and at the student's own pace. It typically takes about 15 minutes for a student to go through the Virtual Visit.3. Ask the Experts After completing the Virtual Visit, students have an opportunity to interact with the experts. Students can ask questions via an "Ask the Experts" web form, and recieve an answer in 1-2 days.4. Live Chat Another way students can interact with experts is by participating in a live web chat at a scheduled time.
Resources in dozens of categories: "21st Century Skills, Android Apps, Art, Arts, ASCD 2012, Assessment, Audio, Blogs, C21 Webinars, Career/Tech Ed, Chemistry, Chess, Common Core State Standards, Curriculum Mapping, Dictionary, Digital Literacies, Digital Storytelling, Digital Tools, Early Childhood, eCoaching, English/Language Arts, ePortfolios, Film, Games, Global, Global Education, Global Partnerships, Government, Grades 3-5, Health, Heritage, High, High School, History, Humanities, Images In the Classroom, Infographics, Interdisciplinary, Issues, iPad/iPhone Apps, K-2, Languages, Library-Media Literacy, LiveBook, Math, Media Arts, Middle School, Mobile Learning, Music, New Forms, News, Open Learning, Physical Education, Podcast, Professional Development, Provocations for Professionals, Reading, Repositories, Science, Social Networking, Social Studies, Sustainability, Technology, The Arts, Theatre, Uncategorized, Videos, Webinars, World Languages, [and] Writing" (2012.08.29).
Line2 includes carrier-grade SMS texting - no per text charges, no special user names or email addresses required. Text to and receive texts from any SMS enabled phone. Unlimited US/Canada SMS texting on your iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.
Teaching digital literacy, information literacy, citizenship literacy via journalism lessons and resources for 7-12 grade students. I like the combination of writing journalism with the deep thinking skills needed for information fluency.
"Speaking and writing in the target language are two fundamental goals of the World Languages Department. To that end, our 5th grade Spanish students maintain a class blog (hosted by MICDS and powered by WordPress MU) where they can showcase their language skills. For their first exercise, each student posted a letter that included an audio recording created using Audacity. These posts will, over time, become a portfolio of the students' progression in Spanish."