Grading on a Curve in the Foreign Language Classroom

“But our Biology teacher grades on a curve, why can’t you Mademoiselle?” Students usually ask some variation of this question towards the end of first quarter. I should probably come up with a less dismissive answer, but I say, “I’ve never been in a foreign language class where the teacher grades on a curve.”

Let me really explain myself here. Over the years, it’s become clear to me that a grade curve does not belong in a foreign language class. It creates competition for an “A.” For the record, I teach at a Baltimore City public high school. In French level 1, the freshman are skeptical about learning a new language. Some even tell me they don’t speak English well enough, so how are they going to speak French? Through surveys, I’ve learned some students believe they’ll never leave the country to study abroad. Why learn French? Simply stated, in order to graduate from a Maryland public high school, two years of a language is needed. My goal as the teacher is to help fulfill this requirement, but to also teach how to communicate effectively in French. Ce n’est pas bon if the student doubts or doesn’t see the worth of the subject taught from the beginning. Furthermore, a grade curve can undermine class morale, and low class morale can lower student ability.

I realize a grade curve helps the student reflect on their performance in relation to all other students in the class. In an ideal world, students may take the class more seriously and study harder as they realize earning an “A” is limited. First, this isn’t the type of intrinsic motivation I want to instill. Second, I’m concerned about the students who aren’t motivated by the grade curve. The students who earn a “D” (in Baltimore City public schools 69 or below), even with the grade curve. For these students, their self-worth just took a hit. Competition, especially in the foreign language classroom, hinders an inclusive classroom environment. No support or cohesion in the classroom means basically no student participation. Language in the classroom is about production. This means skits, presentations, class discussions, small groups,  partner discussions, and choral readings to name a bunch of important activities.  

Avoiding grading on a curve doesn’t immediately encourage students to collaborate or support one another. It’s necessary to make sure students understand that every student has the opportunity to earn an “A.” Furthermore, students need to get to know each other as quickly as possible. Icebreakers may seem cheesy, but they’re vital if you want to build community. Students are more willing to speak French in front of their peers if they feel as if they’re part of the group.

Now that a level of competition is removed and a collaborative culture in the classroom exists, how do I extend it outside of instructional time? How do I get them to help one another?By helping one another, they’re teaching each other and that’s one of best ways to learn. I don’t want to continuously assign group assignments. The students don’t live close to one another. How do I teach the skill of group studying? At the university level, the author and professor of the class “built a collaborative culture with a reward system where one person’s success benefited someone else.” How do I replicate that in a high school foreign language class? I could try his tactic, “to pick the one question about which they were most unsure, and write down the name of a classmate who might know the answer — the equivalent of a lifeline on the game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” If the classmate got it right, they would both earn the points.” But what about writing or speaking assessments? This tactic works for multiple choice. I’m thinking about limiting time on group work in class, especially when working on skits. Groups need to be of mixed ability (high-low) and so the time limit challenges weak students, but also pushes strong students to finish. I can suggest they continue practicing during study hall, during coach class, or after-school in the school library. Then when it’s time for the interactive oral assessment (a one-on-one interview cued by an image), if the student doesn’t know how to respond and they say the name of a classmate who might answer correctly, they both could earn the points, if the classmate gets it right. I’ll have to try this and report back.

link to article: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/09/11/opinion/sunday/why-we-should-stop-grading-students-on-a-curve.html

Clashes of Culture: Racial Tensions in Integrating Schools

The Hair I Wear, The Skin I’m In: This Is Me. Please, Let Me Be.

Earlier this summer, students at the Pretoria High School for Girls clustered outside of their school’s towering gates to protest the school’s code of conduct that placed stringent limits on the ways in which the girls could wear their natural hair.

Several students reporting being ordered by school staff members to “fix” their hair. The recommended fixes—chemical straighteners and hot combs—were embarrassing and degrading to the African girls who perceived the school’s code of conduct as an obstruction of their cultural expression and identity. In an interview with NPR, Tiisetso Phetla, a recent graduate of the school, recounted how girls could be removed from class or excluded from assemblies as punishment for wearing their hair in an afro, “It was very difficult because they tell you that either you look barbaric or… to remove that nest off your head.”

Founded in 1902, the Pretoria High School for Girls, was an all-white school under apartheid, admitting its “first black, non-diplomatic pupils” in 1991. Phetla laments, “So you'd always be on the short end of the stick as a black child in the school or a mixed-race child because you were never included in the blueprint of the school when it started.” When girls at the school grew frustrated with the school’s attempt to dictate their hair in addition to discouraging them from speaking their native African languages, students began staging protests. The protests quickly went viral, sparking a national debate about the subtle and unsubtle ways that blacks are forced to conform to white culture.

After thousands signed an online petition supporting the Pretoria students, the head of the province’s education department organized meetings with students, parents and staff to address the students’ concerns. Soon after, the department ordered the suspension of the school’s controversial hairstyle code of conduct clause.

A Model For Baltimore City and County Schools

Multiple studies have shown the effectiveness of diversity on decreasing the achievement gap between minority and white student groups. However, integration is challenging and for schools strategizing new ways to compensate for increased minority enrollment, dialogue has proven to be a powerful tool for exploration and reconciliation.

Schools like Digital Harbor High in Baltimore City is one example of how thoughtful dialogue can be used as an vulnerary instrument in schools where shifting demographics lead to racial tensions. In 2014, the school’s growing Latino immigrant population faced ongoing conflict with the school’s dominant African American population. The mounting tension exploded into a weeklong procession of violence that culminated with the death of a student.

The following year, the school, along with a local Latino group called CASA de Maryland, started a program called SPIRIT to bring students together to find common ground, embrace their differences, and get to know each other. The group opens with an icebreaker before students begin answering questions about themselves that lead to honest dialogue about the students’ unique experiences and their perspectives on the challenges they face. So far, SPIRIT appears to be working and Digital Harbor High hopes to expand the model to other schools.

Final Thought

For those of us who champion integration and believe in its efficacy, we must also champion dialogue. When minority student groups enter schools with fixed cultures, rules, and social norms, there must be a safe space for those students to meet with their peers as well as stakeholders to raise their voices, questions, and concerns. Integration cannot be oversimplified and race relations cannot be overlooked. When a school’s demographics begin to shift, so should the school’s resources and staff, and ostensibly, so should its rules and policies.

From South Africa to Baltimore, Maryland, the effect of open dialogue between students, parents, and administrators is understanding, compromise and reconciliation. If Baltimore hopes to become a successful center of education, it must not look past integration and it must not neglect the dialogue that needs to accompany it. We must act before the protests erupt, before the violence catalyzes, before the lives are lost to create a culture of inclusion in our schools.

Sources:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/protests-over-black-girls-hair-rekindle-debate-about-racism-in-south-africa/2016/09/02/27f445da-6ef4-11e6-993f-73c693a89820_story.html#comments

http://www.npr.org/2016/09/04/492599435/girls-at-south-african-high-school-protesting-hair-and-language-bans

http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/09/06/492417635/a-ban-on-black-hairstyles-raises-deeper-issues-about-race

https://awethu.amandla.mobi/petitions/stop-racism-at-pretoria-girls-high?source=twitter-share-button

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/bs-md-county-school-year-20150818-story.html

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/sun-investigates/bs-md-ci-brown-v-board-20140511-story.html

http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-08-05/one-baltimore-school-students-are-easing-racial-tensions-learning-each-other

https://fsrn.org/2014/06/creating-common-ground-amid-racial-tensions-in-baltimore/

Determining Discipline

   “I went to Catholic school, and that kind of stuff did not fly there,” is a phrase that I repeatedly hear myself say when talking to my team members or teacher friends about students’ behavior and discipline.  When I was in school, at a tiny Catholic school in Dundalk, Maryland, disruptive behavior simply wasn’t tolerated.  Little things that I deal with as a teacher every day—talking back, yelling and being disrespectful to peers, pushing, and being disruptive in class—simply weren’t allowed.  There wasn’t a discussion, there weren’t any options or second changes.  Once you got in trouble, you were in trouble and that was the end of that.

            I believe that my upbringing in schools (I followed my K-8 Catholic School with an all girl’s Catholic High School) really plays into how I feel about discipline as a person and as a teacher.  I consider myself a strict teacher, and I set high behavioral expectations for my students.  One reason is that I need non-disruptive behavior in order to teach the most effectively and also because I am trying to prepare them to function further in their education and in real life.

The Articles

            As I was perusing articles this week to determine what I wanted to blog about, I came across two articles in the New York Times that were themed in student discipline.  The first article, “The Unintended Consequences of Taking a Hard Line on School Discipline,” discussed the unintended consequences of the “Zero Tolerance” policy.  It explains the roots of the policy and how it has been expanded quite beyond its intended reach of stopping gun violence to suspending students for minor incidences, such as kicking a trash can or drawing on a desk.  The second article, “An Effective but Exhausting Alternative to High School Suspensions,” discussed alternative methods to high school suspensions, specifically focusing on restorative justice and also the need to discuss race and its relation to discipline.

My Thoughts

            The first article that I read was pretty eye-opening for me.  It mentioned several incidences where elementary school students, even those with diagnosed disabilities, were being suspended for minor incidences, like drawing on a desk.  Honestly my first thought was where is this happening? Because the people I have spoken to can’t get any type of disciplinary action taken at all.  In some of my own experiences, and in those of some teachers I have talked to, it is very difficult to get disciplinary action taken, even for behavior significantly more disruptive, and at times more dangerous than that.  It’s interesting to me that there seem to be discipline at opposite ends of the spectrum, and I’m wondering if there’s some type of, to be cliché, happy medium that could be achieved. 

Although I don’t agree with the severity of a suspension for a minor infraction like kicking a trashcan, honestly if it were me it would just be easier for me to deal with it in my classroom, I do understand where those teachers and principals stand.  Any teacher will tell you that one student can change the whole dynamic of your classroom.  It’s very difficult to teach a room full of students with varying degrees of prior knowledge, and it becomes even more difficult when you have a student who is being disruptive.  I think that these teachers are probably trying their best to do what is best for their students, and getting those students out of the room somehow was the best thing they could think of.  I also think that in a way, not being strict enough is doing a disservice to disruptive students.  If teachers don’t impart some kind of discipline, how will the students be prepared to make decisions and face consequences in the “real world” when they are adults.

I also think, like with a lot of issues in education, concerning discipline it becomes a question of what is more important.  Is it more important to keep this student in school and to try and work out a problem with him or is it more important to teach the majority of my students the skills and concepts they need to learn.  Tied in with this idea of importance is also the idea of fairness.  How is it fair to my students who are following directions to spend so much time with this one student who is being disruptive?  I will admit I have thought this many times myself when dealing with challenging behavior issues.  As teachers, everyone wants us to be fair to all of our students, so how do you fairly decide who gets how much of your time?

Reading the second article was honestly a little uncomfortable for me.  I mean I came from schools where I lost recess if my shirt was untucked, got detention if I forgot to wear my formal uniform for mass, and literally got cornered against a wall by an angry nun.  In comparison to that the idea of restorative justice that this article was pushing, just seemed so wishy-washy to me.  I keep hearing in my head that the students should just listen because I’m the adult in the room and they should know better, but I also realize that not everyone has the same upbringing that I did in school or otherwise.  I understand the theory behind it, talking out the problems in a calm way, giving all parties a chance to voice their side, and then determining a solution, and I think it is more beneficial for students to have this type of training in the long run, but I struggle with the practicality of it. 

My school does not currently use restorative justice practices, but my sister’s school does, so I asked her a few questions about it.  She has to have a morning meeting every day that focuses on some aspect of conflict resolution, team building, social training.  While this is valuable and her students enjoy that time, it does take away instructional time.  I see this as an issue of what do schools, districts, and the country care about more—the students’ social, emotional states and their conflict resolution abilities or their test scores. 

I have heard through various articles and discussions that restorative justice works and improves school behavior, unlike the zero tolerance policy, but I am very interested to see what it looks like day-to-day.  I value the research and data, but I much prefer to hear from teachers in schools similar to mine about how these practices actually look and how much they have to do to prepare and to facilitate and to determine if these practices are actually working for them.  Since there are varying degrees of restorative justice, I also wonder which practices on that continuum are working better for students and teachers.

Although this wasn’t mentioned in either article, I think that discipline and behavior in schools is intertwined with discipline and behavior at home.  I think that it is crucial to have a home-school connection concerning behavior and discipline so that students have that consistency, and I think that is what is lacking in a lot of school systems.  I have noticed from my time teaching and student teaching in various schools, and with talking to other teachers, that in schools that have lower SES statuses, restorative justice, and practices like it, are seeming to become closer to the norm.  I think this has a lot to do with parental involvement.  I think that in a lot of instances, in my own experiences at least, students who come from lower socio-economic backgrounds, or at least who attend schools that are less-affluent, have less training and practice from home about talking out problems and conflict resolution, whereas students that come from more affluent schools, with higher levels of parental involvement, have more training and practice from home.  They come to school with more of these skills, so they don’t need as much of the training and practice in the classroom because they are learning about this at home.  I wonder if other teachers who have been in different types of schools have the same experiences that I have had or if mine is a unique situation to myself or my district.

In general, I found that there needs to be some type of balance in school systems, and really individual schools, about what constitutes disciplinary action, such as suspensions, and what can be dealt with in the classroom through restorative justice.  I think that leaning too much in either direction can be harmful to both the students and the teacher.  For example, suspending a student who is constantly being disruptive—talking, being disrespectful, etc.—is not going to deter that behavior, especially if they are not getting a lot of social training at home.  However, consistently allowing a student to be disruptive and disrespectful in the classroom without any type of disciplinary consequences can take away from the other students’ ability to learn, and that in my opinion is not right.  I also think that students need to buy-in to whatever practices the school is using, which is probably the toughest obstacle.  In the accompanying video of “Unintended Consequences of Taking a Hard Line on School Discipline,” Bertie Simmons, a school principal uses a student court to determine academic consequences, rather than punitive ones.  However, I really only think this can work if the students buy into the idea that they need to complete the academic consequences.  I think that one of the biggest obstacles to having suspensions actually deter behavior is that the students are struggling in some way and then are out of school for a pro-longed period where they are not working on their issues or their social skills, which leads to continued disruptive behavior and more kids dropping out of school.  However, I wonder how teachers and administrators get students to understand and to buy into restorative justice so that it can work for them in their classrooms.

           

If you are interested in reading either article, I have provided the links below:

Unintended Consequences of Taking a Hard Line on School Discipline

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/03/us/the-unintended-consequences-of-taking-a-hard-line-on-school-discipline.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Feducation&action=click&contentCollection=education&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

An Effective but Exhausting Alternative to High-school Suspensions

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/11/magazine/an-effective-ut-exhausting-alternative-to-high-school-suspensions.html