Will They Work?

January and February in seventh grade... I think these are the two months students work the least. If I remember correctly (and I think there's something that helps me forget every year), these are the two months that we think "seventh graders just don't care about their grades." (Heck - even with Genius Hour! Have you seen Karl Lindgren-Streicher's "The Suck"? It was written on this date in January, two years ago!)

Well, in a no-grades classroom, they seem to care even less.

Because really, they're coming up with their own grade, right?

Yes... and no. Yes, in our ELA class, they tell me what grade they believe they've earned for reading, writing, and grammar, and then average these. (I know - still not a perfect system!!) However, they have to give evidence for each, and also set goals for the next quarter. These goals will be reflected upon and used towards their grade in the next quarterly conference.

I often hear doubt when I talk about not having any grades in the gradebook until progress reports come out. "Why will they work if they don't get a grade for it?"

And THIS is why I went all in - because many seventh graders WON'T work if they're not getting a grade for it - in a TRADITIONAL classroom that includes points for large and small assignments. 

Thank goodness I do not have a traditional classroom.

If we don't stress *** and follow through *** that it's all about the learning, they will not work (as much). How can we mean that it's all about the learning if we're assigning points?

I'm preparing to write on our walls. Yes, write on our walls. The cement blocks, to be exact. (I received permission last year and will this year be brave enough to do it!) We're going to create reading goals that will take us into June. We'll paint our progress towards our goals on the cement blocks. (In fact, I just found a great ONLINE tool to do so! Check out this spreadsheet via Flippity!) My seventh graders don't think that our homework to read for 20 minutes a night is as important as their other homework. I know this and am reminded of this weekly when I sit with students and talk about their reading during tiny conferences on Fridays.

So what do I do? I go back and talk about the importance of reading. I go back over the reasons WHY we should read every day. Today I did it via Penny Kittle's way in Book Love. During our reading time in class, we took down the pages we read in ten minutes, then did the calculations listed here.

After we did some math in ELA class, we reviewed again just WHY we should be reading.

We need to have a rock-solid WHY, so when students struggle with the HOW, they have motivation to put forth more effort.

Sure. Some of my students won't do the work - regardless of whether there is a grade attached or not. That won't stop me from striving to get the message of WHY out to each child I meet - so we use our 180 days to talk about LEARNING, and not spend any time talking about points or grades.

In the comments, please share the ways you motivate your students to learn - especially if you're going sans grades!