I work at a school that does not have grades. I think this is excellent. I think it would be difficult handing out a letter or a plus, check, or minus to a student regarding different things. This way we get to WRITE about, in detail if we want, what the child is really learning. Of course there are all sorts of stress because it means we have to write little novelettes about a child and reduce them to two pages maximum. The residents only have to slog through four reports while the lead teachers write thirteen. There are a few designated in-service days where we get to write all day but they’re far and few between, (and as we just found out, the residents have to work in the day care program on one of those days, BOOO!)
Anyway, some interesting notes I’ve come up with regarding the kids academically (I’ll put up the social stuff later as it’s bound to be juicier). Please note that this is not the same child but several of them:
1. Documentation is beautiful, colorful, and detailed (due to her creative nature). Ex.: Ornately drawn snowball men and women, 11 x 3 = 22 SOBOLS (snowballs).
2. Child spends time drawing elaborate mathematical grids but does not use them for numbers. Rather, she uses them to demonstrate her knowledge of a grid and moves on.
3. Currently been reminded to TAKE HIS TIME, his tendency to rush results in bad handwriting; numbers are usually backwards and sloppy.
4. Becoming more confident with place value (18 instead of 81).
5. Using A/B patterns, ex: red and green color tiles decorate a picture of a shirt.
6. Enjoys Venn Diagrams.
7. Spends large amount of time with details, colors, filling in empty space with bright drawings and additional decoration.
8. During Shape Shop she favored octagons.