If I am working hard, I know it. If I am slacking a little, I know it. I have the self awareness to accurately assess my own effort level, but do children in our schools have the same ability?
I gave my 'bottom set' year 10 class a set of real GCSE exam paper questions a couple of days ago. When I gave the questions to them I stressed that I wanted them to try them. If they didn't know the answer that was alright; they could move on and look at other questions that they could tackle. i told them that their scores really did not matter. I wanted to know how they would react when they were faced with the reality of GCSE question.
When I told them to start, there was an outbreak of spontaneous silence, which lasted for fifteen minutes - believe me, that is not normal behaviour for this group. Everyone in the class was fully engaged with the paper. In fact it was one of those times when the teacher was truely superfluous. They would have carried on at the end of the fifteen minutes, but I wanted to show them the mark scheme and the examiner's report.
On the wall of my room I have the school's effort grades and descriptions: 1 is always on task, 3 is acceptable effort and 5 requires improvement. I asked them to think about their effort while they were doing the exam paper. I gave then a few moments thinking time and then I asked them to tell me their effort based on the scale. Everyone one I asked rated themselves as 3. I was shocked. I could not see how those learners could have put in more effort during the time they were working on the exam questions. I then told them what I though. I told them that, in my opinion, everyone had been working at effort 1 - always on task. I went on to say that if they could continue to work at that level then I could not ask for more.
As you can imagine, I have reflected on this since. The learners in that class were in a 'bottom set'. It is clear to me that they could not accurately assess their own effort. It was almost as though these children had internalised being labelled as 'Effort 3'. It appeared that no matter what their actual effort, they were 3. For me, this is a massive problem. I wonder how much these children had been involved in assessing their effort previously. Was it the case that when their assessment arrived year in year out it said Effort 3? I wonder how many of the teachers who gave those grades involved the learners in the process of giving effort grades. Certainly, that is what I have done myself. Faced with giving effort grades, and other information, for several classes in a year group, the easy option is to go down a column and fill in figures quickly as they are other, more important, things that need to be done. This is a natural reaction. Having seen how my year 10 learners were unable to assess their own effort I am going to ensure that I involve my students far more in the process of assessing effort. Let's face it, the only person who really knows how much effort someone is putting in, is that person - or at least it should be.
I gave my 'bottom set' year 10 class a set of real GCSE exam paper questions a couple of days ago. When I gave the questions to them I stressed that I wanted them to try them. If they didn't know the answer that was alright; they could move on and look at other questions that they could tackle. i told them that their scores really did not matter. I wanted to know how they would react when they were faced with the reality of GCSE question.
When I told them to start, there was an outbreak of spontaneous silence, which lasted for fifteen minutes - believe me, that is not normal behaviour for this group. Everyone in the class was fully engaged with the paper. In fact it was one of those times when the teacher was truely superfluous. They would have carried on at the end of the fifteen minutes, but I wanted to show them the mark scheme and the examiner's report.
On the wall of my room I have the school's effort grades and descriptions: 1 is always on task, 3 is acceptable effort and 5 requires improvement. I asked them to think about their effort while they were doing the exam paper. I gave then a few moments thinking time and then I asked them to tell me their effort based on the scale. Everyone one I asked rated themselves as 3. I was shocked. I could not see how those learners could have put in more effort during the time they were working on the exam questions. I then told them what I though. I told them that, in my opinion, everyone had been working at effort 1 - always on task. I went on to say that if they could continue to work at that level then I could not ask for more.
As you can imagine, I have reflected on this since. The learners in that class were in a 'bottom set'. It is clear to me that they could not accurately assess their own effort. It was almost as though these children had internalised being labelled as 'Effort 3'. It appeared that no matter what their actual effort, they were 3. For me, this is a massive problem. I wonder how much these children had been involved in assessing their effort previously. Was it the case that when their assessment arrived year in year out it said Effort 3? I wonder how many of the teachers who gave those grades involved the learners in the process of giving effort grades. Certainly, that is what I have done myself. Faced with giving effort grades, and other information, for several classes in a year group, the easy option is to go down a column and fill in figures quickly as they are other, more important, things that need to be done. This is a natural reaction. Having seen how my year 10 learners were unable to assess their own effort I am going to ensure that I involve my students far more in the process of assessing effort. Let's face it, the only person who really knows how much effort someone is putting in, is that person - or at least it should be.
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