On 3/18/2011 9:36 AM, Stanley Latesky wrote:
If only someone would develop a video game approach to learning, the majority of our new generation of students would initially be excited about attending class.
In my own way, I’ve done this, with a fair degree of success.
Note that it is impossible to “win” a video game. The only feedback you get is negative–usually the loss of a “life”. You play until you lose by running out of “lives”. However, the appeal seems to be that you can play the game over and over again until you learn how it works and how to succeed, making a little more progress each time.
To the extent that I can make this work within the grading systems of the schools I have taught in, I have tried to do exactly the same thing. After we finish a unit, I give a test. Some students do well on the test, and some don’t. Students who didn’t do well are invited to come to me for tutoring and a re-test. I allow the re-test score to replace the original score. The maximum grade I allowed on a re-test was 90% when I taught in schools that use a traditional (A,B,C,D,F) grading system, or a maximum of 3.5 on the 4,3,2,1 criteria-based system my current school uses. (The ability to earn that last 10% or last 0.5 on the 4-point scale is the reward for students who learned the material the first time.) I do not place a limit on the number of times a student can take a re-test (other than the practical limits of my own availability, my ability to keep generating new test questions, and the end of the grading period).
Over the years, students who wanted good grades have come to me repeatedly for tutoring and re-tests. Some became “regulars,” in my room after school week after week. All of them earned good grades by eventually mastering the course content–in some cases my chemistry course was the only class they did well in. As far as I know, no student or parent has ever called me unfair.
Once, in a professional development meeting at a previous school, I explained this policy and advocated it as a way to help students master course content. My recommendation was met with a chorus of naysayers, though one colleague did point out that the highest-stakes tests–the NCLB-required graduation tests, the SAT, GRE, the bar (for lawyers), civil service exam, etc., all allow (and even encourage) people to take the test multiple times.
My mother often quoted, “There’s no such thing as failure unless you set deadlines.” (Unfortunately, I don’t know the attribution for the quote.) In my experience, the more artificial deadlines I can remove, the more successful my students seem to be.
Originally posted to the ChemEd-L discussion list.
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