Amanda's Blog:
In reading the first four chapters
of The Art of Possibility by Roz and Ben Zander, I was struck by several
interesting ideas. First, the beginning of the book appears to be about
positive thinking, and the power of positive thinking. I recognize it
immediately because that is what I was taught growing up. All you have to
do is picture yourself doing....or being...or wearing...My mom was especially
good at helping you channel your wants and desires into positive
thoughts. To this day, my grown children will still call her (or me) and
ask us to help "think" them into (or out of) a situation. My
mother also taught me the opposite side of this coin, be careful what you ask
for...you might get it!
The second thing that resonated
with me is the idea of giving all of my students an A in the beginning, to
break down the barriers to learning. Several years ago I had a very
diverse class, with every level of learner and every kind of student, it was a
real challenge. There was a lot of competition, both real and imagined,
between the "A" students themselves, and between the "A"
students and everyone else. I was an "A" student myself, but as
a teacher I've found that I have a real affinity for those students who work
hard but don't ever seem to reach that "A" level of work. So I
gave my students the assignment of bringing in a 3-D cell model, made of any
material they wanted to use, as long as they could properly interpret the required
parts of the cell. I gave the class three days to present the project to
their classmates, and of course the "A" students signed up for the
first slots. All of their projects were elaborately done, made with
purchased materials, some even commercial grade look-a-likes. At the end
of the second day, I held two of my basketball boys back and asked them if they
had gotten some ideas for their project so they could present the last
day. They hemmed and hawed, it was too much money, too much work, too
much time, etc. You've all heard it. I jokingly said, "Oh come
on guys, I could buy a 99¢ hamburger from Wendy's and present it to this class
as a cell model...you two have to be able to come up with
something!" Well, the next day they showed up, one with a hamburger
still in the wrapper (a plant cell) and one out of the wrapper (an animal cell)
and they did a perfect job explaining how they'd arranged all of the add-ons,
condiments, etc. to represent the cell. They both received A's on their
project. Now, I thought it was a fair grade, but don't for a minute think
that my traditional "A" students liked it. They thought it was
cheating, or that I was playing favorites. I tried to explain to them my
reasoning for the A, but in the end I decided that it didn't have to be
justified. According to the rubric, the two boys earned an A. In my
heart, they deserved an A.
Maybe I should try giving them all
an A in the beginning and see what they can create when the grade isn't the
most important thing.
Response:
Amanda,
I enjoyed reading your blog. I can
see how the “A” students would balk that something so simple could fulfill the
assignment while they may have chosen complicated ideas and put hours of work
into their projects. I can also see how the whole concept of simplicity being
effective worked for the “hamburger boys” and that alone makes a great point. I
do think that “giving the A in advance” creates that space that serves the
purpose of what we are all trying to accomplish which is a higher level of
learning and some self observation.
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