Assignment 4

Grading - an ingredient to conquer goals



Grading in school has been a lively discussed topic since Sweden had a new government 2006. Our new government wants to introduce grades in school earlier than today. Now pupils get their first grade in 8th grade, however this is about to change. Our Swedish pupils will soon get their first grade in 6th grade instead. The new government has also introduced written reports from 1st grade to show a pupil`s progress. I believe introduction of grades earlier is a good thing, because I think it will put more focus on the goals of the Swedish Curriculum and Syllabuses for compulsory.

Grades earlier forces teachers to make the goals more visible to the children and to the parents. I know most teachers are well familiar with the goals and many teachers are very good at making the goals visible to pupils and parents. But grading will force more teachers to make the goals noticeable. I believe it is very important for the children to be aware of why they are doing things in school and also see their own progress. If the goals are visible and often discussed, then the children will also be aware of what goals they achieve. Conquest of new goals will make the children grow and get more confident. The pupils need to feel, they succeed every day.

Teachers can´t hide children who have difficulties reaching the goals, so easy. I don´t believe teachers in general have tried to hide pupils´ difficulties before. But when you as a teacher have a conversation with a pupil´s parents you want it to be nice and friendly. It is then easy to tell some of the difficulties the pupil has and then also smooth things over, because you don´t want to upset the parents or put a label on the pupil. With grading you can´t hide difficulties. You must put the cards on the table and try to communicate and collaborate with the parents.

Not reaching a grade can help the pupil getting more help. All schools want to have a high level reaching the goals. If a pupil tends to not pass the lowest grade, the pupil needs some kind of extra help. Grading on a paper is making a pupil´s progress very clear. If the pupil´s progress isn´t what it ought to be, grading shows this. Perhaps this can make our pupils get help with their difficulties in time. It is very important that we teacher´s don´t wait for the child to mature. The pupil needs help.

I can agree with those who are afraid of putting a label on the pupils. But we must remind ourselves about our mission as a teacher. We work in school, because we want to make all our pupils reaching the goals. We must help the pupils succeed. Perhaps grading is one of the ingredients to make it happen?