In my ‘personalised learning’ classes, I ask each student every lesson what they have learned. Imagine if we could get all students to think “What did I learn?” instead of “What grade did I get?” (freely from EducationWeekTeacher) Along with the growing fascination of creating rubrics, many teachers in Sweden seem to have started trying to make every task gradable. To learn a language, students need practice. If students are graded on every effort, won’t they get afraid of making mistakes? Learning thrives through mistakes. You practise, make mistakes, practise again and learn. The Swedish curriculum stipulates the knowledge requirements for grade E-A at the end of year 6-9 when it is time to grade. There’s no mention of grading the essential practice. From Gudrun Erikson I have learned that the greatest challenge in grading is to make the essential stuff gradable and not the easily gradable stuff essential (my translation). WebEnglish.se takes a holistic view of language, both when it comes to learning, testing and grading, encouraging teachers to discuss their students’ learning with them, assessing them by showing how to improve (feedforward). Luckily, outside the Swedish rubric mania, others share this view: “Many teachers worldwide are embracing digital learning and narrative feedback […]. As the movement toward making learning a conversation, rather than a measurement, continues, students will become independent learners.” (AdvancedED) Only independent learners can become life-long learners.
For English (ELL) Teachers
