Vignette 4: What Counts?

When determining a grade I have always thought it to be very important to include something of a participation mark that reflects how hard a student worked in and out of class, and how they behaved during class.  Looking at this vignette they make a very convincing argument that non-achievement factors such as work habits should not be considered when determining a student’s grade, and I can understand why.  Like it says, students should really only be graded on what is in the Program of Studies, and classroom behaviour is not in the POS.  With this said however, I feel that it is still important to give students some sort of grade indicating their achievements in work habits, behaviour, and participation in the classroom.  As teachers, we are told that we are teaching students more than just the curriculum; we are teaching them the hidden curriculum as well.  Because we are supposed to be, and usually expected to be, teaching this hidden curriculum, I think it is important that students are aware of how they are doing in this area as well.  Perhaps it would be a good idea for each teacher the students have to have a standard participation and work effort checklist or rubric, and that all of these can be graded not within separate classes, but as a separate mark altogether.  That way it doesn’t skew the mark students should be receiving based on the Program of Studies, but it still shows their achievements in this area as well.