Most high school teachers assign tasks that are required to earn good grades, such as homework or group work during class. Attendance, going to class with prepared materials, and participation also find their way into teachers’ grade books. While such items are important in many cases, there are ways for teachers to encourage good work habits without compromising the intent of academic grades.
Separate Grades Give a Clearer Picture
A separate grade for “work habits” can communicate important information to students and their families, and more clearly indicate what strengths and weaknesses contribute to a student’s performance on content standards. The academic grade goes on a report card, and is calculated into GPA, while the work habit grade is reported as such, for consumers -- whether they are parents or colleges -- to interpret and use as they please.
A case in point: many teachers and educational researchers debate the value of homework. Whether the extra practice leads to greater understanding, one thing most teachers agree on is that the mere task of doing the homework is not a measure of whether students have learned material. Often, teachers simply award points or credit for work completed or attempted.
Work Habits Motivate Improvement
By creating a work habit grade, teachers can grade homework, class work, participation tasks, or whatever else goes on in the classroom, without punishing students who learn in diverse ways. Logical categories include: homework, class work, preparedness, group work, organization, and active learning.
For example, students are assigned several problems for math. Since the point of the task is to give students practice, students who did the practice should be rewarded. But if they get the answers wrong, or don’t follow proper procedures, a passing score shouldn’t falsely denote understanding of math concepts. Thus the teacher assigns points for turning in the homework on time, or making the attempt, which is recorded as a work habit.
Later, the student will have the opportunity to show understanding on an objective assessment. Those grades belong right where they have gone: in the academic grade book.
Similarly, teachers can assign some problems for class work that do not count on a student’s academic grade. Or, maybe group cooperation is important, so a score gets entered for performance during a group task.
Teachers Can Target Specific Study Skills
The value of a work habit grade is that teachers can separate performance on the standard from other desirable behaviors. Maybe a student works very well in groups, or is prepared all the time, but struggles graphing linear inequalities. Two grades would reflect the good work habits, contrasted with an academic grade that indicates the need for remediation.
Just as with content standards, work habit standards can be written with sub-standards. The active learning standard might have sub-standards: asks appropriate questions, reflects on past performance, and perseveres through difficult work. Likewise, homework performance could be subdivided: turns homework in on time, does homework neatly, and does homework completely.
Many new grade book software programs allow teachers to enter scores for standards. Grade book categories can be created for work habit standards, or teachers can use a spreadsheet programs to keep track of various work habit scores.
Work habit grades give teachers more flexibility in accounting and reporting systems. They also give students more accurate information about their performance on important factors of learning.
