The Art of Possibility – The Third Practice: Giving an A

The Art of Possibility – 3
The Third Practice: Giving an A

In this practice, the authors suggest that we give all of our students an A at the outset– “the only grade that will put them at ease, not as a measurement tool, but as an assessment to open them up to possibility.” The only requirement the author makes is that his students write him a letter dated the following May in which they tell the story of what they will have become by then, to explain the grade of A. He explains that Giving the A “allows the teacher to line up with her students to produce the outcome, rather than lining up with the standards against these students.” (p. 33)

What a great way to describe what we do in our classrooms! We line up with our students in pursuit of an outcome. We are a team, a partnership.

I don’t grade my elementary school students, so for me “Giving an A” is metaphorical. Giving an A “invents and recognizes a universal desire in people to contribute to others.” So, in my classroom, I need to help invent roles for my students that allow them to feel they are making an important, perhaps unique, contribution. Ben Slavic’s classroom jobs do this. Gerry’s fictional attributions do this.

We all have tales of one difficult student, and how everything changed when that student was given a specific job, role, distinction, identity, attribute, or recognition. Sometimes we have to search for the right way to Give the A, but once we’ve given it– metaphorically– our students become precisely who we want to have in our classrooms.