Oct 19th Exit Slip

One of the questions we discussed in class today was "are marks accurate." Our group's discussion revolved around the fact that percentage marks are not accurate per se, but we still thought marks are necessary both for student motivation and for post-secondary institutions. If not percentage marks, then how do we grade then? We were discussing how we cannot differentiate an 80% student from an 81% student. That 1% different could be the result of one careless mistake or a small disceptancy in the marking. As a group, we decided that percentage marks are not accurate, but categorical marking might be a better way. By categorical marking, we were talking about proficiency rubrics. When we look at a percentage grade, sometimes it is hard for us teachers, and even the students and their parents to determine what that 81% means. However, if we use proficiency rubrics, teachers, students, and parents have a better grasp of what the student can improve on (i.e. student is in the developing category for substitution but in the extending category for elimination, so the student can work on solving systems using substituion).

For the second half of class, we watched a video by Alfie Kohn that highlighted the cooperative versus competitive nature of things. Personally, I thought that he was extremely biased towards everything being cooperative, as he only talked about the pros of a cooperative system and the cons of a competitive system. As a competitive individual myself, I enjoy the competitive aspect of things, like sports and games. Competitiveness drives me to be better and allows me to have something to look forward to, not to mention the adrenaline rush in an intense and close competition. I acknowledge that there are cons to the competitive aspect to things and some truth to Alfie's main arguments, but I felt like his perspective was very utopistic. Competition is a motivator for many, including myself. All in all, I believe that there are some grey areas that can incoorperate both competition and coorperation, like team competitiion (team sports). They involve a group of individuals working toward a common goal, to beat the other team. It incooperates both teamwork and competition, which is my cup of tea.