E.'s As

Today I want to tell you about one of my students. Since names are changed to protect the innocent and the not-so-innocent, I'll call him E. E is a student in my 6th hour class, middle-high band. See my posts Die trying, or Just Die and The covenant for more about middle-high band and what this kid, and I, are up against.

This particular kid falls on the side of the innocent. Well, in my class, at least. I've seen his standardized test scores and I've seen his grades in his other classes. They're fairly pathetic.

And I mean that in the nicest possible way. Somehow or another, somewhere along the line, E. just isn't getting the hang of x and y, the five-sentence paragraph, the scientific method. He's not quite grasping the applications of mean and mode, mass versus weight, and what a business letter looks like.

But in my class, he excels.

Let me explain my grading methods, that is to say (forgive this little bit of teacher-talk) my formative and summative assessments. Formative being the feedback you give along the way--"great job with the rhythm in that section, now add the flam on the second beat"--and summative being the final exam kind of grade, for me, the performances. In my class, I give constant formative feedback every step of the way, and I go as fast as the kids go, and I rehearse what needs to be worked on, not what doesn't. If the kids learn, we go forward, if they don't, I stop and explain it again.

I grade the kids on their effort. I can't possibly grade them on mastery of notes and then the next week move on to the rhythm, and two weeks after that, teach about the dynamics and key signatures. Everything's mixed up, so the best way for me to gauge progress is to see the kids making effort.

And wouldn't you know, the kids who make some effort, see results. It's really not rocket science.

Anyway, E. comes into class prepared every single day, except for today, and is extremely polite at all times. In fact, I can't think of another student who is quite so polite. He always says hello and goodbye. He's the first one with his hand up when I ask for attention with my "high five" sign, he's the first one ready to play, and he knows his parts. Um, because he pays attention when I teach them to him.

I recently had the opportunity to see him in another context, at the cross country meet. He was doing his mile and a half race last week against some other schools. At the finish line, where I was poised to take nametags off of shirts as kids ran through the chute, I had the chance to see E. running as fast as he could to beat another kid and we yelled and cheered for him. Unfortunately he didn't come in before the other boy, but I could see the effort he was putting forth. Some days, the other kid beats you no matter what you do.

I am very impressed with his effort on the race course and in music, and I can see that as he gets older, he's going to be the student that everyone loves to have because of all the characteristics that I mentioned.

He's going to be that kid that a teacher in math, science, or language arts goes home at night, pours him or herself a celebratory beverage, and thinks, I'm SO happy for E., getting him from an F to a D....

In my class, he's the kid I look forward to seeing. I wish I had more like him.

But I get to say, "I'm so proud of E. for getting an A in band!"