I was part of a session recently and the speaker was discussing differentiated instruction, something I am sure we have all heard before. In the midst of the presentation, he brought up our incredibly ridiculous grading scale. Why is that an A, B, C, and D all are in a ten point increment scale, but the F is a 0-59 increment scale? Holy moly!

That’s really insane when you think about it.

So, no matter if you are an emergent bilingual student or not, a student could conceivably make an 86%, 86%, 86%, and 0%, and the end grade would be a 64.5% (without weights). Now, does that really relate to the academic mentality of the student? I would think not. And let’s say that we go ahead and just take that grade, without letting them redo, or let them retake the test, or whatever it may be, and average in their zero. Is that still helping? In real life, if you fail your driving test, you are allowed to go back and re-take the test, pass, and get a driver’s license. They don’t just take your first grade, nor do they average in the failing grade from before.

So, when we grade, or give homework to our emergent bilingual students, let’s not set them up to fail. Do not give unrealistic assignments that you know they will probably never be able to do accurately or without much distress. Remember, quality over quantity. And if they do fail, let them redo whatever it was again. They learn nothing from a zero, but a ton by the compassion of a teacher.

Lastly, I had a student come to me, when I was in the classroom, who wanted to quit. He did not understand and it was just getting too hard. He felt defeated, and therefore was losing power to keep on trying for success. My heart broke and I told him that he COULD do it, and to keep on trying, because I was counting on him to go to college and remember me, and to come back to the school where I was teaching. He laughed, I gave him his book back, and he was on his way. As I left him go, I prayed that he wouldn’t be the one that drops out because he couldn’t take it anymore… thankfully, he graduated and is very successful. Remember, our words matter and they can be the difference of a student giving up because it is hard, OR building tenacity because it is hard. You decide.