Teach Like Finland: 33 Simple Strategies for Joyful Classrooms pdfdrive com

Discuss the grades
When I first stepped into Pekka Peura’s classroom at Vantaa’s Martinlaakso
High School, I wasn’t sure what I’d find. I had heard that this high school math
teacher, with blond hair that nearly covered his ears, no longer administers any

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teacher, with blond hair that nearly covered his ears, no longer administers any
tests. His tenth grade students sat in small clusters throughout the room, looking
relaxed.
If Pekka taught a mini lesson that morning, I didn’t notice it. After
introducing me and a couple of other visitors, he let his students loose, and they
knew exactly what to do. Throughout the lesson, nearly all of the students had
their notebooks open, along with their math textbooks, as they worked to master
different areas of math. Pekka floated around the classroom, stopping often to
confer with students.
I asked one tenth grade student to explain Pekka’s system. How did everyone
know what to do? This student showed me a reference guide, which revealed a
selection of math concepts based on the curriculum. These concepts were
organized from the most basic to the most advanced, and under each category of
concepts was a list of math exercises to complete. Also, I found a key, which
suggested which number grade a student could receive upon reaching a tier of
math concepts.
In the back of the classroom, I found two boys wearing baseball caps
working on computers. Sitting in an empty chair behind them, I noticed that they
were watching a YouTube clip. But that video wasn’t math related: it was an
Ultimate Fight Club match. I was a little surprised that they didn’t even try to
hide this from me, and I asked one of them about this level of freedom. He told
me that Pekka trusts them to do what they need to do. At that moment, the
teenage boy told me, he didn’t feel like doing math—he felt like surfing
YouTube. The work he wasn’t doing during the lesson could also be completed
at home.
In Pekka’s math classes, there’s no homework, at least not in the traditional
sense. A student in his math class could, hypothetically, avoid doing any
homework during the entire seven-week period. But there’s a natural
consequence: that student would have much less time to solve problems and,
subsequently, much less time to move from mastering the basic concepts to the
most advanced ones.
For the last seven years, Pekka has developed this system in which his
students are constantly assessing themselves. Once every six or seven weeks (the
typical length of a high school marking period in Finland), his students will meet
with him individually for a brief conference, for about five to ten minutes, in
which they’ll agree on a final grade together. Usually, the student first suggests a
grade, and according to Pekka, it’s normally an accurate representation of the
student’s progress. Pekka found that, once he implemented this sort of system,
he didn’t think it was any less accurate than the traditional method of assigning a
grade through averaging test scores.

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grade through averaging test scores.
As a teacher, I’m most impressed with how Pekka has given his students
more ownership of assessment and grading, two areas that have traditionally
remained exclusively in the hands of educators. The previous section, which
explored the strategy prove the learning, focused on the topic of assessment; this
section shifts our gaze to the subject of grading and the powerful strategy of
discussing grades with students.
• • •
AT MY FINNISH PUBLIC SCHOOL, I’D OVERHEAR SEVERAL of my
colleagues, before publishing their report cards at the end of a semester, having
conversations with each of their students about grades. These communications
were typically brief. A teacher would share the grade she planned to assign a
child, and then that student would have an opportunity to respond. I found this
practice to be incredibly respectful. Not only were these teachers communicating
clearly with their students and strengthening rapport, but they were also inviting
these children to reflect on their own learning.
Reflecting on learning needs to happen in our classrooms before report cards,
but I think this simple practice I observed in Finland, communicating grades to
students and inviting their response, is essential. I’ve found that, at the end of a
marking period, most students—even the ones who seem to have little interest in
this thing called reflection—seem ready to take a step back and assess their
progress. Grades, as arbitrary as they can sometimes seem to us as teachers,
often appear to mean a lot to children. For that reason, report card season is a
great time to seize the opportunity and help students reflect on their learning.
I’ve never liked grading. Specifically, I’ve often felt that handing out
numbers has the potential to greatly diminish the joyful classroom environment
I’m trying to cultivate. One major problem is that many students appear to tether
their self-esteem to the grades they receive: good grades, smart kid; bad grades,
dumb kid. As adults, we know that’s ridiculous—of course grades shouldn’t
define you.
But grading, at least for many of us teachers, is a problem that we just can’t
avoid. I confess that, in my classroom teaching, I’ve often dealt with this issue
poorly, even after seeing good examples from my Finnish colleagues. Often I
wouldn’t feel comfortable discussing grades with my Helsinki students, so I’d
rarely initiate conversations with them. I’d assign grades, print out report cards,
administer them to my students, and hope that they wouldn’t be too upset with
the final numbers.
I wonder how much of my own experience as a student in American public
and private schools has affected my thinking about grading as a teacher. In all

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and private schools has affected my thinking about grading as a teacher. In all
my years of schooling in the United States, I can’t remember a single instance in
which a teacher took one minute to individually discuss my grades with me. I
think it would have been relatively easy to arrange (during independent work in
the classroom, for example), but somehow I can’t recall it ever happening. What
I do remember, though, is discussing grades with my parents, which seemed, in
hindsight, good yet insufficient. I think I would have benefited greatly from
having quick conversations with my teachers.
In the future, I want to do a better job of discussing grades with my students.
Pekka Peura and other Finnish teachers have shown me why it’s such a
worthwhile endeavor, even if it feels uncomfortable. Through private
discussions, we can provide our students with more understanding and
ownership of their grades. It’s a strategy that helps them to reflect on their
learning and, ultimately, supports them as they seek to achieve mastery in our
classrooms.

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