In standards based learning and grading, grades are supposed to communicate a student’s progress toward mastering the standards of the class. They are not supposed to grade a student’s compliance with certain behaviors.

That’s one reason why teachers who use SBG typically accept late work. We are not grading the behavior of doing the work on time, but rather the progress and growth students are making toward mastery, and students could show that on a Monday when the task is assigned, or it could take them until the following Wednesday.

One thing that I struggle with as an English teacher is how reading a text as a whole class fits into this model. When we’re working on a whole-class text, whether it’s an article, a short story, or a novel, we are usually working on a lot of different standards at one time. One of them is reading and comprehending grade level text independently and proficiently (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.10 in the Common Core). Another that I commonly have students practice with whole-class texts is coming to discussions prepared, having read and researched the materials under study so that they can draw on evidence from the text to support their inferences and opinions in class discussions (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.1.A).

The behavior of doing the reading independently and on time is necessary in order for students to practice the skills of drawing inferences from the text and supporting them with evidence in discussions. Interactive, text-based discussions are central to the way that I teach English, and discussions are a great way for students to rehearse the critical thinking and analysis skills that we want them to develop (see Transforming Talk Into Text for more about the role of talk/discussion in English classes). Fruitful discussions about texts absolutely cannot take place if students have not done the reading on time, and if enough students are not doing the reading consistently, it brings my class to a grinding halt.

What I’m struggling with is how to motivate students to do the assigned reading on time without using grades to elicit compliance. Here are some things I’ve tried with varying levels of success:

• Giving them class time to read. Many see it as free time no matter how I frame it, unless we read aloud together, and then they’re not building the independent reading skills I want them to practice.
• Using shorter texts at least some of the time instead of full-length novels. The number of students doing the reading is about the same no matter the text.
• Giving them reasons why a text is relevant, interesting, and important to try to get them to engage. (I think when I do this, they hear the Charlie Brown teacher voice, though.)
• Being transparent about the skills we’re practicing and how doing the reading will help them grow and learn.
• Having them write responses using the Text-Head-Heart framework from Disrupting Thinking.
• Having them prepare for whole class discussions using this TQE model.
• Giving students access to an audio version of the text if at all possible to help struggling readers access the material.

None of these strategies has been a magic cure-all, although each one has led to some outcomes that I like. I’m definitely still looking for the best way to get students to do the reading.

This quarter, I’m trying out simple, redo-able, one word formative reading quizzes. I give students one word from the text (something that should stand out in their mind if they did the reading), and they have to explain what that one word has to do with text. If they don’t know on the day the reading is due, they can do a redo on that section with a different word of my choice on another day.  I let them redo it because I want them to know that even if they aren’t prepared and ready to discuss on that day, I still think it’s important that they read that piece of text.

I think that having these quizzes will allow me to track my students reading habits and communicate with them and their parents if I see that they are consistently not doing the reading. I’m hoping that this will help motivate them to do the reading without the grade necessarily being a punishment or reward, and that it will lead to better, deeper classroom discussions going forward.

How do you motivate students to do the reading in an SBG or even gradeless classroom? What works for you?