Taking Risks in the Classroom

This week, I read the Foreword, What If?, and Chapter 1 ("The Evolving Role of the Educator") in Katie Martin's Learner-Centered Innovation: Spark Curiosity, Ignite Passion, and Unleash Genius.

The question I chose to answer was about how to encourage taking risks in the classroom. This is something that I've been thinking about for years because I've been trying to reconcile two seemingly opposite needs in the classroom: the need to provide a safe space for mistakes and the growth that comes with them and the need to have assignments that are graded at some point for my trimester report cards.

(image from http://www.wbrettwilson.ca/redefining-success/)

I have a poster in my classroom that says something like "Never be afraid to make mistakes; that shows that you're trying something new" - but it's badly misspelled! I can't remember it exactly and I can't get to it now, but I always think about the student who wrote a reflection about it for her journal and basically said, "That's crap because we always get a lower grade for mistakes, so why try?" 



That idea has stuck with me for years now, even after the student is in college. I started to wonder how to provide genuine opportunities for students to practice and make mistakes and take risks that would eventually lead to mastery of the concepts, and I haven't come up with much, sadly. I don't grade rough drafts except for completion (full credit if it gets done on time, partial if it's late, but nothing about the content is graded - I just use Google Docs to give comments), and I don't grade grammar practices (I assess the concepts taught in the students' writing). However, I don't know about providing a space for "real world" mistakes.

However, I do see a real need for this. I welcome any suggestions and fully support the idea that "Learning is messy. Today's technology provides easy access to answers, but if we focus only on the answers and not on thinking, questioning, and solving, we rob students (and ourselves) of great learning experiences. Perhaps more significantly, we fail to develop the critical behaviors that will empower them (and us) to be lifelong learners" (Martin, 20). Only by making the mistakes and avoiding the easy answers will our students really engage in the learning process that will take them far beyond our classrooms. Only then can we begin to fight the "Is this on the test?" question and the fear of losing points and replace them with genuine interest, perseverance, and the willingness and ability to learn from the mistakes that they see as lessons, not failure.