The Difference Between Grades and Grades and the Correlation

Grades are considered the epitome of school success; if you have good grades, you were successful in school and the opposite is true for bad grades.

Grades are also the main deterrent for behavioral norms: the lower the grade the more the students are willing to please and the higher the grades the less engaged they appear in class. At least from my experience this seems to be the general correlation aside from high school where the opposite is true. Freshman, typically 9th graders, tend to act out more than upperclassmen. Once again this is not always the case but just from my general observations.

How are school grades and letter grades connected? Without doing too much scientific research the quickest way to answer this question is to make a personal connection. I remember my least favorite class and my favorite class from every school I've been to including high school. The class I loathed was physics and my favorite was current events. During physics, I tried my damnedest to pay attention and understand what was going on but I could never reach a level of needed engagement to fully activate my true potential in this class. I ended up just passing this class with a C- and I was a student who never received lower than a B grade in any class. Current events on the other hand was so engaging and I actually looked forward to going to that class everyday which is quite rare for a high school student. The entire class was always active in this class through discussions and a Socratic method of teaching that actually grew our minds in a more intellectual and analytical way. Regardless of the enjoyment of the class I still worked hard to make sure I was always on top of my work and debates in the class in order to receive my A- grade. The lesson here is that even though I worked hard in both classes and tried everyday, the level of my engagement in physics was far below that of current events resulting in two whole letter grades lower.

It's day two at SPS and since I am in a classroom that teaches three different history classes: 8th grade American History, 7th grade Western Civ (World History), and current events.Even though the students are still going over introductory information like the syllabus, class expectations, and ice breakers, it is already apparent the difference in grade levels. The eighth graders seem less likely to care about anything other than if they are getting homework from their history class. Seventh graders on the other have less engagement than the sixth graders but seem to care about asking questions more which is a sign of comprehension and a want to understand and do well. If students don't care one way or the other, what's the point of asking questions?

Basically grades have nothing to so with how old a student is, grades have to do with motivation and connections. How does a teacher make an academic connection to students?
To be continued....