Stickers and grades...effective?

Monday night was probably one of the most interesting and engaging classes to date. We were all told to close our eyes and someone came around and put stickers on our foreheads. Then we had to find our groups and of course, we all assumed we had to find them by colors. We then were told to sit in certain parts of the room and given cookies. The group of three got maybe 40ish cookies; the group of five, 10; the group of 20, 5. Then those left began their presentation on the Last Lecture. During the lecture, we were told to write our failed dreams from when we were young. We were all given sheets of paper but the group of three was given crayons to use and treated better.



After the presentation, we discussed grading and how our students are affected by it. Typically, students that sit toward the front of the class get better grades because they are put in the spotlight at all times and they are in constant view of the teacher. On the other hand, students that sit in the back of the classroom will usually not earn as high of a grade. The main reason seems to be that they feel they can chat and not pay attention because they are usually not in the view of the teacher and are futher away from the action of the classroom. So then why do we have assigned seats? If we wanted to give every student a fair chance to succeed, a teacher should not assign seats. That way every student has the chance to be in the front and focus more. However, I do understand we students are assigned to sit in a certain area. More often than not, it is for the teacher to connect faces with names. Sometimes they may sit a certain student by another so one can help the other focus in class.

I think this activity made us think about how we could organze a classroom. However, I think every classroom is different and each teacher should find what works for him or her.