You may not grade on a curve, but you should definitely praise on one

Teachers do a lot of marking.

Lots and lots.

While I’ve been on teacher prac the last few weeks I’ve been doing a lot of written online classwork feedback.

One thing I’ve not been able to do is effectively differentiate effort from results.

The reason?

I don’t know the students really well.

I don’t know the students who can coast along and get the correct answers.

I don’t know the students who will need to put in a heap of effort to achieve a decent standard.

What does this mean?

You praise on a curve.

While marking can be rather black or white, made up of  the correct and incorrect answers, effort is not.

You encourage based upon what they are capable of and what you expect.

A struggling student should receive praise if they exceed your expectations. It may not matter if the only just achieved a pass grade.

For, encouragement is an issue of equity, not equality.

All students can and should deserve praise, but the level to achieve that doesn’t need to be identical.

And I think that church should run in a similar way.

For those who are in the middle of the struggle, you praise their ongoing efforts.

For those who have started a spiritual discipline, you encourage them to continue.

While you uphold the faithful saints, just like you still encourage the capable students, those who feel that they are lower on the spiritual-totem-pole will immensely benefit from being noticed for the effort they are putting in.