As we approach the end of the semester in mid-January teachers are focusing on grading and preparing report cards. At Twin Cities German Immersion School our middle school students are graded by letter grades A, B, C and D. Students in K - 4 also receive report cards, but the designations are E, S, P and T for Exceptional, Secure, Progressing and Time Needed. The end of the semester will be January 12th. Report Cards will be distributed to parents in late January.

Grading and evaluation is an important and emotion-loaded communication for parents, students and teachers. As we prepare to take in statements about our children's progress summed up by a single letter, I think it's important to step back and see the potential vulnerabilities in doing so. While these communications are important in any school, I think they take on an additional weight and challenge in an immersion school. Because we are working in cross-cultural communication, communicating in shorthand can be particularly risky. Let's look for a moment to our vision statement:

Educating children for informed and active world citizenship. Andere hören, andere sehen, weltoffen denken und handeln.

The German portion of our vision statement is not a translation of the English portion of our vision statement. It is a complement. So it is with our languages. What we are able to say in one language is not always exactly equivalent to what we are able to say in another. There is something beautiful about the depth that can come in being able to communicate in two languages. There is also sometimes a sense of disconnection, when gaps in communication are created and some things are lost in translation.

Imagine if the language of how we tell children and parents how they are doing were reduced to a minimalist language with only 5 words. Would everyone interpret those words in exactly the same way? The system of grading is its own language that sometimes gets mistranslated. What C or B means to one person is not necessarily the same thing that it means to another. These differences are exaggerated when we come with different cultural reference points. When we translate over culture we find that what the German system of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 says to a German ear is not necessarily a direct translation of what the messages in the American system of A, B, C, D and F mean to an American ear. We sometimes fall on some cultural misunderstandings about how to talk about success, needing support and not meeting standards.

As teachers we are working hard to create unity on what the exact expectations are for each child at each grade level and how to communicate students' successes and goals. We are working to unify our expectations. As a growing school with changing staff that crosses cultures, we sometimes have gaps or overlaps in communicating perfectly. Grades are intended to improve communication about how to support a child in his or her growth. Occasionally they can instead get in the way. If grades are causing tension around your child's progress, please check in directly with your child's teacher. As school staff we've had some breakthrough realizations when we remember to see how grades and what they mean are shaped by a cultural lens.