Self-given grades

We have discussed in class how grades are not always accurate. Sometimes, teacher cannot truly assess how much a student has learned. So, what if students gave themselves grades? Only the person doing the learning can truly know how much he or she has learned. The are the only ones with access to that information. There would be no need to "prove" through tests, projects, class participation, etc, what he or she has learned. However, there is a problem with honesty. Especially with younger students, you may see students giving themselves better grades than they deserve. However, if a real desire to learn was instilled in students, then they would want to give themselves accurate grades so, if they are not understanding the material, they can identify what they need to work on. I think in order for this to work, grades should not be something that can hurt students. In other words, grades should be nothing other than a self-assessment of what has been learned; there are no report cards, and parents should not have access to grades. Grades shouldn't be something the student gets praised or reprimanded for.

Question: Can the honesty problem be worked around with this idea?

Learning Through Games

In class, Becky brought up the example of learning US state capitals as something that you need a test for to ensure students are retaining information. This reminded me of something I had completely forgotten about: the way I learned the US state capitals in fifth grade. My class played a competitive game every day to help us memorize the state capitals. We were divided into two teams: The Capital Connoisseurs and The National Know-It-Alls. Each team would send up a representative to the front of the room, and my teacher would name a state. The first person to say the capital of the state got a point. We kept score every day, and at the end, the winning team got their name put on a big trophy our teacher had bought. This was such a fun and effective way to learn something pretty mundane. Everyone had learned the capitals within a few weeks, because we all wanted to win. The winning team didn't get a better grade; this was just a game. We retained this information better than we would have if we had taken one test on it and moved on. Not only that, but we loved playing that game, so learning the capitals became something fun. Most humans enjoy friendly competition, so I think this is a great way to teach kids something that might otherwise be boring to them.
Question: Have you ever used games as a way to learn something?

"Choosing the Best Answer"

Multiple choice tests often implement a "choose the best answer" policy. This can be very frustrating for the test-taker. The ability to choose the best answer is not always the same thing as choosing the right answer. What is the value in choosing the best answer out of a few not-so-great answers? This may teach students some problem-solving techniques, such as how to choose the best possible solution to a problem where there is no perfect solution, but it does not accurately assess a student's knowledge of a subject. For example, when I was in sixth grade, I had to take a nutrition class. One of our test questions was:
Which of the following should one eat? a)a healthy meal b) a healthy diet.
My teacher argued that the best answer was "a healthy diet" because one healthy meal wont do much for you in the long run, unlike a healthy diet, which is more beneficial. However, this question confused me as an eleven-year-old because you can't eat a healthy diet without eating healthy meals. Eating a healthy diet includes eating healthy meals. Maybe there was a best answer, but both answers were right. Sometimes neither answer is right, even if there is a "best" answer. These kinds of questions seem unnecessarily tricky and confusing.