Here is a list of thoughts from me and many other bloggers on the topic of Awards Ceremonies in School (if you know of a post that should be included in this, please email/tweet me):
- Death of an Awards Ceremony | The Wejr Board
- A New Era of Ceremonies | The Wejr Board
- Recognizing ALL Students – The Movement | The Wejr Board
- Is Learning A Sport? | The Wejr Board
- Questioning Awards and Grades | The Wejr Board
- Honouring A Student’s Strength: Story of Daniel | The Wejr Board
- Awards Prepare Kids For The ‘Real World’ – Really? | The Wejr Board
- The Wejr Family Awards | The Wejr Board
- Awards Day – A Poem | The Wejr Board
- Questioning Honours: The Wejr Board
- Starting the Conversation on Rethinking Awards Ceremonies | The Wejr Board
- Is a School Awards Ceremony the BEST We Can Do? | The Wejr Board
- 13 Videos for Starting Dialogue on Rethinking Rewards, Awards | The Wejr Board
- 10 Secrets to Raising an Award-Winning Student (a slightly cynical post) – The Wejr Board
- 5 Reasons to Rethink Awards Ceremonies – The Wejr Board
- Changes to Awards System at Mt. Scopus College | The Wejr Board
- How a School Ditched Awards and Assemblies to Refocus on Kids and Learning | MindShift
- for the love of learning: The Case Against Rewards
- for the love of learning: Abolishing Awards
- for the love of learning: Unconditional Recognition
- Honouring All Students: The Principal of Change
- The Impact of Awards: The Principal of Change
- Against the Wind: Another Intrinsic Killer: Awards Ceremonies
- Read This: Death of an Awards Ceremony – The Tempered Radical
- And the Award Goes To… | Upside Down Education
- The Bearded Teacher: …But awards feel so good
- Are academic awards losing favour in B.C. schools? (UPDATED) – Report Card
- Awards in Schools? @MrWejr has got me thinking. | Building the Future
- The Problem With Award Ceremonies | 21st Century Educator
- Awards, Grades and Competition | Mr. Gonzalez’s Classroom
- The Case Against Awards | The New Republic
- A Principal’s Reflections: Recognizing the Valedictorian in All
- The Honour Roll – Webb of Thoughts
- “The deleterious effect of gradings and its offspring” « Ideas and Thoughts
- Against the Wind: A short conversation with…Alfie Kohn @alfiekohn
- Alfie Kohn: How Not to Teach Values
- Two Schools: Which one builds a better bully? – THE DAILY RIFF
- Stump The Teacher: I Like to Compete
- Figuring It Out: Walking the tight rope of student recognition
- Figuring It Out: Don’t Let the Sorting Define You
- Burlington High School Principal’s Blog: What About Doing Away With Grades?
- Awards at St. Gregory: Changes We are Making to Recognize All Our Students
- When Competition Fails Us | Avenue4Learning
- Let’s Bring More Students to the Awards Table | Edutopia
- Awarding Achievement | Canadian Education Association
- Stump The Teacher: The Stumpies
- Success Night | Responsive Classroom
- The Matthew Effect Meets the Graduate « The Smaller Office Blog
- Parenting is Political: A Grade 6 Graduation Ceremony: Awkward
- Mr. Gonzalez’s Classroom – Awards as a Habit
- Mr. Gonzalez’s Classroom – Craving Acknowledgement [Revisited]
- What is Intelligence? | The Teaching Experiment
- for the love of learning: Abolishing Awards Ceremonies and Honour Rolls
- Transformer Gramma: Idiots, Losers and Non-Achievers
- Savouring the Ish: Thinking Through the Awards Debate
- Awards for All Means Students Still Lose – No Matter How Well Meaning They Are | Blogging Through the Fourth Dimension
- When Your Child Receives an Award | Blogging Through the Fourth Dimension
- Student Power Rankings | Culture of Yes
- Farewell assembly: the farewell to our grade 8′s and Awards | technology4engagement
- Awards, Rewards and The Bigger Picture | www.paulgenge.com
- The Need For Recognition: School Award Ceremonies | maelstrom
- Honor Roll? Really? | Assoc of Middle Level Education
- Amber Teamann | When Awards Go Wrong
- A Terrible Thing Happened on Awards Day: Here’s What I’m Doing About It | @CoolCatTeacher
- Judgment Day: School Awards Revisited – maelstrom
- Let’s Hear It For the Average Child – NY Times Opinion
Wow. Awesome list Chris!!
Hey Pal,
Thanks a TON for pulling this list together and for maintaining it for us. Your thoughts on this issue always force me to reconsider my own practices.
While I haven’t found a middle ground between ditching awards ceremonies and our current practices that my peers are totally comfortable with, this collection will certainly push us in that direction.
Rock on,
Bill
I agree that award ceremonies are inappropriate, especially in an elementary school. I now hold a “recognition assembly” at the end of the year instead.
I am especially opposed to giving “Perfect Attendance” awards. I while back I wrote this post on the topic. I hope you will read it.
http://theprincipalandinterest.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/the-day-ed-threw-up-in-school-a-true-story/
Great list. I can’t stand school awards ceremonies, but maybe that’s because I once headed up the planning committee for one of them.
I have NEVER been a fan of awards ceremonies. There ARE alternatives to recognize and build relationships with all students!!