Last summer, Elizabethtown Independent Schools brought Nunley to Elizabethtown to present the method in a workshop for district teachers. This year, every secondary teacher has been asked to try the method with at least one chapter or unit, said Toni Perry, history teacher at T. K. Stone. A few teachers, including Perry, are using the new program exclusively. For each chapter of study, the students receive a form listing the requirements to earn a C, a B or an A. None of the assignments are mandated. Each has a point value and students are required to earn a certain number of points.
Students choose which assignments to do to earn the points needed for the grade they want.
I like it. But it's a lot of work. It gets really hard if you don't work on it each day. The program gives students the opportunity to decide when and how much work they will do and they learn while making those choices, Perry said. The first time students were presented with the form and found Perry didn't assign daily homework, they procrastinated doing the listed assignments, said Aimee Coolidge.