Grade workbooks?

[malk103]

I've just been reading about a club that has grade workbooks, which is basically a card with a list of objectives on it, they have to prove to any Dan grade that they can effectively perform each task which is then signed off. When all tasks are signed off then they are eligible to go for their next grade.

Obviously serious Karateka don't need a checklist as they will already know if they are up to scratch, even when being self critical.
Mostly aimed at juniors to give them a checklist and incentive to work towards, I have a couple of students who look at something new and immediately think they can't do it, until they do it...
My daughter also breaks her homework down into checklists, something which I have also done in the past.

Do you think these sort of things will work for Karate? Or have you already tried them?

Most of the workbook/card would include things from the 3K syllabus, but could also include a minimum number of training hours, some terminology to translate, some Karate questions to answer, etc

On the one hand it would allow the student to know exactly what they needed to be eligible to go for their next grade and they would have to prove it as they train, also on our side it would save the embarassing situation of students asking for a grading form when they are not ready and being told that they need to wait or improve dramatically. We have a few students who train the minimum hours with minimum effort and their brains in neutral but they still expect to grade.
We also have a couple of Autistic kids which this may help out.

[Rob S]

Mal,
We did these in the early 2000's! For us they did not work! We had every technique required in the syllabus, for each grade. The student had to have a black belt 'sign off' their performance, three times. Points 1(lowest) to 5 (highest). If the student could get a 3 or higher on their last attempt, on every aspect they could grade.
It was a great idea, but when it came to me grading them, the results were as per before! Perhaps a 60% pass rate at best!

Whose fault? The dan grades who checked them off? The real pressure of the grading itself?

As I say it was a great idea and went down well. But the end result spoke for itself!

We moved onto white, red, and black tags on the belt. A white tag meant they had passed their kihon, as assessed by a dan grade, red for kata, black for kumite. So all three stripes obtained. Student happy. Student graded and the same result. 60% at best pass rate!

Again why? Did the student crash on the grading, or was that dan grade not understanding what the 'examiners' were requiring?

The examiner was myself and another Shidoin who had been granted his examiners licence (he was C level) by Japan! Both he and I were virtually equal on our marking (he was perhaps a little softer but so close).

You will ask, perhaps, why the examiners did not award the points, or the tags? Well if we did what was the point of the system? We may as well have automatically awarded the grade once they earned that 'black tag' or attained the '3'!

[malk103]

Thanks for the feedback Rob,

I'm glad that you thought it was a good idea at one point so i'm not too far off the mark. The main points for me thinking that it might help would be as an incentive to keep the students training and as a minimum standard for some to reach.
We normally only allow those students to go for their grade when they are up to a certain standard, so the majority pass on the day.

We will need to think carefully as it could be a waste of time.

Thanks again for your comments.

[nathanso]

I think that it is a mistake to have "any dan grade" be able to sign off for something like this- they have no responsibility for the student. I think that it would be too easy for some people to just agree to check people off so they don't seem like an xxxhole. If there is just one BB like that, you can be sure most of the students will quickly figure it out.

My club does something that it supposed to ensure that students are "ready" before they test. Each kyu level student is supposed to have a single "recommending instructor" who is supposed to work with them and/or ensure that they are ready to test. If a given instructor has a bunch of students that we wind up not passing, our head instructor is supposed to talk to them about it. It's not foolproof, but since we have a large club with multiple classes, it at least decreases the likelihood that a student falls through the cracks.
In a perfect world, things like this would not be necessary.

[malk103]

We're a fairly small club so would only rely on 3 or 4 Black belts to be able to sign off, when the grading forms are ready it's up to the instructors to decide if the students are ready or not, as we have some students who train at more than one Dojo then this may be a good way of keeping track.

I will chat with the cheif instructor soon and see what he thinks, he may have already tried it.