Grading on social skills in school

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Has anyone ever went to a school and suddenly the teacher up and decides that she's going to start grading the class on their social skills and makes people get up in front of the class after writing speeches etc..?

This happened to me one year. It seemed out of the blue and I got pissed about it. I did not get in front of the class to speak. I wrote the speech and she went by my desk and said it was my turn and I was in the middle of standing up but then just handed the paper to her and sat back down.

I got a C even though she thought it was well written.

Did this happen in your school too?

It's happened every year of high school (and some middle school) here; I just accepted it as normal. There are participation points (ie, if you don't speak up enough, you get docked off points, which in some classes can be a pretty significant problem), presentations galore, and yeah, speeches and whatnot.

I don't think presentations are the same thing as social skills though. If you were required to hold an informal conversation about it, then yeah, it would be, but usually it seems to be a short talk about what your speech is on, the reasons you choose whatever you did, interesting facts, whatever. That's more public speaking than anything else, and while it's still difficult, it's not the same thing. I do think there should be warnings for that kind of thing; it's not fair to randomly spring it upon people.

Agreed Rainsong.

That year of junior high was the most akward year of my life. I was mostly not talking to people at that time. It's not that I couldn't talk, I would feel a block. It was strange.

I know there were other social tests she sprung on the class but I can't remember them.

Yes, I also thought that this was standard--speeches, class participation grades, and don't forget group work!

In the lower grades, I remember being evaluated on social skills alone. There was a whole section of my report card for scores on things like "friendliness", "politeness", etc. The total score on the social section was seen as indicative of one's maturity level. I thought it was creepy to summarize someone's personality and "maturity" in numbers.

I think it probably is pretty standard in most "normal" schools; something that may be very difficult to those on the spectrum isn't going to be that difficult to those who aren't, and schools cater to the majority.

Honestly, I think group work is overdone. I understand that in some cases it's necessary - some of the science labs, for instance, one person could not do on their own, and that requires cooperative effort - and that most jobs have some sort of group effort from time to time. However, it's gotten to the point, at least here, that it's like you can't do anything by yourself in some classes. They don't check on how you're doing academically; it's how well you work together in teams and how well your team does as a whole. Most "team grading" requires the group to individually decide who gets how many points (ie, if someone wasn't working, dock them some), but that doesn't work too well, because it's the students who decide it; people who aren't well liked can do all the work and still get a lower grade than every other member.

Kitsy, I know what you mean about the block. I've felt it too. It's easier to get around when you have a lot of time to prepare for something; I can give a speech if I'm given at least a week to practice (and get around to writing it). By then, it isn't really talking; it's just repeating words to people that I don't have to look at if I watch the walls. However, a spur of the moment or even one or two day warning isn't enough; everything either stops or just jumbles together. I do think warnings should be given.

I wonder if your teacher thought she was being clever and seeing who actually put a lot of effort into their paper (and thus remembered it) and who didn't. It doesn't seem like an intelligent thing to do.

I always passed at public speaking, I think... in elementary school we also had these things where you put 1 for all the time, 2 for most of the time and 3 for some of the time. The things we had to put the numbers for was "I respect others", "I show self-control", "I work in a team", I think, "I work independently"-- so our anti-social skills (knowing when to stay alone) were graded too, other stuff too like that that we had to evaluate ourselves on and I think the teachers may have evaluated us too.

The only time I have ever been assessed on social skills in an educational setting was at my employment skills course.

It wasn't a spontaneous decision for the tutor to assess everyone on this, it was a part of the qualification framework.
I passed with some extra help which was good. I was exempt from working at reception (part of the work experience assessment) and instead did the assessment privately with the tutor via roleplay.

I wish there would have been more working independantly tests. Would have aced those.

I don't really have problem with team work, I like to be helpful although in some cases people find that when I'm helpful it makes them appear bad and so hissy fits are thrown and so I've learned not to overdo it or to show someone how to do something especially around their peers as it makes them think I'm trying to make them seem inadequate which is not the case.