Chapter 8- Synthesis and Reflection

Synthesis-Marcy

Teachers are busy people, not only do we have to design what we want to teach, teach it, but we also have to assess the learning of the students. That said this chapter addresses three important areas that teachers have and have not included in the grading of students. These are behavior, participation, (including attendance) and effort. The simplest way to end this hotly debated issue is to define what a grade means. This book defines a grade as an indication of mastery of the content material. So the chapter makes an argument that none of those characteristics should be included in the grade. School is a place to learn the important life lessons such as acceptable behavior, the imperativeness of attendance, and the expectation of effort. That is all well and good but if those are included in the students’ grades, does the grade reflect the students’ mastery of the content or can this just be an indication of whether Johnny could sit still in his seat? The purpose of grades is to report to the students’ parents and to the students the level of mastery accomplished by the student. If the grade does not do this then there is no purpose to have grades. It is important to give the students feedback on how they are doing, not just academically. The chapter suggests reporting this in a column separate from the grade.

Reflection-Marcy

As a whole the class did not agree on anything. Some agreed with everything the book said, others only bits and pieces, and one person did not agree with anything the book said about grading effort, participation, and behavior. The argument made for grading participation is to coerce students to be involved in discussions. Discussion is an integral part of some classes so in order to motivate students to speak, participation in class will be graded. The argument against grading participation is that some students are naturally shy or are unsure of the answer and so do not speak out in class. Grading participation does not accurately show the mastery of these students and punishes students for being shy. According to some teachers, forcing students to step outside their comfort zone is good for them. Everyone in the class except one person believes that grading behavior should be avoided. The arguments range from students that have disorders and can’t behave should not be punished. Also, students have a life outside of school and that can affect how students behave in school. The one person that believes in grading behavior stated that students need to learn acceptable behavior and should be held to that standard of professionalism. The class definitely thinks that attendance is important. It is debated whether points should be taken off or the grade affected due to absence. The consensus is that excessive absences affect a student’s ability to properly learn the material. This raises the question though, if a student is absent for reasons beyond control, such as family matters or sickness, and makes up all the work, should all that work not count? If attendance is graded then the student would have to repeat the class whether or not all the work was completed and completed correctly. The last category is effort. I honestly do not know how something so ambiguous could possibly be graded in the first place, but not only do current teachers believe they can do this, but our fellow classmates have this amazing power. The argument is that teachers know their students well enough make an accurate assessment. Effort is important to provide feedback for, but the majority of the class believes that it should not be included in the grade. The example used as a reason is the real world application; the fact that it does not matter how much effort is exerted; all that matters is the final product. This chapter is a controversial chapter, in the real world of education, and in our own classroom.

Chapter 14: Responsive Report Card Formats

This chapter talks about report card formats and what to do when you have differentiated instruction and the student has shown mastery but has not mastered all of the material. The grade to report is the one that shows that the student mastered what was asked of them to master, the adjusted curriculum grade. That does not compare to the other students in the class who have mastered the whole curriculum. This creates a problem because those grades do not mean the same thing even thought they are the same letter. The solution is to make a note on the report card to let parents and other teachers know that the curriculum was adjusted. This can be done with an asterisk and a note put in the student’s file. A way to show regular curriculum students’ personal growth and achievement would be to put both a letter and a number in the report card column. The A would show mastery of the material but an accompanying number such as a 3 would show an extensive amount of personal growth in the student’s knowledge. This documents exactly the achievement of the student throughout the course of the year. This affects me as a teacher by giving me the idea of a number and a letter grade. I remember earning A’s in classes when I know I did not grow. The A was easy and I was bored. This system will help me find that problem with students I will have in the future. This affects my students because I will not only know the level of their mastery but also how much their knowledge is growing.

Chapter 13: Gradebook Formats for the Differentiated Classroom

This chapter mentioned a couple different formats for grade book setup in a differentiated classroom. In essence, the idea is to be flexible and one size does not fit all for students. The label at the top that indicates what the grade represents should be the essential understanding identified at the beginning of the unit. It does not matter how the student arrived or how the student performed the mastery, all that matters is that the student mastered it, and that is what should be recorded. Also putting several grades at the top of a single assignment if the assignment fits under more than one standard helps build a more complete picture of the student’s mastery. In the end the grade book format must give an accurate and clear picture of the students’ mastery, show if there was a change in a student’s plan of learning due to differentiation, keep track of essential understandings, and be easy to use. This affects me as a teacher by simplifying how to report different methods students show their mastery. The trick is I do not have to, as long as the student mastered it, that’s all that maters. This affects my students by allowing their hard work to count for more if it covers more than the single performance task. One thing I hate as a student is busy work and if I have already shown that I have mastered the skill then I do not want to do that work over again. This will help my students avoid that extra, unnecessary work.

Chapter 12: Grading Scales

This chapter talks about the two most common grading scales, the 4-point and the 100-point scales. The chapter argued in favor of the 4-point scale over the 100-point scale because it is more subjective and a smaller scale did not allow for distortion as easily. Also on a 4-point scale it is easier to compare across classes because the 4-point scales is graded by criteria instead of which questions a student got right on a test. There is also no real reason to argue over whether a B is a high B or a low B. In the end, it really does not matter, except when it comes time to calculate GPA for the valedictorian, but the book gets on that soap box for a while. If the purpose of grades is to indicate mastery, then by assessing a problem by each of the different criteria needed, a student can get partial credit for a wrong answer. This is helpful because it shows the student exactly what he or she knows. This is the last reason mentioned in the chapter and that is it provides better feedback to both the student and the teacher. This affects me as a teacher by showing me the importance of rubrics and giving partial credit for problems is not cheating. This will help my students by showing them exactly where they are strong and which sections of their thinking they can improve.

FIAE Chapter 11: Six Burning Grading Issues

This chapter talks about six issues with grading that a lot of teachers have major concern with and they are: whether to record a zero or a sixty, how to grade gifted students, weighing grades, automaticity versus concept attainment, grading late work, and grading special needs students in inclusion classes. First off, recording a zero for late work gives an inaccurate picture of the student’s mastery of the content. The book suggests recording a sixty instead, it is still failing, but on a hundred point scale it brings down the average a lot less. When it comes to grading gifted students in a regular class, the teacher has to make a choice whether to grade the student according to the standards that his or her peers have or to make higher standards and hold the student to that. Either way the expectations and standards should be made clear to the student and to the parents that way everyone knows what the grades mean. This brings up the idea of weighing certain grades more heavily than others to make the fact that the student had to work harder for a grade count. The book suggests the rule, “credit proportional to achievement.” The idea of whether to count automaticity level of learning or concept attainment level depends on how long students have had to develop their understanding of the topic. A test should measure whichever the teacher believes is important to measure. If this is the first time students have been exposed to this concept then automaticity comprehension of learning is not a fair expectation for students. When it comes to grading late work, the book suggests mercy as a good rule of thumb for students who pass in late work occasionally. For the students who chronically turn in late work other adjustments should be made. Taking off a few points, will help them understand the importance of deadlines. Lastly, the chapter makes one big point about grading special needs student, communication. Communication between the special education teacher, who knows the student’s IEP and what is developmentally appropriate for the student, and the regular education teacher, who is an expert in the curriculum, is important to set standards by which the student will be assessed. Solutions to this obstacle will come through communication and reevaluating the progress of the student. This affects me as a teacher by understanding the most common areas outside of the mainstream students. What I took out of this chapter is to set standards and stick to them. From there if changes need to be made for special circumstances I know where I am starting from and I can catch myself if I stray too far. This affects my students by helping them always know what is expected of them. If also helps them realize that I will not punish them for late work if it is on occasion.

FIAE Chapter 10: Conditions for Redoing Work for Full Credit

This chapter states at the beginning that all work a student does should be allowed to be redone. However, as with any privilege it can be abused and for a teacher’s sanity the chapter gives some tips as to avoid that. One suggestion was that the parents and the students sign a contract that gives the teacher the right to withhold the privilege if abuse is suspected. After all students are growing and for the sake of integrity it may be a lesson the student needs to learn. As adults we know that sometimes life gets in way even of our best intentions and mercy is well deserved. As teachers we should not feel the need to withhold that mercy from our students, if they need a due date to be extended. To keep the communication lines open, some teachers have the parents sign the original task in order for the student to redo the assignment. Sometimes the original assignment was a huge project that was tedious and took a lot of time. It might be easier to test the student’s mastery of the material by some other form, such as an oral test. This is okay as long as the teacher communicates the change to the student well in advance. If however, part of the mastery is embedded in the process of making the project, sitting down with the student to work out a plan of attack, or how the student plans on completing the assignment on time while keeping up with current work is a good idea. When a student retakes a test, it should not be averaged with the first score. In real life that is not the case, it should not be the case in the classroom. The student knows the material now, why punish them for not knowing it before. This affects me as a teacher to know the importance of allowing students to redo work. I especially like the idea of students writing not only the correct answer when the assignment is redone but also what was the mistake they made and how they would do it differently next time. This affects my students by allowing them the opportunity to show their true level of mastery and give them the encouragement to keep trying to learn even if they do not understand the first time around.

FIAE Chapter 9: Ten Approaches to Avoid When Differentiating Assessment and Grading

This chapter lists and explains ten things to avoid when grading. Grades should not be diluted by including other factors such as behavior, attendance, or participation. Students all learn at different paces, so when a student does not do well on a test over the unit but two weeks later the student shows all the criteria of mastery for the unit, the student’s grade should be changed to reflect that mastery. Grades reflect mastery; it does not matter when that mastery occurred. Homework is practice to better understand the material. It should not be given if the students do not fully understand the lesson and it should not be graded. It is not fair to take away a percentage of a team’s points during a basketball game because the referee watched the practice the day before and the team missed the basket during practice but made it in the game. It does not even make sense. Also teachers should help students learn the material no matter where they start from in their learning. That said assessing those same students in ways that distract them from accurately portraying their mastery of the content is unfair. Getting the students so caught up in the process of making or doing the assignment and that they lose sight of the material is the last thing a teacher wants. Extra credit and bonus points serve no purpose other than to incorrectly inflate the grade. If the question has nothing to do with the topic, there is no reason to make it worth any points. If the question is pertinent to the topic it should be included in the regular test questions. Collaborative groups is a great learning tool, however team projects are shaky ground. Giving a group of students the same grade is not usually an accurate indication of each student’s mastery. All grades should be given against clear criteria and standards. This automatically rules out bell curve grading and deciding whether a student’s work is average or above average. Students should never be forced to compete against each other. These two systems are flawed in that they communicate to the students that not everyone can achieve the best and that is not the case. The last point the chapter makes is that giving zeros for missing work distorts the grade so that it does not reflect a student’s mastery. This affects me as a teacher by showing me how grades can be affected by so many different factors that have nothing to do with the student’s mastery of the content. I will try to keep my grades from being affected by those other things. This affects my students by helping them show their mastery of the content through their grade and it gives them more accurate feedback of how the student is learning in the class.