FIAE Chapter 7: The Relative Nature of Grades and Their Definitions

This chapter talked about the ambiguity of grades; what they represent or what they mean. Unfortunately, grades do not mean the same for everyone. An ‘A’ in one class could be a B or even a C. And if we tried to extend the comparison across schools, the variation would be enormous. There are two types of teachers, ones that hold the curriculum truths to be self evident and unyielding, and the teachers who believe that we serve the students first and then the curriculum so a little mercy is in order on the behalf of the student. This is where differentiation comes in; after all isn’t the point to have the students learn the material. However, if the student’s work isn’t to par with what is an A, but the student works really hard, does that change the grade? Grades should represent mastery of the material. They should be given against clear standards and criteria so students know what constitutes an A. This chapter also talks about what a D or an F means. It makes the suggestion that A, B, C and I, for incomplete, should be the grades given. The last few points are that students should never be compared to each other to determine grades, feedback should be constructive (what’s the point of a frowning face?), and telling students they have an A in the class as long as they do not mess up is a lot of pressure. This affects me as a teacher by exploring questions and thought about grading that I had never had to consider. I am so used to the A, B, C, D, F standard that I did not think that there could be anything else. I like the idea of incomplete or not done yet approach, because that really puts the focus of school as the student’s mastery of the content. This will affect my student by not letting them squeeze out of my class with a D so they can just move on to the next class. That is actually doing the student a disservice because if the student did not have the skills to perform in my class, how will they succeed in the next level.