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.