B2+Chapters+11,12,13,14+FIAE

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Andrew C
All of these chapters talked bout the different types of grading and how to then report these grades to the students, parents, and other members of the school community. There are a lot of different ways out there but the message I got from all of these chapters was the more variety and larger range of grading then the better for everyone. Chapter 11 talked about the argument between many teachers and other educators about whether to enter a 0 in the grade book or a 60 instead. The author said it is not justifiable to give the students a zero because it does not mathematically or physically make sense. It is a poor representation of the students work. Just because they get one 0 does not mean that all of their other work has not been up to par or even better. It talked about using the 1 to 4 point scale instead of A through F because this way if a students doesn’t do their work you can still give them a low grade (being a 1) but it does not bring their GPA to insurmountable levels.

Chapter 12 also talked about how the 4-point scale was generally better for all subjects because it is easier for all teachers to have the same “meaning” of each number. If the grade value of each number is clear for all teachers then students will be graded more fairly. The chapter also stated that the although the 4-points scale is more useful in determining students true mastery of the subject it is okay to use the 100-point scale on some assignments. The author just stresses the importance of using the 4-point scale as much as possible.

Chapter 13 talked about how grade books should be set up for assessing learning goals. This chapter provides examples of what this type of grade book looks. I was surprised that it is okay to weight grades in this format. I plan on weighting grades in my class because some pieces of work take a lot more time and are much more difficult then others. Weighing grades was another hot topic discussed in chapter 11. Be sure not to overweight grades because we would not be giving an accurate portrayal of what the student knows and understands. I will use weighted grades in my classroom because some things do deserve a higher percentage. I will do it very similar to what we do in this class. I would use points for each major thing that way it is clearly outlined for students as well. They’ll know and understand what each thing is worth.

Chapter 14 stated that many schools around the country are constantly looking for ways to rearrange their report cards. They are looking for ways to put more different types of feed back on them and not just have one very specific way of doing this. It then discussed the different ways to show grades on report cards.

**Ali P**
Chapter eleven brings up the subject of grading. It suggests that we grade in a way that is equally fair to all of our students. The issue regarding a F meaning a zero or sixty points was discussed in this chapter. I personally think it should be a 60. Having a zero on your report card can bring your overall grade down immensely. Also a zero means to me that the student is doing absolutely no work. Now maybe if the students never even attempts to take a test it should be a zero, but if they at least try you would think it would count for something. I was actually grading papers for my practicum class today and came across a lot of tests that scored below a sixty. Although they did not so well and obviously needed more work on the subject, they still had some answers correct and attempted to __#|take the test__. Dropping their 60 down to a zero seems unfair to me. Chapter twelve continues these questions and brings up the theory of using a grading scale. I believe that a teacher should use the same grading scale for every project or test assigned. This gives the grading consistency. In my practicum class there is a class that my mentor team teaches in. Both of the teachers use different methods of grading. I believe that this would be very confusing and difficult for the students to follow. Personally, I believe in using the 100 points scale instead of the 4 point scale because it give you more room to add or deduct points. __#|Chapter thirteen__ begins to discuss the use of grade books in the class(wow this book is getting detailed). I think the way a teacher organizes their grades is completely personal to them and should be done in a way that tracks the student’s progression. My mentor teacher uses a grade book online which tracks the grade by dates and then give the average over all grade. It is always a little scary to be recording in the grades and when you type in an F to see the A go to a C. I think teachers need to keep their grades as organized as they can. They should be used as a reference. I feel that it is the teacher’s job to check in on the students grades and make sure they are not struggling or slacking. Chapter fourteen focused on the importance of using student’s self achievement in making their report cards. I really believe this is important and worth teachers time. Report cards are made for students and their parents to use to gage how the student is doing. It is really important that the teacher communicates this in an expressive and thoughtful way. In my high school our teachers wrote us a one page letter with each report card grade we received. This was extremely helpful and made me understand why I got the grade I did. My parents also found the letters helpful to be able to connect with the teacher and to hear in detail how I was doing.

Nicole C.
These chapters were all about grading – the choices we make as teachers as to how we grade, why we grade, and how we report them to students and parents. __#|Chapter eleven__ focused on six common grading issues: recording a zero or a sixty, grading gifted students, weighting grades, automaticity versus concept attainment, grading late work, and grading special needs students in inclusion classes. I learned that recording a sixty is actually much more fair than recording a zero when a student does not turn in a project. The range from zero to sixty is all an “F” in any case, so why put in a zero that alters the average unfairly? I never thought of this before, and I definitely plan on using this method in my classroom. If a student does all of their work except for one project, they don’t deserve to have a zero messing up their overall grade for the class.

Chapter twelve focused on the pros and cons of the 4-point and 100-point grading scales. It stressed the importance of rubrics no matter which scale we choose: “In order to create objective, accurate grades, then, we should use a rubric in the majority of our assessments, but not fret if we use pure, mathematical calculations as well” (Wormeli 153). A rubric not only can be used for either grading scale, but clearly outlines what is expected and what the student accomplished. This also makes it much easier to report out to parents who are concerned about the A, B, C, D. or F their child is receiving. Rubrics take time to create, but I definitely see how they are worth it in the grading process. I am still not sure whether or not I want to use the 4.0 scale or the 100-point scale, but I know that no matter what I decide, rubrics will be a key part of my grading process.

Chapter thirteen focused on various grade book formats a teacher could use in a differentiated classroom. The one I found to be most effective was “grouping assignments by weight or category.” It keeps things organized for me as well as my students/their parents, and if I do it electronically, I can organize them by date within their respective categories as well.

Chapter fourteen focused on report cards and how we can effectively communicate benchmarks of student learning to parents and students. “Our reporting symbols (marks) should provide feedback, document progress, and inform instructional decisions” (Wormeli 173). A key issue with report cards is that they don’t often allow room for adjusted or modified curriculum. This is why I really liked the suggestion to place an asterisk or checkmark next to a certain grade or assignment to indicate that the curriculum has been modified. In the comments section, these symbols can be explained much further.

All in all, these chapters taught me a lot about grading and the issues surrounding it. I will certainly be looking back at this one day when I have questions about my own grading/reporting processes.

Tyler Rose
Chapter 11 raised a question that I personally had never thought about or had to think about before. This question is, if a student does absolutely nothing and doesn’t turn in their assignment, should the grade be a zero or should it be a sixty? Now the obvious first answer would be a zero, the student did not do the assignment. However, by giving them a zero, (an F on the standard letter grading scale), does that mean that they are receiving the same letter grade as someone who may have tried their very hardest, but struggled, didn’t grasp the entire concept, and received a fifty-nine or any other number which is classified as an F? It really is a fascinating topic when one really thinks about it. Since an F covers from 0-59, (again, in the traditional letter grading scale), how are students, parents, or even teachers supposed to differentiate which level of failure that student received? The book mentioned how a student could cut classes, no do assignments, and no participate in class and still receive the same letter grade as someone who genuinely struggled, but put in extremely hard effort in the class. This was really something that was a new concept to me, as I have never failed a class and had to decide which level of failure I had received. However this topic is definitely something worth mentioning. As a future teacher, I want to make sure my students know why they got the grade they did and what exactly their grades mean to them.

In Chapter 12 I learned something about grading scales. The first thing that I learned is that there are a couple different grading scales to choose from; 4-pont, 100-point, etc. This led to my first question. My question was, what happens if a student is enrolled in two classes that the teachers use two different grading scales in? Does this confuse the student? Does this alter what the student received for a grade or make the student think that the grade means something else? I imagine that most schools must require their teachers to choose one universal grading scale, but I’m sure there are teachers who will fight for the ones they like to use and that could lead to different grading scales within the same school. I suppose my ultimate question is, do schools allow for different grading scales to be within the same school and if so, does this have a negative affect on students? As a future teacher I believe it will be important to know these questions before setting up a grading scale of my own.

During my reading in Chapter 13, I learned about gradebooks. The first thing that I learned about gradebooks is that there is no one format out there that will be best suited for all teachers. As a teacher, one must examine several different gradebook styles in order to find the one that fits best for the teacher and for the content of the course. As a future teacher I think that’s something to keep in mind for sure when selecting a gradebook for my class.

Cameron B.
The major focus throughout these chapters was grading. The first chapter of this reading in FIAE was focusing on six grading issues that are commonly found throughout school systems. Examples of these were grading gifted students, how teachers grade late work, how to grade students that have special needs, and how teacher weigh grades. In the chapter there was talk of a zero to sixty grade where that ranges is all an F in the grade book. The book implied that giving a student a sixty instead of a zero is fair to the student even if they don’t do the work involved with the assignment. I was surprised to read this and highly disagree with the idea. If a student does not do any work on an assignment or project I feel as if a sixty in the grade book is a gift for them. Plus it means that they have to do less work in the class if they are just trying to pass. A zero shows the student that they need to get their work done or else yes they will fail the course. The next chapter talked about using scales in grading such as the typical 100 point scale or a simple 0-4 scale. They both imply the same thing except the 0-4 scale is simpler. The chapter stressed how important rubrics are in school and how this is something that teachers should be using as often as they can. I personally see the benefit in using rubrics, but I prefer using a number grade. I feel as if a number grade means something to a student. They know whether or not they did well based on that letter grade and they are self-explanatory. If a student did not put the time in to study for a test that number grade will directly reflect that. I can’t think of something that is better. Plus, rubrics take a long time to make and if teachers are grading only using rubrics I feel as if they will be able to put less time into preparing for their classes simply because of how long rubrics take. The idea of using grade books was talked about next. Basically the idea of setting up a grade book that is easy for the teacher to use and organize is key to success. If a teacher is having a hard time navigating their own grade book then some problems will start to occur such as grades being placed in the wrong place or grades simply not being put in at all. This will only cause frustration of the students and the teacher. The last chapter in this reading talks about report cards. The chapter talks about how each report card should communicate to the student and their parents how the student is doing in the class. Reading this I realized that I never had such a thing in my school system. All I got was a letter in the mail with my classes and my grade on it. So something like a written note with the report card would be beneficial since it can explain why the students got the grade they did and the parents will be able to understand as well.

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Phillip C.
The first chapter of our reading looked at the six main issues of grading, some of which would still be issues for me even after reading the chapter. The main one I think would be an issue for me is not giving students a zero for doing nothing. I realize that this would ruin the student’s average but the student needs to do the work in order to learn the material. I would allow students to hand in work after the due date to gain less credit, but if they didn’t do the assignment at all I don’t think I could give them a sixty. This is especially true if a student did the project and received a grade lower than a 60 based on the rubric. I will stop talking about this issue now though because it could easily take all of my 500 words for this entry.

The next chapter argued that using smaller grading scales would give a more accurate grade than using larger scales, like a 100 point scale. I think this would work a lot better and would leave out some of the arbitrary aspects of grading on a 100 point scale. The idea in this chapter of giving A, B, C, or not yet achieved as grades would be good because students would have to complete their assignments at a C level or higher to get a grade for it and thus would not obscure their grade until they finished their assignment.

The next chapter talked about gradebook format. This chapter would have been great to use for my classroom management textbook, but that is beside the point. This really talked about focusing on centering the gradebook around standards rather than on the assignments themselves. From the way we have been writing our lesson plans and basing them off standards as we go, this seems to make a lot of sense. This will also help to see what part of the standards need more attention and that can help future lesson planning. Finally, weights on the grades in a differentiated gradebook could be beneficial and individualized to each student depending on their MI’s and learning style.

This next chapter moved right along with this line of discussion and moved to differentiated report cards. This only makes sense if you’re using differentiated gradebooks. One of the suggestions that went along with this was using the 4.0 grading scale instead of a point based grading out of 100. This would better display the mastery of the material. Also, since showing mastery would be the main objective of these report cards, having a section where comments could be written would be essential. In this way students, as well as their parents, will know what aspects of the class they are doing well in and what aspects need work. I think that this would be very effective and would display a lot more information than a normal report card.

Brittany R.
These four chapters focused in on the grading aspect of teaching and what would be an appropriate way of doing so. Grading has always been stressful for me because I feel like it has a negative reputation. From past experience from teachers not doing well on a quiz, homework, etc. was looked at as you have done something wrong. I want my students to feel as if they have made attempts to succeed they should be rewarded. In chapter 11 when the comparison of different types of failing came up I felt that a score of a sixty would benefit a student much more than just receiving a zero. It reminds me of when my brother was in junior high prior to him finally receiving an IEP. The teachers didn’t realize or want to realize that he was struggling and gave up on him so he received zeroes when he didn’t “try”. Grades should be a way of gaging learning for teachers. I always thought it was strange how “achievement” was anywhere from 60-100 and was then divided into 4 different levels but anything below was a failure or no credit. Chapter 12 focused in on the grading scale. I feel that consistency is preferable, at least in my mind when it comes to grading projects. In all honesty I have never liked the four-point scale. It’s hard to follow for me and I prefer to use points that add up at the end of a grading period. Rubrics are also stressed in this chapter and their importance so students have clear expectations on what is expected of them. As a student I have always liked having something that tells me exactly what I need to do to receive an A B C etc. So if a grade is received you have an explanation as to why it was given. Chapter 13 focused on how to organize scores to benefit you as an educator. In all honesty, I’m not sure how I would like to go about doing this because it all depends on what I choose to do assign in during my unit. I think that if I used a point system, there would be specific points assigned for each assignment depending on its importance. Using the scores they receive, I will average their actual scores in with total possible points so students will receive their grade. This way not much organization would be needed unless I wanted to organize homework assignments and quizzes. I would also like to think that it would be an easy way to gage how students are learning. I could then correct anything they may be struggling with before tests or large projects. Chapter 14 focused on report cards and how they should be used as a communication to parents. I liked the idea of teachers writing notes to students and parents so they are aware of why they received the grade they did. I had this in my high school but unfortunately not everyone utilized it. If it was used I think it could be beneficial for students and parents.

Jackson F.
In these chapters they talk more about the meaning of grades. One topic which was interesting was the choice to record a zero or a sixty in a grade book when a student does not do his/her work. Many teachers would give a student a zero for not doing any work, but the real question that needs to be considered is how a zero affect the student might and his/her learning. With a failing grade recorded in the grade book rather then a zero reflects that the student did not master the material or the goal of the project but does not hurt him/her in the future. A zero can hurt a students overall grade tremendously, and what does that teach him/her? By giving them a sixty or what ever a failing grade is in the school the student is then able to redeem him/herself down the road to prove that they have mastered the content at hand. Another portion of the chapters was devoted to grading gifted students. Gifted students may have the opportunity to be placed in accelerated classes but that can be a rickety bridge to cross for a student because if he/she does not do well in the class then he/she may get discouraged. In another chapter they discuss grade scales. The scale depends on the teacher or school. There are benefits to both scales the hundred point scale allows for more fall back room and allows teachers to take more points off assignments without hurting a student too much for little mistakes. A four point scale is easier to manage as a teacher due to the little numbers but does not allow for much room to be picky about certain parts on assignments. What I learned from these chapters is that grading is a very personal piece to teaching. It allows teachers to form their own way of grading their students. There is no one set way of how to grade students. It probably is a beautiful thing as much as it is frustrating to students. I know that when I was in school it was weird to have to know how each of my teachers graded assignments or test. Part of me wished that there were one set way of grading students. Now I understand that would be impossible. Its hard to tell what kind of grader I will be when I have my own classroom. For me I think it will be more of a trial and error type of thing.

Joe S.
These chapters exclusively discuss grading and its many considerations, challenges, and formats. The chapters try to reconcile the space between accurately reporting a grade and showing student progress made throughout a given school year, and offer possible strategies for the hard parts of grading such as weighting grades, grading special needs students, grading scales, zeros vs. sixties, and late work. The last chapter also discusses different report card formats. The first chapter was the longest, and in my opinion, the most thought-provoking. In this chapter, the author offers his opinion on grading habits when it comes to several challenging occasions that every teacher is bound to face. One of these dilemmas is giving missing work a zero, which can be cripplingly detrimental to a grade, or a sixty, which will lower a grade but keep the general message of it accurate. The author reasons that in order to be fair, missing assignments should receive a sixty, which is still a failing grade. This ensures the student’s average will stay in an area that accurately demonstrates their understanding of course material while still reinforcing the idea that late work is something to be avoided. Another area in this chapter that I found interesting was the section on grading accelerated students, which discussed the problem of grading a student based on their accelerated work and not on their mastery of what their peers are being graded on. This brought up several good points, and really made me think about how I would approach the situation. The chapter also discusses the other side of this spectrum; grading special needs students in the class. Many of the same challenges apply to both sides, such as balancing a grade between course mastery and progress towards individual student goals. The next chapter discusses various grade scales. It talks about 100-point scales, letter scales, and 4-point scales in detail, explaining that different assignments may be better suited for one scale over another. Furthermore, this chapter discusses final results in a class, and how the final decision on a grade lies in the hands of the teacher, not the grading system one may use. I liked the “Logic Rule” idea, introduced on page 154, which states, (..if we see mostly 4’s and 5’s on a 5.0 series of rubrics across a student’s row in the gradebook, for example, we are justified in giving the student an A for the grading period… It is not necessary to calculate every grade down the hundredths decimal place.” This means the teacher has the power to make a B+ into an A, or make any last manipulations to accurately show student achievement. Finally, the author voices his opinion on the idea of a valedictorian in the class, which he does not support. Chapter 13 is a basic introduction to grading and the different types of formatting that can be used when filling out a gradebook. Many of these options made a lot of sense, and it was almost overwhelming to consider the multitude of possibilities to choose from. Personally, I always thought to use a chronological gradebook, but after reading this chapter, I’m not sure if I still do. If I am to use that method, I will want to color-code my assignments, and make sure that more important grades receive a higher point total or are weighted heavier. This chapter made me think a lot about all of the different styles of grading, and the different standards that we grade students on. The last chapter in this excerpt discusses responsive report cards, which is an academic progress report for students and parents that provides feedback going further than a mere letter grade or percentage. These report cards should reflect not only achievement against standards, but also personal progress. These two goals should be considered together in order to reflect the most accurate learning progression. Furthermore, the chapter goes on to discuss using multiple grades to show completion of various tasks in a class, as “the more we aggregate into one symbol, the less reliable it is as an indication of what students know and can do.” The last page of the chapter shows an example of a report card with no overall grades, as well as a “continuous progress report.” It would be very interesting to grade based on these models and not the traditional methods.

Emily H.
This chapter focuses on grading in a DI classroom. Grading causes issues in how we grade students who need modifications or DI, IEPs, etc. Their growth and grades could be totally different, but how do we as teachers assess that for a grade? Chapter 11 talks about issues that come with grading practices. One of the six burning grading issues that I found interesting was about putting zeros in the grade book. Personally, I have seen zeros work in both a negative and a positive way. Some students see what a zero does to their grade and they do as much as they can to change those zeros. Other times students see zeros and shut down completely. As a teacher I would only use zeros when work was not completed. I don't think that a 60 should be given when work isn't done. I think that is unfair for those students who complete the work but struggle and earn a 60. Chapter 12 talks about grading scales and the issues that come along with those. I like the 100 point scale better than a 4.0 scale. This is probably because I never really understood how a 4.0 scale worked. FIAE seems to disagree with my opinion about grade scales. 4.0 scales are a smaller scale and correlate more with test scores. Students focus more learning than with larger scales. Chapter 13 talks about grade books in a DI classroom. Keeping grades is a common practice for teachers. Grade books help achieve that and keep it organized. There are many ways to keep grade books from standards and benchmarks to date assigned. As a teacher I would have my grade book organized by date assigned. This is how I organize my own work and notebooks, so I am used to seeing things in this way. Organizing my grade book this way makes it easier for students to come to me and see what they have missed if they are out for an extended amount of time. Grading this way can be fairly accurate. I, as a teacher, would use this grading book in my classroom. Chapter 14 deals with report cards and progress reports. One fo the topics talked about in this chapter was using a grade and a number. The letter grade would be the same as it is now. However, the numbers would be how much the student has grown over the grading period. I found this interesting because how doe you explain a D3? D is the letter grade of mastery, but 3 means there has been growth in the student. If there has been growth in the student then why is that student getting a D as a grade I don't think this is an effective way to grade students. It is too hard to explain why a student got the grade they did. Grading is important for teachers and students to understand. Schools and success in a school are based around grades. However, grades are not consistent from school to school. As teachers we should try to change the grading system.

Meng H.
The chapter 11, 12, 13, and 14 in FIAE are all about grading. Those chapters cover some factors to consider when grading, grading letter/number systems, ways to record and organize grades, and report card formats.

One interesting point to think about is recording zero or sixty for missing work. I understand perfectly the mathematical reasoning of keeping a missed test score as sixty so when we even out the test scores, the grade reflects student’s mastery of materials. However, keeping the test score sixty wouldn’t be fair for other students who actually take the test and don’t perform well. It is hard to argue what to do without knowing the teacher’s other policies, instructions, and expectations. I think I will record a zero for any missing work/test, until the student makes it up. There is also other practice regarding scoring zeros. Some teachers give zero for missed quizzes and don’t allow makeup, but at the end of the semester, each student has the choice of dropping two lowest quiz scores to bring up the grade. This is a great practice, because the teacher takes students’ absence or under performance into consideration, also this lessens the pressure of quizzes on the students. There is really no one right way in grading, it has to be consistent with instruction, other assessment systems and teacher’s expectations and goals for the lesson.

Since teaching and grading are more about student’s learning, late work should be treated the same as on-time work in the sense that it is still a reflection of student’s understanding. I would allow my students to turn in work on a later date we can both agree on, but there will be late credits deducted accordingly.

When grading, I want to take all students into account, from the most gifted to the most challenged, I believe in grading based on mastery and progress on individual levels. There shouldn’t be one grading standard at the end of a lesson for all students. I hope if I do my job right as an engaging and responsive educator, that I will not have the need of weighing grades. If I do my part, then the grades are fair and accurate reflections of students’ work, then it will not be necessary to weigh the grades.

Now I understand that letter grading scales could be vague if used alone, and rating scales of 100 or 300 are more subjective than rating scales of 4 or 5. If used with a rubric, the rating scales of 4 or 5 will be efficient, objective, and without bias.

It makes a lot of sense that if there are various ways to differentiate instructions, then there should be more than one way to organize the gradebooks. I understand the different strategies and ways to organize the gradebook for differentiated classroom. Depending on the teacher and his or her instruction techniques or goals, the gradebook could be organized by the standards, objectives or benchmarks. The choice of gradebook organization or layout could change from time to time to suit the teacher’s needs and goals.

Jackie B.
In these chapters, we focus mainly on grading. In chapter eleven they talk about putting zeroes in the grade book and I found this interesting. Why would they change it to a sixty if the student in question didn’t turn in the assignment. This didn’t make much sense to me until I started thinking about it more. A sixty is still failing but it still keeps the student’s average at right around what it should be if they are making A’s and B’s and then suddenly didn’t turn something in. They used a really great analogy in the book comparing weather to grades. If it’s in the 80’s all week and then a freak day comes along and it’s zero degrees that bring the average down to sixty-something and that is definitely not the average for the week. Then again I justify this with well if they didn’t turn it in, they didn’t turn it in. Maybe if they turned it but tanked, then I would give them a sixty but if they don’t turn it in then why should I give them the gift of a sixty which is nearly passing.

There was another great section in chapter eleven talking about grading special education. I was able to practice something similar to this with my mentor teacher while in the schools! She was aware of the different levels of her classes and so she did grade them differently but she based her grades on what she knew of their skill levels. So someone in an advanced English class would be graded a wee bit harder than someone in a lower English class. She also doesn’t use the regular 0-100 grading scale, which is really smart on her part I’ve realized. She uses a 1-6 grading scale and that’s what I used when we practiced grading different work. She would also have me justify why I gave them the grade I did and I would have to consider again the skill level, who the kid was, and how much effort was actually given. Back to scales though I like the idea of grading on a smaller scale and not the 0-100.

In chapter 13 we look at formatting grade books. I never really thought there was different ways to format a grade book, I thought it was pretty standard for every teacher. Apparently I was wrong. One way I really liked was listing the assignments by date. It pointed out that we could watch the student’s growth and that sounds like it could really be beneficial for the teacher. If a student ever asked to see their growth or if a teacher wanted to show a student/parent their growth the could do it no problem. I wasn’t a very big fan of the topic based approach. The key at the top wasn’t very appealing and I feel like that could get very confusing, very easily not to mention if I wanted to show a student something it would be hard for them to understand.