FIAE+B1+Chapter+7



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John- Abstract
One of the more outstanding quotes in chapter 7 is a quote from a middle school science teacher, who defines a grade as "the level of progress from nothing to mastery, the extent to which a student has acquired the skills and information." It is this sentiment that chapter 7 seems to reiterate throughout. Wormeli is very concerned with the implications of grades as mere letters or numbers, and he suggests approaching grades from a more subjective standpoint. Not only does Wormeli cover the issue of [|letter grades not actually gauging students' progress], (using an example of a student paper which, based on what you know or don't know about the student, could essentially be anything from an "A" paper to an "F") but he also discusses the issue of grading with a bias towards students with low socioeconomic status. There are a multitude of remedies introduced, since there can realistically be no one method of subjective grading that works better than others. Of these techniques, the standouts include grading on a scale of A, B, C, and I, where I stands for "incomplete". The student will have a certain amount of time to complete the assignment, and only after this amount of time can the student recieve a grade such as a "D" or an "F". This example still involves some potentially pigeon-holing letter grades, however, and another example (while a little more extreme) could be to grade students with a scale of O (outstanding) G (good) S (satisfactory) N (needs improvement) or U (unsatisfactory). This scale is much more open-ended and tries to be more of a reflection on what each individual student has done. This is not always the best method, however, because one of the most important things to do, according to Wormeli, is come to a conclusion on what each letter grade means based on your content area. By making decisions like this, we can more effectively communicate our assessment results to students and parents alike.

[|John- Synthesis]
Most of us picked right up on the fact that grades can be easily distorted by [|the teacher's knowledge of his or her students]. After being in the schools, we've all been in this situation, and it certainly can feel downright uncomfortable, knowing that while you've graded lots of other students based on one set of criteria, you subconsciously (or very consciously) form a different criteria entirely when you pick up the papers of a certain few students. One way of avoiding this folly of resorting to As, Bs and Cs that a few of us have mentioned is to offer feedback. I, for one, remedied feeling uncomfortable with the arbitrary (but nonetheless required) letter grades by putting an immense amount of feedback comments on each student's paper. That way they would be sure to take something away from it besides a vague descriptor of their class rank. Or, you could just not look at the students' names before you grade. And, to make us feel better about having been so judgmental, we could watch this [|video of a 7 year old high on NO2]

Rachel B.
This chapter deals with a topic that has a rather large impact on both teachers and students. Grading is taken very seriously, and to a large extent, personally. It’s a huge job to grade a students work, particularly based on a set of standards. Through reading this chapter I was able to dive into the somewhat controversial topic and create some thoughts of my own. First of all, I agree with the point made on page ninety three of Fair Isn’t Always Equal, “Grades are more often than not subjective and thereby likely to be distorted in their accuracy than teachers realize.” I had a chance to grade while working with my mentor teacher at Mt. Blue. I was in the health class with them when they were learning the material and then I was behind their tests grading short answers. It was a challenge, there were so many close and or very knowledgeable answers but if they weren’t what were being asked for, they were wrong. It was hard for me to find that line of, “this student got it,” verse, “this student didn’t. Grades are difficult to define, and all we can do is keep working on the process of them.

Rachel F.
This chapter definitely hit home with me and probably many others because it brings up the huge controversy behind grades. All throughout High School, my only goal was to get as many A’s as possible so that when I applied to college, those colleges would be impressed. I was never focused on truly learning like most other students out there. The chapter starts out by discussing how ridiculous it is that we amount all of the effort and work students due into a small symbol. It is pretty ridiculous when you think about it because we put all of this work into school to come out with a mere symbol. The next part of the chapter discusses the subjectivity of grades and how it is important to consider the student’s background before grading that student’s work. If teachers grade based solely on the curriculum then the student’s grade is not at all accurate to the student’s mastery. I actually like the idea of not using grades at all but rather just feedback like the teacher from the United Kingdom. That way, students get a full explanation for their work and effort. We need to remember that our initial goal as a teacher revolves around the students so we need to always take them into consideration first.

Geoff
Chapter 7 of //Fair Isn’t Always Equal// relates very well to chapter 8 of //Integrating Understanding by Design and Differentiated Instruction// in that they both tackle the tough issue of grading, and both in very similar ways. I would say that Wormeli wins the battle of tough rhetoric on grading, but both books bring up great points. The most important point from both of them, in my opinion, is that our current grading system, where we assign a single letter, number, or symbol grade to weeks upon weeks of work, is completely incapable of giving us an idea of a student’s achievement (especially if we subscribe to the practice of sticking a grade on everything, including remembering to put your name at the top of every paper), much less their progress through the given time period, which to me is the most important thing. For one, it is highly unlikely that there is a single consensus among everyone in the school on what constitutes an A, or what “above average” looks like; we end up comparing apples to oranges, grapes to kiwis, when it comes to handing out grades to students. When I take a look at this practice, it becomes easy to see how confusing and ultimately flawed and foolish this system is, yet it has been standard operating procedure in our high schools and colleges for so long. Sadly, neither book offers suggestions to revise or replace our current grading system. Perhaps it is the lack of input on ways to change the system that makes this system linger around so anachronistically.

Courtney
This chapter discussed the controversies dealing with grades. Too much information is squeezed into one little letter grade. A grade is supposed to tell a student how they are doing, and give the feedback as what needs to be improved and what they are doing well on. But one little symbol doesn't really include all of that. I completely agree with this, as a student I had teachers that graded in very different ways, so I always had to know what was expected from each teacher. It would be great if all teachers thought alike in terms of grading but that's impossible. As a teacher I would like to try and shy away from grades as much as I can, at least not base by feedback and progress for a student on a letter. What is most important is getting each student to understand the material. Grades can vary so much that I don't think they are very reliable in deciding how well a student is doing in any given subject. It's not fair that different teachers grade differently and different students get graded differently, but what is fair is that the teacher can tailor each assignment to fit each student so they can reach a better understanding of the assignment. When using grades, I need to make sure it is very clear to all students what these letters mean and provide feedback along with them. Grades aren't what is important, feedback and understanding are.

Sara
This chapter ties in well with the UbD/DI chapter about grading. Grades can be very arbitrary. Wormeli states that: “Any essay results in the same response from teachers—varied grades.” Grades do little to indicate mastery for they are small snapshots of students regurgitating information, and too much emphasis is placed on grades. It is difficult to define grades, what does each letter really mean? The value of a grade varies from teacher to teacher. Who makes the guidelines that says that C is average? An A in one class can be a C in another. When is there going to be a solid definition of what a grade is, and when will we find a better evaluation tool to replace the unreliable grading scale. I am scared of using grades in my classroom for I want students to achieve learning, not just achieve a grade! I want them to do their best because they want to be proud not so they earn an A on their report card. Throughout high school I was obsessed with achieving the A grade and the actual learning fell by the wayside.

Jen P.
I like that this chapter connects differentiated instruction to grading. The grading systems high schools have in the United States, or at least in Maine, seem to be exactly the same: either the grade is out of a 4.0 GPA or on a letter system of A+, A, A -, B +, and so on. This chapter makes sure to encourage that we, as teachers, take the student into consideration when grading. To “properly” grade something, a teacher needs to know about the student’s grade level, the criteria of the assignment, etc. I would go a step further and claim that the student’s readiness level in the beginning of the assignment also matters. I also like that this chapter makes me ask a lot more questions and to really think deeply about my students and how I would grade their work. Most importantly, I learned that grades, as they are in schools today and when I was in high school, may not be the best indicators of mastery. I will never use a “frowny face” in my classroom (page 100). I have also learned that the feedback I give my students need to be descriptive and productive, not just a smiley face or a “great job!”

Megan
This chapter focused on “the relative nature of grades.” I think we focus so much on grades and they don’t accurately depict what the student learned and the effort the student put in to get the grade. Also, there is no consensus/ standard/guideline/what-have-you as to what constitutes an A. What some teachers might grade as an A others might give a C. Then when grades come back a student can have all A’s or D’s and it still doesn’t reflect how a student did. I like when teachers give feedback. Grades don’t really tell you too much. However when a teacher gives feedback on how the student is doing, what they are doing that’s good and what they are doing that needs improvement that is more meaningful then just a letter or number grade.

Stephanie L.
I really like how this chapter gives student samples and then has the reader decide what grade the student deserves to get. It is interesting how no background information about the student is given. How can anyone, even a teacher, accurately grade an assignment when they are completely unaware of the student’s readiness level and grade level? I have been doing a lot of grading in the schools and as an English teacher, grading is very subjective. My mentor teacher tells me that it is important to base the grade on the student first, and then the content. For example, if Student A is generally an amazing writer, writing at least a page or two for an assignment, and then passes in an assignment that is only a paragraph long, it is important to take note of this. Student A’s grade will be lower because Student A has decided to look the other way and not work up to its full potential. Also, there are so many different ways of grading that it isn’t likely that teachers are going to agree on a specific scale. There is no true definition of grading because of all the variations out there. It is all about finding a way that works best for you as a teacher.

Karin
This chapter taught me about grading processes and opened my eyes to the controversy behind grading techniques and policy. Students cling to grades like a life raft; they have been taught that a letter represents their ability and, in a way, their worth. How can we spend all this time focusing on learning and achievement rather than scores and testing, and then just have everything boil down to one, single symbol? Feedback is probably the best policy in grading – it is far more useful for the student, and I will try my best as a teacher to provide as much feedback as possible. This will impact my classroom because I will do my best to not allow students to be grade-oriented and concentrate on nothing but grades; I would rather them not know anything about the “symbol of their success”, but rather have an idea of what they’ve learned and what’s left to learn. That’s the real point, isn’t it?

Jordan
In this chapter, Wormeli discusses the fact that grades are subjective. He writes, “grades are inferences, personal interpretations on the part of the teacher, not infallible truths about students' mastery” (95). A teacher sometimes needs to make personal interpretations according to the type of work completed by certain students, therefor, some grading needs to be subjective. Every student can have a bad day and has different things going on in their lives that can effect their school work, and I think that depending on the assignment and the weight of the assignment, that needs to be taken into consideration when giving a grade. I am not saying that grading needs to be heavily subjective, but I think that if a student who usually would receive an A on an assignment receives an F on something similar, the reason for the change needs to be taken into consideration and possibly discussed with the student.

