FIAE+B2+Chapter+7

[|Lindsey - Synthesis]
A major focus of this chapter is upon setting a standard that all teachers will follow in grading student work, and understanding what that standard means. While placing a lesson grade on student work is important, it means nothing if there is no information describing how the student reached that point. Not only is this an insult to the vast amount of work students have completed to achieve these grades, but future teachers will also have no concept of where students encountered problems or experienced educational growth if all we pass along is the final grade. There are a number of factors involved in grading student work, some of these factors are the student’s grade level, previous experience within the field of study, and how evident it is that the student has taken time to complete the work. In order to avoid student receiving a broad spectrum of grades from each teacher they encounter, teachers must establish [|set grading expectations]. An interesting way to approach student grading as a work in progress, "Sue Howell suggests 'A,B, and You're not done' as something to consider. It allows students to see themselves as a work in progress, and it keeps them moving toward mastery rather than settling for anything less than full understanding" (page 98). This is a great way of encouraging students to continue progressing without becoming discouraged. Rather than simply returning papers with a grade on them, students will understand that they have the opportunity to keep working until they reach success. While Incomplete appears to be a good method, this is a less open-ended method of viewing grades, and this does not encourage students to continue working toward success.

The general consensus of the class is that teachers must establish a set grading system which is stable throughout the school and will not falter between various classes. Before grading students, we as teachers must know exactly what each grade means in terms of mastery of the subject. We are of course working toward student mastery, thus remaining objective is essential, yet difficult at times. The class agreed that the best method of objectively grading students is to [|create a strong rubric] and stick to this rubric while grading student work. In addition, students must understand that grading is not simply about receiving a letter grade, but instead about earning the grade through hard work and true mastery of the material.
 * Lindsey - Abstract**

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Dani
Chapter 7 of FIAE is about grading. Grading is arbitrary because the meaning of the grades A, B, C, D and F are not agreed upon among all educators. This chapter affects me because despite how arbitrary grades can seem at times I will have to come up with some kind of system for giving my students a grade. This grade will have to mean something and I will have to know what it means. I will have to decide what constitutes an A or an F and everything I between. Not only that, but my class will have a right to know these things so that they will know what they are striving for.
 * Chapter 7**

Cam
Chapter 7; The Relative Nature of Grades and Their Definitions This chapter goes on to say it is time for teachers to confront and define their grading techniques. The way teachers teach, differentiated, directly impacts the way that teachers will grade and assess their students. As professionals, we bend and twist our expectations based on the individual’s background. That is not a bad thing if students are learning and understanding. Today, when colleges go about admissions, some schools ignore the class rank. Teachers need to understand that a grade is much more fragile then one may think. Teachers need to communicate between each other to find definitions of what is an A? B? C? D? F? Two things to keep in mind when grading your students, never draw faces next to the grade and never tell a student that they are starting with an A. Drawing the faces tend to discourage the students. By starting with an A, students can do nothing but chip away at that A. It is like you have given the student a one-way street, they can only do worse. This chapter impacts me as a teacher because I will use peer workshops and revisions to get a student’s assignment better and better. By assigning them a grade, does not give them a better understanding of the content. This impacts my students because it will make them understand that they have the time to put in extra effort to really take in scientific concepts.

Jason
This chapter dealt with how to grade effectively and linked nicely with chapter 8 from UbD/DI along with ideas from MI. I agree with Wormeli that grades are very arbitrary and are only from the point of the teacher. One teacher my grade the assignment as an A, but another my call it a D. Unfortunately, I do not think that will change unless schools develop a one-size-fits-all grading rubric for all teachers to follow. UbD/DI mentions about using a three-prong grading system which I think is great, but it still does not take out all the subjectivity. While reading this chapter, I was brought back to the idea of standardized tests and the notion that a student may have a totally different view of Huck Finn compared to the scorer of the exam. I have heard stories of people turning in the same paper in different semesters, and the teacher gave different grades for each, identical paper – that clearly points to the fact that your name plays a factor in grading. In an ideal world, I would create the rubric and then have someone else grade the assignments so that any of my personal bias would be removed. Since I do not see that happening, the best way to grade would be following carefully designed rubrics and using a three-prong grade system.
 * FIAE Chapter 7: The Relative Nature of Grades and Their Definitions **

Marcy
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.

Nicholas
**Chapter 7:** This chapter discussed grading. There are many different way to grade your students. Most schools use letter grades and I feel that teachers make it a necessity to give their students grades. This is a very sensitive topic when it comes to teaching for me. If it were up to me I wouldn’t do grades, instead I would try and assess learning and effort. As a teacher it is very important for your students to be learning because that is the number one goal for teachers. But as a teacher we really need to be involved with our students’ learning. I also strongly believe that effort is a huge part of learning and it is even more important because that is one aspect that students have 110% control. You want to do all that you can as a teacher to motivate your students, but ultimately it comes down to how hard they are working for it. I want my students to understand that they have a say in what they receive for a grade. Together, teachers working with students and students working with teachers, we are all going to become successful.

**Andrew D**
This chapter is about grades and how we can define them. According to Wormeli, how we interpret and implement grading practices has a dramatic impact on how we differentiate instruction. There is a sample essay in this chapter that we have to read and then we can grade it based on how we think it is. It really gives you a good idea of how so many different teachers could grade this paper in so many different ways. Sometimes, teachers need to make adjustments when grading students work based on factors such as, disabilities, being new to English, and mastery in language arts and writing. Wormeli believes that in our society we place too much on grades. Students need feedback and lots of it, but grades are not the best forms of feedback. This chapter impacted me because it made me realize that students could actually understand and master a topic more than their grade could necessarily indicate. This chapter will impact my classroom because I will make sure that I grade fairly for all my students and make sure I make adjustments where necessary.

Lizzie
This chapter was interesting in comparison to chapter eight just read in UbD/DI. This chapter was also about grading. Many times within a classroom a teacher resorts to the grading system used for so long- A, B, C and D. This chapter allowed me to see that although grading has become somewhat redundant and even annoying to the students and even to the teacher at times, it is important to have a grading system. Having a means by which to assess the students on their work and knowledge helps the teacher become better equip to teach and the students more apt to want to learn. My struggle stems from how to judge what constitutes the actual grades from A to F. Teachers must learn not just how to grade but what grading really means and what it does for the students and for the entirety of the course. If teachers can adapt their teaching and classroom for each student, the grading should be adapted to not just reach all students but to find a common ground. But finding this common ground is when problems arise such as, how can two people view one piece of material or knowledge the same way? One teacher may grade a project as an A and another teacher may see it as a C. The answer is that they probably won’t see it the same way but they need to work together to create an “understanding” of what is expected and what is appropriate. An important thing that I noticed when reading this chapter was that you need help your students understand that they do not just “get” a grade then earn it. Hard work, understanding of the material and all the extra effort in between is what can achieve that high grade. However the students need to know that although teachers set them up for success, it is in their own hands whether or not they can reach that level of expectation they hold and the teacher holds for them. Being able to not just assign a grade to a piece of work allows the students to yet again grasp the true idea behind teaching in this light, understanding. This chapter emphasizes for me the idea that feedback to my students is crucial in order for them to understand the grade that was given to their work. Without understanding what and why they do the material at hand they may not want to learn and may even “check out” of the class all together.

Jenna
Chapter seven on __Fair Isn't Always Equal__ explained how to grade effectively and that the way teachers teach (differentiated) is the way that teachers will assess their students. Sometimes this makes it hard for teachers to grade because there is no unified form of assessing a student. The chapter also explained that although teachers make adjustments to students' grades, it does not mean that they are weakening the curriculum and students' mastery of the content. If teachers did not adjust grades, then students will not obtain the larger picture in learning. They will be forced to learn something all on their own. Teachers need to remember that grades are very fragile and vary. If teachers keep communicating with one another about what constitutes as an A, B, C, D, or F, then students as well as teachers will have a clear and fair idea of how to grade children. The chapter also reminded teachers to never draw faces next to the grade and to never tell students that they are starting out with an A. Drawing the students faces to the grade discourages them and is unfair. By telling a student that they are starting out with an A, that sends off the message to the student that they only have one way to go: down. This information was very valuable to me as a teacher because I do not want to give my students one option. I want to provide my students with the opportunity to learn as much as they can, revise their work so that they can succeed, and be able to feel confident in my class without worrying about a letter grade. If my students are able to focus on trying their hardest, then their hard work will be noticed and the letter grade will truly depict the students' mastery of the content because they will always be learning and revising.

Ben
Chapter 7 talks about the naive nature we have when it comes to grading. With all these new and invigorating ideas about teaching starting to surface, we are still stuck in the past when it comes to grading. I really liked the line from the chapter saying, "We scramble every time ...to everything that occurred in a student's journey toward understanding...down to single symbol in a tiny box on a piece of thin paper." This is moving since we still see school as grades. So many schools are just focusing on the symbol, and it varies with every teacher. One teacher will grade paper so that the only letter grade possible is a C+, while another teacher will give that same paper an A+. How can one student tell what really constitutes as an A, B, or C letter grade when all of us as teachers can not even agree on it. This is sad because it is our job to give these grades out, but who knows if the grades we hand out are even legit. This will impact me down the road, because I do not want my students getting an A in one class, and a D in the other when they put the same amount of time and effort in to each class, and its all based on the teacher's bias.

Lindsey
This chapter focuses on grading and upon breaking away from the traditional A,B,C, etc. We should instead focus upon constant formative assessment in order to ensure mastery of all subjects covered. If we do not focus on formative rather than summative students may lose interest or become discouraged with the constant flow of information. Students will struggle to accommodate each teacher’s grading habits, and grading will become a guessing game between teachers.

Andrew F.
This chapter discusses the way educators must look at grades, since it is a very taboo and under discussed topic in today's education system. The problem with the way that grades are put into the book is that generally the way we use summative assessment in today's classrooms is not effective within the advancement of students. Since there is not a universal way in which all students are assessed we have reduced mastery of content area and curriculum to a symbol which represents how well students are jumping through the hoops set in front of them.

I saw plenty of examples of this within my own classroom and I applied what this chapter suggested to correct the response I was getting from the class. When huge emphasis was put on what letter they had on the top of their paper I got really frustrated when it seemed that grade grubbing was the main focus of most students. So I started to put grade interpretation summaries on top of their responses so that they knew why they had earned that particular grade on the assignment. Any other additional questions I told my students they could ask me personally if they did not understand why they received that amount of credit, generally it was more confusion on the way my mentor teacher taught it which led to misinterpretation of the content. Once the students re grasped this new information they were allowed to resubmit any of their work for higher marks. I found by following this chapters advice students get a better understanding of the content and it also is a great way to provide feedback for the educator as well.

Ted
Chapter 7 of Fair Isn’t Always Equal discusses grades themselves, and what exactly about grades makes them so feared in the classroom – what gives grades their power, and where do we make critical decisions about the weight of grades. The first main question that the chapter addresses is whether or not good teachers bend in grading decisions with individual students. The chapter makes the good point of stating that the teacher’s role is not to feed information and then simply grade how much was digested – the teacher’s role is to facilitate understanding. If bending in a grading decision will help a student to learn more, then it is the teacher’s responsibility to do so and understand why he is doing so. The second big debate in the chapter on grading is whether students should be graded at all. There is a substantial movement to eliminate grading altogether, as adding an extrinsic reward to student work eventually diminishes the quality of the work. The chapter includes these perspectives not because it agrees with them, but because they offer perspectives counter to grade-obsessed views that are more prevalent.