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Abstract- Jason
Chapter 4 of Rick Wormeli’s book //Fair Isn’t Always Equal// dealt with one big aspect of teaching, how to assess students. The chapter outlines three different assessments that, if used correctly, will greatly impact your students and lead them to work harder. Those three assessments were portfolios, rubrics, and student self-assessments. The portfolio can be used for any grade level and allows students to keep track of their work over a long period of time – this system has two advantages, one is that students will feel proud of their work, and the other is that this form of assessment is best for looking for learning; it allows teachers to see work over a long period of time which serves as a better indicator of whether students have understood the materials. Later in the chapter, Wormeli mentions how to design rubrics along with mentioning the two types of rubrics, [|analytic and holistic]. Analytic rubrics have different areas for assessing where as holistic grades everything as a whole. The chapter offers some great ideas of how to design a rubric and what to title each column on pages 46-49. The last piece of the chapter deals with student self-assessment. Self-assessment is pretty self-explanatory, but the chapter does offer some great methods of doing it such as videotaping performances, student rubrics, and personal “quizzes” where students check the boxes that best fits. This chapter is really great because it offers good insight into how to assess students in a fair and equal way – that might be the hardest aspect of teaching.

Reflection - Jason
After reading everyone’s reflections, it is quite clear that everyone understood the three items mentioned in the chapter: portfolios, rubrics, and student self-assessment. Just about everyone mentioned about how much they liked the idea of using a [|portfolio]– the reasons for using portfolios were due to the fact that they are great tools to judge work over time along with the great feeling that a student receives when he or she shows off their work. As far as the rubrics were concerned, every student mentioned about how much they want to use them and how good they are, especially for big projects. I was surprised that there was little mention of the two types, analytic and holistic, and little mention of which one they would prefer. The other big consensus on rubrics was that teachers must make sure the rubrics push students toward maximizing their potential; it is important to make sure students do not just stop at the level that is easiest. There was also mention of using [|self-assessment]at the end of a semester in order to gage what the students thought about their work. There were a couple people who mentioned that they would use other types of self-assessment other than quizzes, which is a great idea. All in all, everyone understood the main aspects of the chapter and had great ways of implementing them into their classrooms.

Dani
Chapter 4 of FIAE continues to discuss how best to assess students in a differentiated classroom except this chapter focuses more on designing fair standards and laying them out in a way that easy for students to read. The chapter suggests using portfolios, rubrics or self-assessment as ways to assess student learning and growth in a unit. I learned that portfolios can be a great way to look at all of a student’s work over an extended period of time. I also learned a few tips on designing rubrics that work. This will be very helpful in my classroom when it comes to outline for my students what they must accomplish in order to show me they understand the material. It also helps me figure out a fair and easy way to grade my students.
 * Chapter 4**

Cam
 This chapter outlines the three ways to assess in a differentiated class; portfolios, rubrics, and self-assessment. A portfolio is an organized way for students to see their own progress, as well as goals, in the class. The second method that teachers can assess their students is by developing a rubric. Teachers need to keep in mind that the first step to rubrics should be to specify content and skills. From there a summative assessment should be filled out. The teacher should then consider the high performance column, but keep in mind that this will change over time. The next step in a rubric is to decide whether it will be an analytic or holistic rubric. Here, teachers can get ideas from their students to get them involved with the rubric. It is important that when the teachers try the rubric out, if the students feel comfortable in a middle area, then the rubric needs to be revised. If students lose their drive to become better, then they are not aiming high enough. They need motivation. The last type of assessment is the self-assessment, where students’ products are continuously being evaluated. This can be done through their peers, learning logs, and interactive notebooks. As a teacher these areas impact me in three different aspects. The first step in my science class is that the portfolios will be created by, not only me, but the students as well. The second area is in my lab experiments I will hand out a self-rubric at the beginning of class. Therefore, when the students hand in their lab reports, I will have their thoughts on the work that was done. My final idea is that students will bring their writings to three of their peers and the peers will evaluate it with a self-assessment rubric. This part of my class will be known as workshop since the students’ papers are being reconstructed. This will impact my students because I will constantly be revising my rubrics and being flexible with the expectations. Plus, my students will be given many chances to revise their products.
 * Chapter 4; Three Important Types of Assessment **

Marcy
Chapter 4 FIAE This chapter explains the three best ways to assess in a differentiated classroom. The first way is through a portfolio. As with the other readings we have had, this book states that a portfolio is one of the best ways because it can show a student’s growth over time. The second way is through a rubric. One tip the book gave was to only show the students the above and beyond criteria so they only have that to shoot for and they do not settle for a lower category that requires less effort. A rubric should have the objectives clearly stated. When designing a rubric keeping in mind the goal of the task is critical in order to figure out what is evidence that the student knows the subject. A rubric can have more important sections weighed differently and be more technical in nature or it can be more holistic. The holistic version is more objective because details have to be interpreted. The last kind of assessment is student self assessment. This is especially important in a differentiated classroom because each student can set individual goals and see his or her own progression toward those goals. This can be done in journals or learning logs. The student could also grade his or her own project with the rubric to self evaluate. The knowledge in this chapter impacts me as a teacher because I will have to design a rubric and assess my students. The idea about students helping design the rubric is really insightful because then I will know what the students think is the most important aspects of the assignment. If they are way off then I could address the real goals of the assignment before they start. This will impact my students because they will know what is expected of them. They will also be able to set their own goals and see their progress which will encourage them.

Jason
I learned from this chapter the three best ways to assess students fairly and most accurately, those are doing portfolios, rubrics, and student self-assessments. The portfolio is pretty self-explanatory, but it is a great idea because it shows student work over a lengthy period of time instead of just a few scores. Self-assessments are also pretty obvious and allow students to test their own work. Rubrics have two forms, analytical and holistic; the difference being that analytical goes much deeper into the work. This impacts me because I have used all those methods as a student, and I thought that they all work really well. I would use all three of these things in my classroom. The portfolio would work best with history especially if it is over a long period of study. I would also use the self-assessment to see where the students thought they were compared to where I thought they were. Obviously I would use rubrics for grading, but I think I would use the holistic one because of time constraints and because there is very little difference between the two.
 * FIAE Chapter 4: Three Important Types of Assessment **

Lindsey
Chapter four discussed the three major forms of assessment, portfolios, rubrics, and self-assessment. In discussing portfolios, the teacher works to assess the long term assessment of student growth. Students choose work they are proud of and are able to set goals based on current work. Teachers choose work and they are able to see progress as well as areas where the student needs assistance. In addition, the parents are able to see the progress of the students. When considering a rubric, teachers should make their own practice rubric based upon simple, everyday activities. Therefore, we are able to recognize all of the small details which do not need to be addressed. Instead, the focus should remain upon the task requirements, proficiency within the task, importance of certain steps, and whether the criteria are clear. One thing that must be avoided in designing a rubric is allowing students to believe that they do not need to shoot for exemplary. Looking back at my own educational experiences, I recall times when I felt that acceptable was high enough to shoot for, and exemplary was actually unnecessary. Therefore as a teacher, my focus remains upon pushing students to work toward creating their best work in an effort to gain real life experience, rather than merely working for the sake of doing work. The final assessment addressed was self-assessment. Rather than simply giving them a quiz to self assess, the book suggests using various forms of media so that students may record themselves and then see how far they progressed. I feel that this is far more effective as students may become bored with merely quizzing themselves on their knowledge. In addition, students should be prompted to keep journals or logs of progress and continue to assess themselves at all times throughout the year.

Lizzie
This chapter discusses different types of ways to assess the development of the students and the material being covered. One tactic to keeping track of the progress is by having the students’ keep work in a portfolio. A portfolio is a great way to track work over time and allows the students to look back and see what has changed or what needs to be changed. Rubrics are another great way to keep track of the students’ progress, they are one of the most popular among teachers. A rubric helps to tell the student what the teacher expects to be done or covered for the assignment given. When designing a rubric as a teacher you have to remember how you plan to assess their work, whether you assess it as a whole or if you are going to break it down into parts. Self-assessment is another great way to assess the development of the students. This is great for the student and teacher to come up with realistic goals together. It allows the students and teacher to work together rather than one above the other. Self-assessments give the student and teacher insights, questions to be answered, and things to help improved or keep the student on the right track. As a student I enjoyed looking at my past work to see where I have come from. It helped me to see things that I have done consistently wrong and what I improved on. A rubric is always nice to have when doing a major project. I would find it sometimes hard to be given an assignment and have it be too broad. I like to know what I will get for each part of my assignment. I knew if a certain part was my weakness, I could work extra hard on it. Self-assessment can be good and be bad. They can be very helpful if used properly. I noticed when I would do self-assessments I was usually harder on myself than I should have been which was helpful because I would always get a grade higher than I gave myself. It was also very helpful because it brought my teacher and me together to discuss why I gave myself the grade I did. It is always important for the teacher and the student to work as a team.

Jenna
Chapter four of __Fair Isn't Always Equal__ is about the three most essential types of assessment: portfolios, rubrics, and self-evaluation. Portfolios are an excellent form of testing because they cover multiple ways of assessing. A portfolio can be a tool of differentiation that can be extremely flexible in the content that it assesses and how. Rubrics are always a good form of testing because they are clear and concise with their expectations. Self-evaluation is critical because the student can reflect (via a journal or writing an entry) on how they performed; the student is his or her own critic. Students are more apt to retain concepts if they have assessed themselves adequately. I loved this chapter because it explained many concepts that I was once confused about. For example, I never completely understood the logistics of maintaining a portfolio. They have always confused me, but that was because I never fully realized how well they can be implemented in a classroom. I love rubrics- it is an effective assessment tool which always manages to remain direct, literal, and concise. However, self-evaluation is definitely my favorite. I believe that if students assess themselves, that they are more apt to learn because they will care more; they are focusing on themselves. By reflecting on what task they've completed, the purpose of the task, what they did like, what they did not like, what challenged them, etc, I am allowing my students to discover themselves and who they are. I will not only notice their strengths and weaknesses, but they will too! I want my students to self-evaluate themselves so that they know themselves and how they learn, which hopefully would inspire the children to dive deeper into the curriculum with enthusiasm.

T ed
Chapter four of Fair Isn’t Always Equal looked at three assessment types. I’ve been in classrooms that used all of these types. My high school English classes in particular used all three types of assessment at the same time. Portfolios are a good type of assessment to look at the span of an entire year – I remember choosing documents in different learning areas of my English class and explaining why I chose those items for my portfolio. I remember picking out well-done items for my portfolio and feeling really proud of myself when I was finished – that is a feeling I’d like to be present in my classroom. Rubrics were the most common assessment style used in my schooling. They’re good for traditional school products like essays or projects because they lay out the guidelines clearly, and the student can see exactly what needs to be done to demonstrate knowledge, skill, and understanding. I liked examples 4.2 and 4.3 because they spent the most time discussing what the standard of excellence looks like, making it easier to aim for excellence instead of shooting for mediocrity. I really like the student self-assessment type. It’s good to get students thinking about their own work. All of the techniques the book proposed sound good to use in my own classroom.

**Andrew D**
This chapter talks about three important types of assessment in a differentiated classroom: portfolios, rubrics, and student self-assessment. Portfolios are good for documenting students work and are something they can look back at over time to see how they have improved in some areas and how they have to keep improving in other areas. They let students take charge of their own work. Rubrics are a good assessment tool because it allows teachers to map out what they expect from their students work. Rubrics may be something that can take a long time to make and are difficult, but learning how to make a rubric is a great thing for a teacher. The last thing was student self-assessment. This part impacted me because I feel like student self-assessment is something all teachers should do. I believe students should be critiquing their work and always trying to get better at everything they do. This will impact my classes when I become a teacher because I will always have my students assess their own work. I also believe rubrics are a good tool and are something I will try to incorporate into my classes as well.

Andrew F.
This chapter discussed the three most common types of assessment, and provided examples of what are the most appropriate times to use each of these. Also in terms of designing these assessments, step-by-step instructions are provided as well as sample images to help teachers develop better methods of grading their students work. I can not say that I would pick one particular assessment from this chapter over another, because I know in my experience as a teacher I will constantly be using all three forms within my classes. But after reading this chapter I know that I have a much better sense of how to formulate a rating system for my future students.

Nicholas
Chapter 4: In this chapter I learned about the importance of student self-assessment. It contributes to setting individual goals. There are numerous ways in which children assess their own learning. I enjoyed the journals or learning logs that were discussed within the chapter. I definitely want my students to continually assess themselves because it will give me the feedback I need in order to understand how my students feel about themselves. By assessing my students learning I hope to help them improve all the other ways in which they are able to learn.

Ben
Chapter 4 contains 3 major types of assessments. These three are Portfolios, Rubrics, and Student Self-Assessment. Portfolios are great way to grade your students. This allows you as a teacher to get an overview of the student's work over the semester. An overview of the student's work with rationale comments help show what the student has truly learned throughout the year. Rubrics are great for when dealing with projects, I plan on using rubrics in my class since it is easier to break down the different aspects of the project. On pages 46-48 the book //Fair isn't Always Equal// talks about what it takes to make a fair and respectable. Finally student self assessment is another way which my students will be reviewed. I will use this at the end of the semester. Questions will contain what they thought of the class, and what they deserve for a grade; consequently, what are the reasons; anyone feedback for me on how to improve.