FIAE+B2+Chapter+13


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Cam
Chapter 13; Gradebook Formats for the Differentiated Classroom When organizing your assessments, there are multiple grading formats that can be considered. Choose wisely, but select the best one that fits to your differentiated class. Ken O’ Connor points out that teachers need to step outside the box and start viewing the grade book columns as standards, objectives, and benchmarks. A second format of the grade book that is possible is grouping the assignments by their weight or category. This requires the teacher to multiply the columns to find the final product. By teachers listing assignments by date, they can individually track a student’s progress over time. Teachers can also personalize their grade book by color-coding the assignments. In 2001, Robert Marzano introduced the topic-based grade book, which means more grading for the teacher. It is a matter of getting use to the process; the more you use it, the easier it gets. This impacts me as a teacher because it gets me thinking about ideas or ways I will assess my students. With the high use of technology it today’s classrooms, I am thinking that I will use an online grade book like Blackboard. Therefore, parents can see their child’s grade and students can check their grade instead of asking the teacher in the middle of a lesson. This impacts students because then they will know their current grade at the touch of their keyboard. This is an efficient way for all people who will review the grades of the student.

Marcy
This chapter mentioned a couple different formats for grade book setup in a differentiated classroom. In essence, the idea is to be flexible and one size does not fit all for students. The label at the top that indicates what the grade represents should be the essential understanding identified at the beginning of the unit. It does not matter how the student arrived or how the student performed the mastery, all that matters is that the student mastered it, and that is what should be recorded. Also putting several grades at the top of a single assignment if the assignment fits under more than one standard helps build a more complete picture of the student’s mastery. In the end the grade book format must give an accurate and clear picture of the students’ mastery, show if there was a change in a student’s plan of learning due to differentiation, keep track of essential understandings, and be easy to use. This affects me as a teacher by simplifying how to report different methods students show their mastery. The trick is I do not have to, as long as the student mastered it, that’s all that maters. This affects my students by allowing their hard work to count for more if it covers more than the single performance task. One thing I hate as a student is busy work and if I have already shown that I have mastered the skill then I do not want to do that work over again. This will help my students avoid that extra, unnecessary work.

Nicholas
**Chapter 13:** This chapter focuses in on grade book formats for the differentiated classroom. The ideas within the text were good, but no where in there did I see communication between the teacher and the student. I suppose that is more for the assessment aspect of differentiated learning, but it should be the top priority when figuring out a student’s grade. I believe that a student should be able to tell me their grade before I even give them a grade if I have become successful in teaching to the multiple intelligences. I want all of my students to master the content so my students’ grades should be no surprise and should be rather easy to figure out. I want my students’ to be successful learners and if grades are my number one concern than I have missed the point of this book.

Jason
This chapter dealt with trying to figure out what kind of grade book should be used in a differentiated classroom. There is a lot to have to take into account when it comes to different assignments and how you are going to record your grades. This is all pretty new information for me because I am very use to having a grade that is out of 100 by the end of the year. Most grade books that I have seen have the dates, the assignments, and what grade the student received. As a teacher, I would be more apt to use the grade book that requires assignments to be listed by date – I think that it shows progress over time and gives you a great sense of how a student is doing. I would also be more than willing to try the idea of using the final grade the student received as the last grade because it shows that they finally learned to master it; it really does not seem fair to punish a student with a lower grade just because they struggle with work early on. Grading is really tough, but this chapter gave me some good ideas.
 * FIAE Chapter 13: Gradebook Formats for the Differentiated Classroom **

Lizzie
This chapter discussed different ideas on how to organize a grade book in a classroom containing differentiated instruction. There are different formats that can be considered and helpful, but being able to have and utilize one that can fit or suit your classroom is what must be found. Teaching is not about just relaying material to those people in front of you. Teaching is about being able to share a love or interest in one material/subject and being able to get them excited about that material/subject even if it is only 20 minutes a day. Teachers can try to view their grade book as different parts of a whole, split into sections of standards, objectives, and benchmarks. Another way for a teacher to view the grade book is by sections according to groups of assignments by their weight or category. Each way of viewing the grade book requires the teacher to do work in order to acquire a final grade. If a teacher lists assignments by their date then they can follow or track the students’ progress. Organization using color or a particular system not only will help the teacher but in the long run will help the students be able to rely on the teacher as dependable and organized. I have seen many ways of organizing a grade book, but for me, being an extremely organized person. I would have to use dates and colors. I would prefer to organize my grade book by date of the assignment as well colors to identify homework, class work, projects, quizzes, and tests, etc. I would much rather have a material grade book not just a digital one, or one on the computer. I find that when I can see it in writing, I am more organized. Now that technology is taking over our world and the classroom, more and more of the grading is done either on the computer, on a website, or must be put there at the end of a grading period. Although this online or digital way of grading might be useful, for someone like me, it means double the work of putting grades in one place and then another. The only reason I like this way of grading is due to the resource of being able to use a site such as blackboard. Parents can view their child’s grades as well as comments I have made about their child. Efficiency has become the way we work in the classroom and while I agree it is important, I also believe that sometimes using an “old school” method might just be better. Being able to record every detail of a student’s progress is important to me. Tracking their work, challenges, improvements, and final mastery is rewarding not just for me but for them. This means that my grade book must incorporate many details in order for not just myself but my students to know and to see why and how they received the grade they did.

**Andrew D**
This chapter is about different gradebook formats for differentiated classrooms. The first thing to note is that there isn’t one format that works best for all teachers. There are many formats that can work well in differentiated classes. Standards-based instruction and assessment classrooms can use a format shown in the book that clearly displays student grades. Another popular way to format a gradebook is by weight or category. Teachers have to organize it in a way that displays the most heavily weighed assignments in one area and the least heavily weighed assignments in another area. Probably the most common gradebook format is by date. This format allows teachers and anybody looking at the gradebook to see student growth or decline. One other way the chapter mentions is the topics-based format. This chapter impacted me because before I read it I didn’t realize how many different ways you could organize a gradebook. I have only seen traditional gradebooks and figured that was the way every teacher did it. This will impact my classroom because I can now consider different ways to organize my student’s grades and decide which one works best for me.

Dani
Chapter 13 of FIAE is about finding a grading system that works for you. The chapter gives a few examples but stresses the fact that you need to find one that works well for you. This is important and affects my classroom because I will need to find a way to keep track of my student’s leaning in a way that is easy, efficient and tells me a lot about their mastery of the material. This can be hard to do and will probably take a lot of trial and error. It affects my classroom because as a teacher I will need to be able to tell students exactly what they need to work on and explain to parents what their children are doing in my class.

Ben
This chapter talks about formatting a gradebook that will best suit the differentiated classroom. The thing is the book says that many gradebook formats work well in the differentiated classroom since the gradebook only records final performance, or what was achieved. Some formats include these setups of gradebooks: grouping assignments by standards, objectives, or benchmarks; weight or category; listing assignments by date; topic-based. These are all great methods to have when deciding on a gradebook for a DI classroom. I peronally like the weight grading, it makes each task worth so much which can be a good representation of importance in the class. This will definitely be used in my class.

Lindsey
I thought this chapter was interesting as it shows the way standards and benchmarks truly fit into the classroom on a daily basis. When entering grades into the grade book, an effective method of organizing the book is to place standards and benchmarks in the top. This shows that these goals are being met and the student is closer to mastery of the subject. In order to remain organized, it would be wise to maintain the traditional method of keeping track of date as well as standards. If this is included with the standards, it will be evident where students have made progress in each area and what methods have led the student to such success. This will help the teacher to note student progress on a daily basis, and work beyond issues if they appear within student work.

Jenna
Chapter thirteen of __Fair Isn't Always Equal__ describes the grade book that will best serve a differentiated classroom. Usually, all forms of grade books are effective because it is only recording the final performances and achievements. The examples of grade book formats were grouping assignments by standards, objectives, or benchmarks, weight or category, listing examples by date, or topic-based. I found every one of these suggestions to be very helpful methods to exercise in differentiated classrooms. My mentor teacher uses his grade book format categorized to tests, quizzes, and homework grades. I noticed that this was very effective for him. I personally love weight grading because it allows each assignment to have worth and meaning to the students. Because there are so many points that a student can receive for the assignment, I can take off less points when they have a emergency and have to turn in the assignment a day or two late. This way, I will not be misrepresenting the student's mastery of the content.

T ed
Chapter 13, which focused on gradebook formats in a differentiated classroom. The system that the chapter proposed that I liked the most was categorizing graded activities by the standard that they were designed to meet. For me, this will help me stay on track – if I have to constantly list what standards were met by which of my assignments, then I will stay on track more than if I just put it on autopilot. This will keep me focused on meeting the standards I have set out. The other gradebook formats the chapter proposed, such as listing assignments by date or weight seem kind of arbitrary. The organization of the gradebooks by these systems seems to focus on the teacher more than the content or standards. The date format could help track student progress over time, however. It would be great if there were a type of gradebook that could list these grades in different systems. Can powerschool do this?

Andrew F.
This chapter expresses that not all styles of grade books works for every educator, and suggests being flexible and trying multiple methods and keeping the one that works the best for each classroom. Many different types were suggested and although all of the ideas seem valid and practical, you have to know what really works the best for you. Organization is the key to success within the education field and keeping a neat grade book is a great indication that you are on top of your game as well as setting a good example for the students within your classroom.

The idea that seemed to make the most sense to me is keep a grade book which is based on the topics discussed within the course. To me this would be the most logical approach to remember each unit and having the students being able to see the main ideas each lesson is trying to express. This simple way has so much functionality to it and that is why I feel the most comfortable incorporating it into my future classrooms. The best part about it is that most grade books have become digital these days, and this will help my digital representation be both aesthetically pleasing as well as very practical in its purpose.