FIAE+B1+Chapter+11

toc
 * 1) Use the down arrow on your keyboard to get the cursor underneath the horizontal bar.
 * 2) Type your name, highlight your name and then select Heading 3 at the top.
 * 3) Copy and paste your reflection underneath your name.
 * 4) Insert a horizontal bar under your reflection.
 * 5) Click save

Tyler W
Chapter eleven is about an important issue that every teacher has to deal with: grading. The author offers six different instances and types of grading that teachers encounter on a regular basis. One thing that teachers constantly come across is how to grade if a student does not turn in a project. Does a teacher put a zero in the grade book, or a sixty? The author argues that putting in a sixty more accurately depicts a students mastery of a subject. If a students took six tests and got a 100 on five of them, but did not do the sixth and got a zero as a result, then the student's average test score would be an eighty-three, or C+. This does not accurately portray a student's mastery of a subject. If the teacher placed a sixty in, then the student would have ninety-three average. Grading gifted students is a but different. The teacher should make sure they have mastered the regular content before going on to the advanced material. While most school report cards do not have this option, it would be useful if the students could be graded on both the regular material and the advanced material.

When weighing grades, credit given should be proportionate to the achievement. This means that a B in an advanced placement class would be worth more than a B in an honors class. This also means that some school work, like tests, would be worth more than class work or homework. Teachers should be aware of automaticity and concept attainment. Basically, how effectively the students responds to a task and how well the student understands the task. For the most part, teachers should look at how a students got to the answer while grading. Grading late work is at the teacher's discretion. If the student normally turns in their work on time, then the teacher should be merciful. If the student constantly turns in late work, do not drop entire letter grades per day late, but a few points a day so the student will still be motivated to turn in the work. When grading special needs students, it is best to work together with the student's special ed. teacher. The two teachers should find a way to accurately measure the student's mastery and grade him accordingly.

Caleb "The Geekfather"
In teaching there are some rather large issues that have to be tackled, each of them pertaining to how you grade students. Reading through this chapter I had a feeling that was biting at the back of my neck. I took a second and thought back to all those wonderful movies about teaching, mainly Yoda. Yoda only graded Luke once and it wasn’t even a letter grade it was feedback however. Luke was a gifted student, as well as a student that needed some special attention. In the end I think Yoda could place himself in the blonde teen’s shoes as he made him jump through the swamps of Dagobah. All I am saying is that as teachers we have to develop an ability to put ourselves into our student shows. If you are a gifted and talented kid you want to know the information everyone else does plus a little more. If you didn’t get a homework assignment in you don’t want a zero in the grade book you would rather have a sixty. It’s all about trying to find that balance of fairness as well as developing a perspective, or should I say perspectives. There will always be those that believe that there needs to be strict rules about grades but as long as a teacher is fair and realize what he or she is doing. That is all that matters.

Abby
Chapter 11 of Fair Isn't Always Equal deals with the idea of giving students zeros. Wormeli discusses the idea of whether or not we should be giving students zeros or moving them up to sixties. We do not want to just give students sixties that they do not deserve, but we also do not want to penalize students who try really hard but for some reason cannot do an assignment. It all comes back to grades not accurately reflecting student's actual learning and growth. It goes on to question the practice of weighting grades or grading of gifted students. I have honestly never thought that grading was that complicated. This chapter caused me to consider this idea of giving students grades that may or may not actually reflect the grade that they deserve. If a student is giving a zero on one assignment but is a straight A student the rest of the year it is unreasonable to give them a C. They have grasped more than a C's worth of information however it is hard to reward them for something that they did not actually do. I think that as a teacher I will use the idea of simply putting an incomplete in instead of a zero so that students have an incentive to turn in the work, but when it comes time for me to put the grade in I can make the grades accurately reflect what the students have learned. I disagree with their idea of letting students turn assignments in late for full credit, but agree that both the actual work and the fact that it is late should be taken into consideration.

Jasmine
This chapter discusses controversial grading issues. One issue that really caught my eye was the decision to record a zero or a sixty when a student does not turn in a project. Wormeli writes that “Adjusting zeroes to sixty is not giving students something for having done nothing. It’s adjusting the grading scale so that it is ethically justifiable…” (p. 140). I agree with Wormeli. Recording a zero damages a student’s grade and the result is not an accurate depiction of what the student knows. I will incorporate this into my grading system. One other issue that interested me is grading late work. Most teachers that I had would always knock down the grade if it was a day late. This annoyed me because if I handed in something late, it was only occasional and should have received full credit for it. For students who hand in late work chronically, I think Wormeli’s idea is great. In this situation, Wormeli suggests that teachers should record two grades for the student: one that represents his mastery of the assignment and one that factors in the late penalties. When it comes time to record the grade in the gradebook, the teacher should document the one that demonstrates the level of mastery. I like the idea a lot and will use it in my classroom.

Ally
The chapter began with whether or not to give students zeroes or sixties for their grades. It is difficult to decide which to give for a sixty is a lot better than just receiving a zero. It is difficult to determine what the student deserves because if they blatantly did not do the work how is it fair to give them the credit of a sixty. Either way it is failing. To me, if the student does not do the work or hand it in then they are setting themselves up for a zero. It is all about choice on whether to do the work because they have had the opportunity to get it done. When I was in school if you did not have the work done you could hand it in late and receive partial credit for what you have done. When grades are closing however, it should not be up to the teacher to give a student credit for work they have not passed in. It is not the teacher’s fault it is the student because they had plenty of time to get it done. I realize this majorly effects the grades but it was the students choice. I agree with the book when it said that gifted students should be challenged. This is all about differentiated instruction because as a teacher you want your students to learn. You do not want to have that student become bored because they then will not try in class. I have seen many goods give up because they are bored and not challenged. As a teacher this will effect me because I want to be successful with my students and make sure they succeed in my classes. I think this will effect my classroom because they are going to be effected by grades and what the teacher will teach them.

Katie
In chapter 11 of Fair Isn’t Always Equal, the author talks about how student’s grades should be changed depending on if they mastered the material or not. If a student forgets to do an assignment, the grade for the assignment should not be a zero, but instead be a 50 or 60. If the student then hands in the assignment late, their grade for the assignment should go up to a 60 or 70. I feel that if one of my students handed in an assignment late, I would knock down their grade for the assignment to a 65 or 70 because I believe that the students who handed in their assignments on time will have higher grades than that on it. I would not give the student a zero unless they complete ignored the assignment and they never handed it in. It is important as teachers that we grade students based on if they mastered the material that we wanted them to master and they should be graded as accordingly. If a teacher was to give a student a zero on an assignment, the students grading percentage will go very far down as it is averaged out. I feel that that is unfair unless the student does not actually complete the assignment. If it is just late, then I will give them credit for it in order for them to be able to at least pass my class. If we give all of our students zeros, then are we actually doing our jobs correctly by making them flunk out of our class when they are handing in th

Lizz
Chapter 11 of FIAE discusses the always-controversial grading issues. The chapter discussed the issues of recording a zero or a sixty as the student’s grade, grading gifted students, and what I think to the most controversial of them all the weighted grades. When it comes to whether a teacher should record a zero in the grade book or a 60 it, talks about how when teachers turn zero’s to sixties in their grade books they are not giving the students something for doing nothing. They are actually adjusting the grade intervals so that any averaging is justified. Marking the zero’s as sixties still means that the student failed. An important thing to remember about failing is that it does not mean that student misbehaves or is a loser, but that the student failed to demonstrate mastery. When it comes to the issue of weighted grades, Dr. Guskey says that there is no evidence that shows weighted grades serves to motivate students to enroll in more challenging classes or vice versa. He also said that waited grades are used to sort students and to select the valedictorian. I sometimes wished my school had weighted grades and someone my teachers wished there was weighted grades because in my school we had kids who took welding and shop who were in the top 20 of the graduating class when there were those students who took AP anatomy, honors geometry, and the other harder classes. This chapter will help me as a teacher because I understand not failing a student to the point of giving zero’s but if they didn’t do the assignment they earned that zero. I will as a teacher have two grades one for the mastery of the assignment and two for actually turning it in.

Jake
This chapter discusses the issue of grading and specifically focuses upon the issue of late work, and failing. Wormeli argues that students should be given a 60 for an incomplete assignment instead of 0, because a 60 represents a lack of mastery of the material but does not hurt a student’s overall average in the same way that a 0 would. He also discusses that late work should be given a slight deduction and not an entire letter grade because late work does not necessarily portray a lack of mastery as much as a lack of responsibility. I’m still undecided as to whether or not I agree with Wormeli or not. There is one part of me that thinks he makes a valid point. A student could get 90’s all semester and then fail to hand in one assignment and have his overall grade dropped down to a C. That C does not represent that student’s mastery in any way. However, on the other end of the spectrum, if students know that if they receive a 60 on half of the assignments, they could easily receive a passing grade with a mediocre performance on the other half. What this mentality could potentially result in is a class room full of students taking the class lightly and not engaging with the material because they know they can get away with it. Obviously, part of the teacher’s responsibility is to motivate his/her students, but at the same time we need to be honest with ourselves. Human beings are constantly looking for the easiest route to achieving the desired goal, and if that goal is simply passing the class, then Wormeli’s approach is going to crash and burn like none other. However, I don’t necessarily dislike it either; I think it has potential.

Jenn
In this chapter of Fair Isn't Always Equal it discussing six of the major grading issues. Included in these is the issue on whether or not to record a zero in the gradebook or to give nothing lower than a certain percent, such as a sixty. Personally, until I read this chapter, I didn't really understand why a student shouldn't receive a zero for any assignment not completed. However, once the understanding is made that any zero would result in skewing the final grade lower than the actual accomplishment of the student. In all actuality, using zeroes in the decreases the accuracy of the gradebook, and therefore practically defeats the purpose of using percentages in the first place. Another issue that I changed my opinion on after reading this chapter was weighted grades. In all reality weighting grades doesn't really benefit the student, the teacher, the parents or the school. Weighted grades tend to be used in classes that are considered for more advanced. Although this seems logical at first, when considering a differentiated classroom and what grades mean in one, it isn't. Grades are meant to representative of mastery of material. If students are mastering the same amount of material but at a more advanced level, then that doesn't constitute for weighted grades. Weighted grades would only make sense in courses where students are learning a vastly larger amount of material, which wouldn't exactly be fair to any students. Just because students are working at a more advanced level doesn't mean that they should be expected to do more work, they should be expected to do the same amount.

Dan
Grading is the kryptonite of the schooling system. It is the cause of most if not all problems of students and teachers alike. One of the major problems faced with grading is whether to give a student a zero or a sixty for no work when work was due. I believe that students should receive a sixty or the equivalent of an F- instead of a zero. The reason for this is because if students receive zeros, they know that it will be extremely hard to raise their average, as a zero devastates their chances of decent grades and causes them to shut down. As teachers, we do not want students to shut down, but rather continue to grow and learn the material. Another issue that arises is grading late work, which relates to the above arguments. Some of the arguments I agree with. If this is the student’s first time and they always turn in their work on time, they should get full credit for their work. I also agree that for every day the assignment is late, the teacher should take off some points, not an entire letter grade. When I begin to teach, I will be fair with my late work. Student will be able to turn in late work, but they will realize that it cannot be a habit as it will affect their grade. I want students to learn and keep learning in my class, but I also want them to turn in their work on time.

Alex "Slackson" Slack
This chapter has a lot of insightful looks into the harsh reality of grading and asked a lot of questions that made me sit here and ponder what would I really do in this situation. The answer to some of these questions is what I want to discuss the first matter relates to the fact that as far as effort goes in class like a student doesn’t turn work in and then makes no effort to try and redo the project or come and see you for help then that to me is a red flag I would then approach the student and see if they have any intention of completing they work if the still show no initiative then the grade will stand a zero, because I am looking for effort from the student if there is some form of anything then I have something to grade. Then the next pressing question will be what do you do with a honors student. I think give them a little harder work if they are not in a different class, and do not grade them differently but just change the work load, as I stated harder work maybe even more work but I wouldn’t change the world and then give them comments on what they can do to pursue going above and beyond. I do believe on the other hand that you can change your grading scale for students with special needs in the classroom; you can be a little bit more lenient. The sole purpose is to slowly progressively get their confidence up in a real classroom and maybe see if you can make them on the same page as everyone eventually.

Roger
In chapter 11 of FIAE, the author goes over some significant questions that teachers often ask, and debate in their own personal philosophies. The first question was about whether or not teachers should give a zero for missing work. The idea of giving a zero for missing work was shot down by the author, who stated that it made much more sense to give a still failing but higher grade, like a 60 or 50. This way, missing or poor quality work will not overly skew the overall grade. This approach makes sense, since one terrible grade could scar an otherwise good grade. Simply put, one assignment would reflect much more than other assignments where the student did well. A second issue that was brought up was weighted grading. The concept seems fairly sound, as more difficult assignments will be graded more strongly than other assignments. It does make sense that simply doing homework should count less than how well a student does on an exam. The homework is there for practice, and the smaller grade ensures that students practice towards the goal of mastery. The exam, which is graded at a higher level, encourages students to try their best and prove what they know and what they have mastered. The less crucial assignment means less, while the critical assignment means the most, thus encouraging the student to learn and achieve as best as they can.

Brittany
In this chapter the author discusses six issues: giving zeros, grading gifted students, weighting grades, automaticity versus concept attainment, grading late work, and grading special needs students in inclusion classes. When it comes to giving zeros to students I think that they should only be given if at the end of the grading period the student still has not turned in the assignment. I would give my students every opportunity to turn in an assignment late for some credit before giving them a zero. What I do not think is fair is if the student never turned in the work and to give them credit. While it will help them grade wise, it is unfair to those students who did the work and turned it in before the end of the grading period. When it comes to grading gifted students I think it is best to grade based on whether they were really challenged, and how well did they meet that challenge. I would look at their level of understanding in a preassessment and grade based on their learning in the summative assessment, because when it comes down to it I really want to grade based on learning not completion. I personally do not like the idea of weighting. I like the idea of using a point system. For example making essays worth 500 points, and by assigning 5 essays at 100 points apiece, therefore if you get 100 on all 5 essays you get the 500 points. And in the end using the total number of points received in all areas of the course divided by the possible number of points. This also makes it easier when you allow students to redo work, you are not having to reconfigure the percent, but rather just adding points. When it comes to automaticity and concept attainment there are ways to test whether the student has completely grasped the concept and understands it or whether they are still beginning to learn. The book states that we can see where our students are by using essential understandings to assess the extent of mastery. Through assessments we can see where students are and grade accordingly. When grading late work the book suggests being merciful; I like this idea because then students can still receive full credit and are more willing to complete the work and will learn from it. While this is a great idea for the student who only turns work in late occasionally, we need to think about what we will do with those who are chronic in turning in work late. I think that we should still be merciful, but stern, work with the student to improve their time management. If we do dock points maybe only take 5 points at a time rather than the full 10 (usually a letter grade) that way they still feel it is worth their time. When grading student with special needs in a inclusive classroom I plan on grading as I would any student, which is by asking myself "How much have they learned? Have the mastered a new set of skills." While I understand full content mastery, I think that grading should be based on the amount of learning that occurred. If a class overall had only a few students master the content than it is not completely "What are they doing wrong?" but "What can I do as a teacher to help them better understand this?" When it comes down to it I hope to grade based on what is learned, and the change in success of students over time rather than whether they got all the answers right all the time.