FIAE+B2+Chapter+7

CHP 7 FIAE Syntheses and Class Reflection
Lauren Scheidegger

Chapter seven was all about grading effectively. The chapter mentioned whether feedback should be used instead of grades. This might seem a bit weird but the chapter stated that the [|grading process] can be subjective. Grading is a very controversial topic and many agree that it needs to be talked about. It is, unfortunately, not talked about very often; because of this many refer to grading as the “elephant in the room” in the educational world. Grading can be very inconsistent. Each teacher creates their own way of grading things and thus grading is not the same for every class, forcing students to endure multiple forms and varieties of the grading process.

The chapter also went over how it is essential for a teacher to know a student before they grade them. For example, would a teacher grade an English Language Learner the same on an essay as someone whose first language is English?

The class all seemed to learn a lot from this chapter and had a lot of past experiences to share. Many also gained some insight from the chapter. A lot of us liked the idea of giving an “I” for incomplete as oppose to a zero. We all felt that there needs to be reasons behind grades and that all teachers need to grade consistently. Students shouldn’t have to learn each[| teacher’s methods] of grading and adjust for each class. A grading system should be constant throughout a school.

Many of us talked about the possibility of eliminating the grading system entirely, however most of us found that to be a little too dramatic a change for right now. Something we all agreed on was that grading is something that should be and needs to be talked about.

toc

Morgan Ware
In chapter 7 the main topic is grading and how to do it effectively. Grading is often called the “elephant” in the room because it is a very important topic but no one wants to talk about it. Summative grading is very useful but does not give much information about the students’ mastery of the content. Every teacher grades differently and several teachers can grade one essay and all get different grades. Teachers need to bend their grading styles to meet the needs of their students. Students thrive because teachers do this. I have had teachers that would give breaks to students of they are having a hard time at home or are just struggling with the material. If the teacher notices that the whole class is struggling than she/he will grade easier knowing that we are having a harder time mastering the material. Some teachers have a hard time dealing with the stress of grading and some schools have gone so far as to get rid of grades entirely. This might seem like a foreign concept but teachers give students feedback not grades. Schools are doing this because our society puts too much emphasis on one grade or mark. Every teacher defines his or her grades differently. An A in World History might be different from an A is English. Teachers give the letter grades different weights than other teachers. The thing that stood out the most to me is that schools are getting rid of grades. I believe that they are important is showing the growth of a student over a period of time. I do not think I would use this technique in my classroom because I think students and parents need grades to see the mastery of the material.

Lauren Breton
This chapter discussed how each grade is, essentially, up for interpretation among educators. Although teachers might be consistent within their own grading system, the grading system and what type of product is required to receive a certain letter grade, such as an “A”, is different from teacher to teacher. This type of bias makes a grade that a student receives subjective rather than objective. By making this process subjective, criteria for meeting the standards may be going unmet.

One of the ways that the text advocates for avoiding this subjectivity in students’ grades is to decide how we define each letter grade and then discuss those definitions with our colleagues and our school districts. This practice would at least ensure that grades remained consistent throughout the school district and would cut down on some of the subjectivity that currently affects grading practices.

This chapter also discussed the possibility of not grading students. At first, I was reluctant to teach in a world without grades but as I continued to read the chapter, however, I realized all of the negative effects that grades could have on students. Grading creates competition among students and often in classes it becomes more about the grade than the knowledge. Also, many parents see a “B” as the new “C” and expect their children to complete extra-credit assignments in order to receive a higher grade. This approach to enhancing grades, however, allows some students to get a high grade without mastering material. This chapter has made me realize how detrimental and unhelpful grades can be for students and makes me want to work in a district that doesn’t require letter grades. Since this is not likely, however, I have been pushed to instead consider the teacher’s role in grading more carefully.

Alyssa Amari
Chapter seven of //Fair isn’t Always Equal// discusses student grading and the ultimate definition of grading. Grades are a very controversial subject because al teachers grade differently. Some teachers cannot even begin to understand the process of grading. It is extremely difficult to assign numbers and letters to an assignment without specific criteria and spelt out goals for each. Some teachers may be consistent with how they grade, but it seems as if the grading system is different for all teachers. This is known as subjective grading because students are graded inconsistently by the quality of their work instead of grading for how well the student has grasped the standard.. Objective grading is when students are graded based on their progress or achievement towards an assignment or unit goal. To begin to grade efficiently, teachers must truly define what each letter grade stands for, otherwise they should use a system of grading directed towards the unit and assignment goal. The grading system should be common throughout the school and the school district. I would hope that when I enter a school as a new teacher that there is already an established grading system. I believe that it is important for all schools and teachers to follow a similar grading system that grades students on their progress and achievement towards the unit goals. I think that this will impact students because they will no longer wonder about their grades; they will have a clear grade with written feedback or definite grades based on criteria.

Rachel Joiner
This chapter was very interesting and I found it a little different from previous chapters we have read thus far. This chapter was all about grades and what they mean. At the beginning of this chapter, the book mention how a response is handed to teachers with no background information, and it earns a response ranging from A to D. Following this the teachers are given a background about the response and the student, and it still earns a range of grades from A to D. I thought that this was a powerful statement because it shows how subjective grading was. I thought it painted a clear picture of how teachers can arbitrarily grade students, and how unfair grades could be at times. As a teacher, this is something that I do not want to do in my classroom. I thought the suggestion in the book of interpreting grades for students was a great idea. They suggest to not only give students a grade, but also to say why they earned it. This seems like something that would benefit the student and the teacher. I would like to use this in my classroom, because I think it will help me be fairer with my grading. The idea of giving students a grade of an “I” instead of something like a D or an F was different. I think this idea would be good to try in a school. Students receive an “I” as incomplete, because they have not mastered the content. The student then has time to make up the work, and prove he or she understands and has mastered the content. I think this would be great to use in a classroom, because it is positive. Instead of giving a student an F, and having them see themselves as a failure, they can receive an I and realize they need to do more work. I think this would motive students more to complete their work.

T.J. Hebert
The chapter opens by saying that grading is that “elephant in the room” that no one wants to discuss or say anything about and then saying that it is something that should be openly talked about with students and colleagues. It is very difficult for a teacher to describe how or why a student receives certain grades or what that grade reflects. What does the letter “B” tell us about the level of mastery a student has reached about a subject? There is very little consistency in grading among teachers, the book provides an example of an essay that has been reviewed by several teachers and been given grades of “A” all the way to an “F”. How is this useful to a student? What does a student learn from that? Most every teacher has their own methods for grading, their own bias’s, and their own definitions, these differences make grading unfair and difficult to learn anything from. What needs to happen is for teachers to get together and discuss these things with one another and determine one method of grading. This will make grading fair across the board for all students. Students will know what to expect and will understand why they were given the grade that they received, in all classes. I completely agree with the way the book views grading. Having teachers come together to discuss and develop one method of grading would be a tremendous help to students. When I was in school, grades meant nothing to me. I rarely received feedback and had no idea what the grade(s) truly meant. Each teacher had different methods for grading and there was little chance of me taking the time to determine each teacher’s method. I was an on and off honor roll student, however; it almost being 10 years since I graduated, I remember very little content from high school. A majority of my memories are from doing labs in my science classes and what teachers didn’t do as opposed to what they did do.

Lauren Scheidegger
Chapter 7 of __Fair Isn’t Always Equal__ by Rick Wormeli talks a lot about grading. It goes over what is fair and unfair. At the beginning of the chapter there is an essay. Wormeli asks the reader to think about what a good grade would be for it. He then goes on to say that it is impossible to grade just the work. You need to know about the student who made it. Are they an English language learner? Are they “gifted” or a little behind their grade level in that subject? These are things you should know before grading something. He then goes on to say that if a teacher is going to effectively assess they need to make the goals and criteria clearly understood and that teachers need to know their subject very well to be able to assess well. Wormeli also talks about defining grades and how perhaps the “A B C” system is not the most ideal and how it is not even constant. For example the “C” use to mean “average” or “proficient”, now a “C” is seen as a poor grade in many districts in America. While this is a more frequently occurring trend it is not “new”. As for the lower grades “Educator and author Doug Reeves once said that a D is a coward’s F- the student failed but the teacher didn’t have the courage to tell him (2002)” (97). I found all of this to be intensely thought provoking. I began thinking about how I could make the grades mean more than the automatic response they seem to generate. When I begin teaching I want to grade fairly and have it be meaningful to the student.

Megan Millette
In this chapter, Wormeli discusses grading and the basics of grading. He talks about how students can thrive when teachers bend a little here and there to teach their students in ways in which they can best learn. We as teachers need to figure out the best way for our students to learn and then provide it in our lessons. I personally want to make it easier for my students to master learning. Wormeli discusses how when incorporating differentiation teachers are increasing the chances of students learning what needs to be understood. Our society prides themselves on good grades; however, it is not the grades that are making students gain mastery it is what they are being taught. Teachers need to make sure they are teaching their students what they need to help them master a subject. Teachers need to remember not to be biased when grading students. We, as teachers, should not grade students different because of socioeconomic status, abilities, and whom we like and dislike. We need to have a reason behind the grade we give students and need to explain this grade to fellow colleagues, so others know that we are not being biased. We need to explain our grading system to students when they start in our class by explaining our expectations of what counts as what type of a grade. We want to encourage our students not discourage them and by grading them fairly we will be encouraging them. Your grades should not discourage students from growing because that will keep them from mastering the subject so it is best to know that grades are important but don’t make it so that the students feel horrible about the grades they receive. Grading can be tricky this chapter helps one know the basics so they can make it through the difficult parts.

Kevin Lind
This chapter mainly goes over the purpose of grades in the classroom. One point that really stands out to me is the idea that each teacher grades differently. According to this chapter, some teachers will grade based on the idea that an A is intended for students who learn the material well, while others think an A should only be given to students to exceed the standards. It is difficult for me to say exactly how to grade students, but my current philosophy is to give A’s to the students who seem to fully understand the material, even if they haven’t exceeded the standards.

I really like the idea of giving students I’s for incomplete. It successfully indicates that students can develop their learning more, rather than just referring to them as failing. It seems like it really helps to convey the idea that their educators haven’t given up on them. I know this isn’t something that I will be able to control while I am teaching, but I hope I will be able to work in a district that has a similar grading policy.

This chapter really forced me to start viewing grading in a completely different way. It is now clear to me that achieving the highest numerical grade does not always suggest the greatest understand of the content. If more teachers could understand this point, I feel that students will be able to work at a higher level of proficiency when they’re not afraid of what a number between zero and one hundred says about their intelligence.

Mike Kahler
Chapter 7 is all about grading practices in schools, and how teachers all interpret the meaning of a grade differently. First of all this means that I will need to define what an “A” is in my class. The issue here is that other teachers in a school, and a district. The best way to go about deciding how you are going to define each letter grade is to decide what you think constitutes each grade, and then cross check your definition with the other teachers in your grade level in your district. This will lead to consistency, and ultimately fair grading practices in the district. This chapter also kind of turns grading on its side by mentioning how some schools no longer give letter grades. The book talks about this positively because it knowledge instead of just getting the highest numerical value to show off. I personally find it hard t imagine this only because it would be a little too shocking for the world. Even though I believe that I should encourage learning as a teacher I also find that grades are necessary to gauge learning. For example how would a college decide who to admit without actual grades to show who has been the most successful in high school. I am all for having a consistent grading system in schools. I have had teachers in the past that graded harder because a “C” is average, not bad. My parents did not view this positively because other teachers graded easier, and I easily got high marks in their classes.

Samy Tracy
This chapter of the text was all about grades. In particular, how grades are mostly ineffective in classrooms. There are so many biases between teachers and not enough explanation on why the grades are exactly given to students. Some schools have even gotten rid of grades all together which is really shocking to me. I am sure that works well though, it would definitely be something that I would like to try in my classroom even though I still am iffy on if that would truly work as well as the book states. Instead of just getting rid of grades, I do believe that teachers need to be able to back up the reason that they have assigned a student that grade so they can make better sense of it. If they have further questions, they can come ask the teacher what they did wrong. The most important thing this chapter said was, “Every one of us learns at a different pace” (96). This definitely rings true for me too because I had always done terrible in math but my sophomore year of high school math finally clicked for me. I was taking Calculus my Senior Year of high school and actually loved it. It was not fun to have a newfound love for math right around the time that I would actually stop learning this content because I chose to teach English instead. The grades were the things that brought me down though, I would always get C’s (which we learned in this chapter has different meaning for different students) but for me that was below my average. Eliminating that grading process might have pushed me more to like math more since I really did not start liking it until my grade seemed to creep up and showed me that I actually understood the content.

Emily McGee
The main focus of this chapter was grading and the importance that grading fairly does not mean that every person is graded in the same way. Wormeli, explains that grading students requires very clear grading guidelines and a rich understanding of the material and students. He impresses the importance of recognizing individual students abilities and grading them based on their abilities, not based on the abilities of other students. He explains that students should not be compared to one another because students do not have the same abilities and skills. As a future educator I feel that this is an important view point that I need to consider in a grand sense. It really goes along with UBD + DI, that if instruction is differentiated, and assessment is differentiated, shouldn't grading be differentiated too. Not to say teachers should grade using certain biases about a student. But they should consider what is level of mastery is reasonable to expect from the student, push them to exceed their expectation, but grade them fairly on what they can do. In retrospect I recognize where teachers have done this to me. My freshman English class here at UMF for example. My professor would give me low grades on papers but when I would read other peoples for peer review I couldn't understand how they had done better. She pushed me to become a much more efficient, effective, and concise writer, which is a good thing, at the cost of my GPA. For this reason, I don't know if I truly agree with the chapter. I don't think students should receive a high grade for less mastery because they are less proficient, while another student receives a lower grade for more proficiency and greater mastery. Just a thought.

Matt Roy
Grading is the focus of Chapter 7 in Fair Isn’t Always Equal by Rick Wormeli. Wormeli introduces the intimidating nature of grading by classifying it as an aspect of teaching “that we keep in cages in hopes they will never get out”. Grading, until recently, was an inevitable component of the learning process. Recently, however, grading has lost its vice-like grip on our educational system. Teachers across America are slowly moving towards more alternative methods and becoming more flexible in their grading policies, focusing less on the one final grade and more on the overall understanding and knowledge that a student ultimately gains. At the very heart of the issue is the arbitrary nature of grading, it is in no way consistent across the board. What may be a C+ paper in my classroom could very well be a B+ in another classroom. Letter grades operate on nothing more tangible than personal definitions, A means excellent, B means good, C means satisfactory, D means needs work and F means fail. The problem is, who is there to define what makes an excellent paper over the top from a good paper? It is the fact that we must ask these sorts of questions that make our grading system so troublesome, they are based almost entirely on opinion, and the same project could get a completely different grade with someone else on the same product you graded. Rubrics try to make sense of this problem but, even still, they do not solve the problem really. I think the practice of completely eliminating grades is a little too dramatic for my tastes but I do understand why the movement is taking place. As future educators we must commit to the overall learning of these individuals not the grades we will end up putting on their report cards.

Patrick Hurley
This chapter is all about grading and how to do it. There were several example of what an A grade would be, a B, C, etc. It really helped show what the students mastery of a subject should look like. The chapter explains different ways teachers grade. One big thing is making sure you explain why the grade you gave was given. Yes the student wants to know the grade, but they also would like to know why they received it. This way the student knows how to improve on what they learned. Feedback is key to your students education. Grading is one thing I am rather worried about. What if I seem unfair while grading? What if I give one student one grade and another a lower one and they think their projects were equal in material? These are the things I ponder. I know grading is a big part of teaching. I will have to be sure to stick to a core system of grading and standards for projects. I don’t want people thinking I’m playing favorites. I will also have to be sure to explain my grading process/standards. The students deserve reasoning, they worked hard on the projects, they should get good feedback so they can improve what they did for the next time. One thing I liked in the chapter was the examples of how people graded. This really helped give me an idea of what to look for and what grade should go with what kind of work.

Simone Thiry
I had always considered grades to be a standard, and the places that did not use them to be utopian places that could not possibly exist as majority in this country that is so obsessed with comparison and evaluation. But after reading this chapter, I think that they could possibly become a growing trend. I was surprised that teachers can grade a paper so differently, even taking into account the same background information. It seems wrong that it can really be taken so subjectively, and that standards can differ so much from teacher to teacher, and from school to school. I guess that I would consider myself to be one of the teachers that believes that there should be some form of structure and evaluation, though I think I would be thrilled to have the opportunity to teach for learning without grades. One thing that I must have been at least subconsciously aware of is grade inflation, and how it doesn’t serve any of us. Allowing a student to skate by if they cannot meet standards does not help them become more successful; they just move forward with gaps in their knowledge. This causes large numbers of students to make it into college without being able to solve simple mathematical equations. Some of these students, despite a proclivity for teaching other subjects, cannot even pass the Praxis I, and the teachers who let them skate by are partially to blame. In my future classroom I will not pass any students who do not demonstrate mastery of course material, and will choose instead to use my flexibility in extending deadlines and tailoring assignments to make it easier for struggling students to meet expectations.