FIAE+B1+Chapter+8

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Tyler
Chapter eight talks about why teachers grade and what effort, attendance, and behavior has to do with grading. When it comes to grading, many teachers say that they do it because they are required to by their administration. This tends to portray grading as a “necessary evil.” Instead of grading being a positive function, like it was designed for, it has become a tedious necessity that eats up most of the teacher's time and energy. The book gives the example of a teacher with one hundred and eighty students who has to grade a stack of three to four page papers. Assuming that the teacher finishes one paper every seven minutes, then it will take the teacher twenty hours to finish grading all one hundred and eighty papers. On top of this, the teacher has other obligations; planning lesson, returning calls to parents, ordering supplies for next year, and many more responsibilities.

Teachers had sorted the reasons for grading into six responses: to document progress, provide feedback, inform instructional decisions, motivate students, punish students, and sort students. The author states that the first three reasons are very useful and worthy reasons to grade students. While the other three reasons do not work out as well. For example, when a student gets a D on a paper, a teacher may think that this will motivate the student to do better. This is not the case. Students tend to become more distant and less motivated. The author also argue that it is pointless to grade participation, effort, and behavior because it is not something that can be mastered or measured on a scale. These things are to be evaluated and reviewed, not given a letter grade.

Jake
Chapter 8 furthers Wormeli’s discussion on grading as he unpacks the different factors that often slip in and effect teacher’s bias. He specifically outline student behavior, effort, attendance, and participation as being heavy influences. In one section Wormeli talks about different motivating factors that can affect a student’s grade. He points out that often teachers will grade to mark progress, give feedback, and inform. However, he also points out that some teachers often grade as a means of motivating, punishing, and sorting students. He points out that these three factors should never come into play when assessing students, and I must say that I firmly agree. A grade is a very heavy thing that students will follow students into their college career, not to mention the emotional and social implications that go along with it. It is crucial that teachers do so for the benefit of the student and not merely impose their limited perception of how the student should be acting. One difficulty I had with the reading was the bit on effort. Though I agree with everything Wormeli says, it is difficult not grade based on effort. He puts it as trying to quantify the unquantifiable, which is absolutely right. However, when it seems that a student is trying their best it seems to be human nature to want to give him credit for doing so. Wormeli points out that public and private affirmation can go a long way in encouraging students to try harder. I think this is something that I will certainly incorporate into my own classroom as well as into my everyday life. Affirming people is a very positive toll in cultivating their success.

Jenn
Frankly, I found this chapter both insightful and annoying, which, remarkably is extremely important. My first reaction after reading this was that the entire chapter except for the very end was a complete waste of time, but on second thought the fact that the book kept going back and forth between sides helped me realize how hard grading actually is. Before starting this chapter, I have always believed that any type of recognition should be based on how much you put into it. Everything is worth something if you at least tried. Honestly though, that isn’t all that there is to something. There have been people who have tried so very hard and gained nothing from that except the realization that the task they were working on wasn’t for them. The sad truth is effort is tied with improvement. How much did you get out of this experience? Well, obviously if you tried, you got more out of it than the student to whom it just comes naturally. This chapter completely changed my perspective on how I view grading now. I am not, by any means, saying that grades are the way to help kids, but since they are such a large part of the educational system it only makes sense that a teacher has an opinion on them. Well now my opinion is better formed I feel that grades should be represented on how much progress the student has made. This is not to say that standards should be lowered because a student has difficulties, it means that students with difficulties can have the most room for improvement. Room for improvement is now something that should be viewed as a positive simply because it gives the student an even larger opportunity to grow.

Katie
In chapter 8 of the FIAE book, the main idea is about whether teachers should be grading students based upon their behavior or effort in the classroom and not just about the work they accomplish. If students are only graded on the work they accomplish for the class, then what about the different factors that play a part in their lives that effect whether or not they get their homework done. The author asks whether or not teachers should take into effect the fact that a student may bring in the right materials to class and always participate in class discussion, but do not turn their work in time, and whether that should judge what the student gets for a grade. I think that students should get separate grades for other things that do not include their academics. I believe that when such things as behavior and attendance are used to grade the child along with their academics, then that takes away the whole idea of grading a student on the content that they are learning in that class. There is a way for students to learn material and to teach them things such as respect or behavior and one way may be to teach them about the holocaust. I do believe however that effort should play a part in a student’s grade because I would grade my students based on their individual leaning area and how well I believe that they should be doing in my classroom. I would give them positive feedback on ever assignment they do for me, while at the same time grade them for how much effort and time I feel they took on the assignment.

Jasmine
Effort, homework, and attendance are components, which are often not included in grades for students. When I was growing up, these were never factors in school. It was more important to see what was physically done as far as assignments. The small parts were not even considered as a percentage of the final grade. The reason that attendance, behavior, participation etc. are not included in the grade is usually because it is difficult to measure a standard of these things. What would qualify as a standard of participation? If someone is shy, they are less likely to speak in class where as if someone is outgoing, they will talk more often. The problem with grading attendance is whether or not some absences would be excused and not counted against their grade. This could lead to problems as far as showing favoritism with which absences count. It would be very difficult to do. There is obviously a high correlation between academic success and effort, behavior, and attendance. It is just not possible to measure the degree of success with those components. It wouldn’t be fair to represent a student with a good grade when they failed just because they tried, and showed up. It isn’t fair to the students because they will move on to the next topic and still be confused about the last topic. As a teacher, I know it will be difficult to see students fail when they are trying, but it will be my responsibility to see what the problem is and find a solution.

Ally
The major part of this chapter that stuck out to me is the reason why teachers grade and I honestly do not believe why some teachers answered this question the way they did. I could not believe a teacher would answer the question with “to punish students” or “to sort students”. Those teachers are not teaching for the sake of teaching they are just doing a job. Not only does this answer reflect on the teacher but it also must have had a major impact on the students. If students knew teachers felt like this then they would shut down and not care anymore about school. It honestly angered me that a teacher would even consider that to be a possibility for an answer. The top three make sense because they do work and they do have the idea of school.

The grading participation section annoyed me. I think it annoyed me because in middle school concert band we were graded by how well you play. The teacher would randomly call on a student to play in front of the entire group of twenty five students. This was both nerve-racking and frustrating because if you got braces or if you were sick you were failing. I think activities such as these should not be graded unless the teacher has a lesson along with performing in concert band. In middle school, we would just play and play. To know that sort of class should not be graded is frustrating and they should really enforce that rule. I understand that rule based on my high school concert band class because my teacher would talk about the different musical time periods and different formulas for music, which would make it more of a class. I agree with the book statement “If a participation is merely an avenue a teacher travels with students in order to arrive at mastery, then it is inappropriate to grade it.” The six responses really effected me because as a teacher I am going to grade for the fact that I want to make sure my students understand the content and I am teaching properly for students to understand. Definitely not to punish students.

Dan
When it comes to grading students on assignments and tests, there is a line that should never be crossed. When teachers grade, they need to have the right mindset. It really bothers me to see that teachers actually grade their students to punish them and reward them, as well as sort students. They aren’t just mindless vessels. They have a right to be educated, and if teachers are honestly deciding what grades students receive based on prejudice and favoritism, then they should reconsider their profession, because that is unacceptable. When I become a teacher, I will grade fairly and give students the grade they truly deserve: not based on personal experience, but on their understanding and effort on the assignment. Effort is something I truly believe should be graded when it comes to assignments and projects. I know how disheartening it is when you put a lot of effort into a project and the grade you receive does not reflect the amount of work you put into it. I also agree it is very complicated in incorporate effort into a curriculum. We can’t give students who worked really hard high grades if their understanding was off or they failed to meet the requirements, as in the real world that does not happen. As a teacher, I will try my best to make students give their best effort and try as best as I can to make sure their grade reflects their effort. We do not want to shut down students, but rather encourage them to continue putting effort forth, so we must improve their understanding in the process.

Roger
Chapter eight of FIAE covers the specifics of why the grading program exists. This ties very strongly into the last chapter, especially when it comes to a form of assessment. Grading programs exist as an easy way to communicate progress. They serve their purpose, and the author seems to feel that more is expected of grades. Every paper needs constructive criticism, grade or no. This is a given that does not involve the grading scale. A single letter or number cannot, and never will, substitute an explanation for dissatisfaction.

This chapter discusses a few things about grading things like participation and effort. These are aspects of classroom involvement that are hard to explain, and also very hard to pin down for every part of classroom environment. The best thing to do would be to mention something before marking down a grade for either of these sections. Both of these things are aspects that need to be covered by teacher expectations. This is where there is a grey area, and where teachers will undoubtedly disagree. This is an area that should remain part of each individual classroom, however. Think about it for a second – if every classroom is turned into the same exact thing, with the same guidelines, same principles, and same teaching styles, schools are going to produce exactly what no one wants: mass-manufactured students.

Alex Slack
FIAE 8 - This chapter was something I have wanted to read about or at least talk about for a while and that is incorporating attendance, behavior, and effort. We as teacher all understand that grading assessment are important because it shows students what they are learning and how well they are learning. Yet something that I hold dear to my heart as far as education is concerned are the three categories that were stated earlier attendance, behavior, effort. As far as the first section is concerned attendance is something that every-class room should take into account. The first being don;t make your students feel like they have to come class, you should make them want to come to class. If you can clearly create this feeling then you have reached your students. The second opinion I have about attendance is that students should get points or grades based on the level of attendance and just overall participation in class and this is because this is something that everyone can do and it is something that just takes a little effort and you got it. The next category of behavior is just like attendance it is something that the student controls and the better behaved they are they better there grade will be, Therefore if you give them points based on a variable that affects the real world as well as school work they will learn and succeed. As far as the last category of effort it is the same as the other two if students show effort the show desire to learn and I as a teacher can;t ask for anything more than effort.

Caleb - Chocolate Milk will raise again-
What goes into grading? Could it be the student’s success? How about their completion of their assignment? How hard they worked? What about their participation in class? In the end we have to careful about what we grade. There is a lot riding on how we assess our students. They become motivated or they proceed to crash and burn. So what is the best way to grade our students so we know that they understand the information and can apply it? I will be asking that question all the time in the classroom. The experts tell me that the best way to treat students is by putting the real world back into the classroom. If the student fails they fail, no matter how hard they worked if the assignment is not what they are after. Now, it kills me to agree with these experts but a little bit of me does. If my boss asked me to make him the world’s largest statue and instead I made him the world’s largest cake I still put effort into and probably deserve a good pat but in all honesty I did fail. That is why it pains me to agree. I don’t want a student working their butts off on a project just to see them fail because they didn’t do the right assignment. True, it isn’t my fault but a small part of me will always believe that it is. Thus, a teacher has to keep these incredible hard aspects of the classroom out of his grading. That’s effort, participation, and attendance. Sure, they are nice and a student does have the ability to succeed with them. But, as stated before that is not how our world works. As teachers we need to construct new ways to grade our own students so they can best the material as best as they can.

Lizz
Why do we grade students? Is it because we have to or because we choose to. According to Chapter eight, most teachers say they grade students because they are required to. I thought it was somewhat funny when the chapter said, “low grades push students further from the cause, and they don’t motivate students. Recording a D on a student’s paper will not light a fire under that student to buckle down and study harder. I find that I am on the fence with this because it all depends on the student. I know when I failed my first class ever in college I knew I was going to retake it because I wanted that A and I knew I knew more than my grade showed. For my brother though he just shrugs it off and acts like he doesn’t care when if he was to get an A he would be shocked and excited. When it comes participation, effort, and behavior, they never seemed like a big problem when I was in school. Participation, effort, and behavior were not apart of the grading system that I know of and a main reason for that is that it is difficult to measure a standard of these. When it comes to participation, your class is not going to be filled with all outgoing people who love to talk but it will be a mixture of shy and outgoing, so how would a teacher grade that. One of the problems with effort is how does a teacher grade how hard and how much work a student put into a project. Maybe the stupid spent many hours on it but just could not get it to look very good. As a teacher, I do not my students to fail but I also want them to do their work and participate in activities. Therefore, even though I will not grade on these aspects I will surely be keeping an eye out for students who seem disconnected and try to talk to them to get them connected to the work in class.

Abby
Grading and what should be incorporated into grades can be a difficult subject and this was clear through this chapter. I definitely agreed that a teacher’s attitude, biases, and preconceived notions should not be affecting their grading and I found it shocking to read some of the reasons that teachers gave for why they grade. This chapter reminded me of something my Aunt, who used to be an English teacher, told me in regards to grading papers. She suggested that I have students put their name on the very bottom of the last page so that when I am grading papers I am grading on content alone and not on the students average work or how much effort I think they put into it. I thought that this idea was very fitting with the chapter because as John Norton’s says, “Finding the balance between challenging students and encouraging students is difficult” (104). It is hard to be objective when grading students’ work. I agreed with the fact that students should not be graded on their attendance or class participation because I feel that these are already built into the grade. When a student is never in class or chooses not the participate they are also not going to do as well in the class. Meaning that when you grade them on both their work and their participation and attendance you are doubling the impact of these outside factors on the grade. I want to do my best to grade students as fairly as possible and remain unbiased. I will definitely use my aunt’s suggestion as way to remove the grading of effort from my overall grading.

Brittany
I think this chapter is extremely important because I for one believe that effort, attendance and behavior should be components in grades. These components alone can assist in showing whether or not a student is really learning. Students who are learning tend to show more effort, attend class and behave, therefore would have higher grades not because they completed more work but because they are showing up to class to learn, and are behaving and participating while they are in class. When it comes to grading participation I think that the teacher should first get to know the student because if they are shy students high participation for them may be only speaking once or twice, which would deserve a good grade for them because it would mean they are pushing themselves to speak even though they are shy. I think participation should not be graded based on whether the student is "on topic" with what you are thinking because while you may find it to be off topic something led the student to the thought and therefore maybe it would be a learning opportunity to continue to explore their thought process. I think to grade behavior you need to set rules and expectations for the students the first day, otherwise they may not understand why they are losing behavior points. Also by having set rules the students know exactly what their grade is based on and whether or not they have met those expectations. I think it is important to grade effort on a student to student basis. Amount of effort varies by a persons abilities, so low effort for one person may be high effort for another. I think these are all things I plan on considering in my future classroom.