FIAE+B1+Chapter+7

Chapter 7 Abstract and Synthesis By Abby

Abstract: Chapter 7 of //Fair Isn’t Always Equal// dealt with this idea of grading. Grading is one of those things that nobody wants to discuss, but grades have a huge impact on students. Wormeli highlights the flaws of our current grading systems and the damage that they can cause in our students as well as in their learning. There are issues in regards to consistency in criteria among teachers and thus grades can often become objective instead of subjective. This chapter was a challenge to teachers to look at grades and reconsider whether they are accurate indicators of mastery. Wormeli advocates [|feedback]. Students need to be given lots of feedback and in many different manners. Grades should not substitute for this feedback. Students should be given positive and constructive feedback to help them to grow and not just be given a simple grade. If grades are to be used they need to be assigned real worth, meaning that a student should have a clear understanding of what an A entails and what a C means. These should not just be arbitrary numbers and letters thrown at the top of papers. It was stressed that grades need to be a reflection of mastery alone and that other factors should not hold precedence, but Wormeli also recognized the difficulty in this. Teachers need to help the students and make it possible for them to achieve these goals however they need to grade on the basis of standards and expectations.

Synthesis: This chapter caused us to question our pre-conceived ideas concerning grading. Many of us felt torn about what direction to go in now. Many feel that we cannot or should not move away from grades completely because we need the accountability with parents and administrators as well as some way to record student progress, but that grading is not our main concern. Students should not be looked at and judged by their grades, but often times this is the result. We want to challenge our students and help them to do their best, but is the competition that comes along with grades, what is needed or are we actually discouraging students and causing them to base their worth off of their grades? We also agreed that school should not be isolated from the real world and if we are going to [|assess] and measure a student’s progress we need to connect it to things that matter. What is the worth in being able to circle the correct answer in a multiple-choice question if you do not understand how that information is relevant? Some suggested the need for a national grading scale that can tie all of these lose ends together while others thought that we should move away from grades completely. Many of us felt even more lost after reading this chapter and hope that as teachers we will be able to make the right decisions when faced with the issues associated with grading. We all agreed however that the students and their actual learning are more important to us than grades and if we could we would make [|grades completely obsolete], but the practicality of that is where we falter.

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Tyler
Chapter in // Fair Isn't Always Equal // reviews the nature of grading and its many definitions. The author states that talking about grading is like talking about “the elephant in the room,” it is there, everyone can see it, but no one wants to talk about it. Grading has come to represent so much, that it now represents almost nothing at all. While a B in math may insist that the student is rather competent in this subject, the student may know a lot about a few topics, enough to get by in most, and not understand anything from a few. Grading has become a blanket term that every teacher adjusts to their own needs. While one teacher could give a student an A on one question, another teacher of the same topic may give that same answer a C. There are lots of factors that teachers may or may not know about when grading papers. If the assignment was an essay, will the student have some leeway if they are an ESL student, or will they be grader harder if they are an honors student? It is situations like these that make grading difficult for teachers.

Then, there is actually defining what each grade means. There are lots of ways to grade students; 1-4, alphabet, check marks, and more. Each teacher may interpret what an A is differently than the rest. For example, on teacher defines an A as, “exemplary, demonstrating understanding beyond most state standards." This means that a student could master every topic the teacher taught to state standards, but would only receive a B. While another teacher may give an A to a student who fully understands all of the material. There is simply too much differentiation in grading for grading to mean anything.

Jake
This chapter discussed grading in the classroom. It took the idea of a numeric grading system and discussed the negative effect it can have on students. As soon as the grades start coming up it immediately turns into a competition. Students aren’t working for the sake of learning; they are simply working for the sake of grade. Wormeli discusses that grades are entirely dependent upon a teacher’s opinion, as no matter how hard they attempt to formulate grades fairly all the time, it’s near impossible to do so without bias; so often students are asked to formulate opinions. He gives the example of a student putting their work beneath the work of peers that consistently perform lower, and compares it to putting work beneath the work of student who often achieve higher grades. Naturally, a student is more likely to receive a better score if they look like they’re performing better than their peers. The only foreseeable fix would be “choose an answer” like evaluations, and they have a plethora of their own problems.

This chapter really challenged my views on grading. I’ve always heard a great deal of whining and complaining about the harmfulness of grades, and to be fair I always just shrugged off their complaints; thinking they were just looking for another battle. However, this chapter really made a compelling argument. How does a small mark on a piece of paper represent the learning for an entire quarter, semester, or year. If possible I think I would very much like to have a classroom without grades, and simply see how it went. It may just be a theory that would never actually work, but I definitely think it’s worth trying out.

Jenn
This chapter was really about learning about grading and what it really is. I can honestly say that I had all these preconceived notions that rubrics were the best tool to use in a classroom and that they keep the bias out of grading, they help push students and motivate them to do better. After reading this chapter I am unconvinced. Though I still think that rubrics are a fabulous idea, I have to say that there is clearly always bias in any classroom, especially in grading. As teachers we give ourselves the right to judge other people and how biases can play into how we judge our students. Making grades reflect less of our ideas of how well they’ve completed work it makes sense to “build their learning and achieve mastery throughout the grading period” (100). Making grades feedback instead of a finalization of the material helps create an atmosphere that cultivates learning. It can help students find motivation while keeping them on track. Feedback can give students something to think about, and it creates a respect between the teachers have with their students. If students feel like the teacher is giving them opportunities for improvement and is leaving the learning open ended, which feedback can do, it’s much more effective for the student. Showing students their improvement helps focus on the positive and lets the student know that teachers can appreciate the work that went into getting as far as the student did. As many teachers know from personal experiences, students are already really critical on themselves, so feedback can help boost their feeling of self-worth, while helping them see the things that need improvement.

Katie
The main idea of this chapter deals with grades and how students should be grading and if the grading should be universal for all students or if it should be differentiated based on the students learning abilities. The chapter mentions the idea that students should be more focused on the quality and quantity of their work than on the grade they get in it. If the student knows that they are getting graded, then they may not try hard on it knowing that the grade is all that matters to them. I honestly have never even thought about grades and grading my students, but after reading this chapter, I think that I am going to grade them based on how well I think they should be doing in the class. I will have already handed out surveys and have figured out where they are when it comes to the content I am teaching them and based on that, I feel that I will have expectations that I will want them to reach and I will push them to reach those expectations. I want to grade them as individuals and how I feel they can do compared to how well they did whether it be on a paper or an essay or even a speech. I want to grade my students feeling confident that the grade I give them will make them want to improve their work and to try their hardest to show me that they can impress me. I want to give them positive feedback if I ever give one of my students a bad grade so that they will know that I believe that they can do better and that I want them to show me.

Jasmine
Grades are usually distinctive as A, B, C, D, F. This is not always the best way to administer grades. Students and parents often associate the grade with whether their children are smart or not. This is not right. A grade should not represent everything so distinctly. Chapter 7 discusses this as well as solutions to this problem. Many teachers are guilty of adjusting grades because of students’ home lives or socioeconomic statuses. This is not necessarily a bad thing though. Like the book says, fair isn’t always equal. If I as a teacher, was made aware of a student that had outstanding circumstances at home, I would hope that there was something I could do to accommodate grading in order to help this student to the best of my abilities as long as the student demonstrates understanding of the material. Teachers really just need to look to students for information and learn about them as individuals. Some students do have circumstances in which they need extra help or extra time, or they are not able to do homework for some reason. As long as the teacher is made aware of these issues, it becomes their responsibility to grade the student based on their mastery of the material rather than just simply whether or not they did the homework. I hope that as a teacher, I make sure my students know that I am not there to just assign them a number; I want to grade them based on how much they know.

Ally
I think there is constant confusion with grades because it is difficult sometimes to justify the grade a student received especially when they are writing an essay. Some teachers base grade solely on content while others consider mechanics such as sentence structure and punctuation to mean more. Both are technically correct however who is it that makes the decision? Ultimately, it is up to the teacher grading they should have a rubric that they follow and they are consistent with. I found it really interesting when the different teachers read the one essay and they give the student completely different grades, it makes sense but at the same time you wonder who is right. When it comes to multiple choice questions and answers it is obvious when one student gets the right answer they will get a good grade. When students get a lot of wrong answers they are not going to do well. The book then goes on to talk about grades and what they mean. The book states that “grades are not always accurate indicators of mastery”(93) and I completely agree with this statement. I think this section is important because many teachers look at the students through their grades. Teachers need to realize that bad grades also have different factors such as a bad day, the student may be sick, or they have a personal problem. Teachers should be observing their students while they are taking their tests if they seem distracted or not with it the teacher should make sure the student is all set. I think this chapter will effect my teaching because as a teacher I am going to be grading but I also need to make sure I am clear about what makes a students receive an A instead of a B that way there isn’t confusion and frustration.

Dan
Grading: everyone’s greatest friend and worst enemy. The concept of grading is one that teachers fear most, because of its complex nature. It shows, as there was quite a mixture of grades for just one essay outlined within the chapter. Not only does the concept of grades cause headaches for educators, but the student situation that is involved with the product. As the examples entails several different types of students writing the essay, I found myself giving a different grade based on the situation. I never saw grades from this perspective, as before I did anything and everything to obtain the best grade possible. When you are on the teacher side of grading, you see another spectrum that is so complicated. It differs from teacher to teacher and from student to student. One teacher could see a C as average, while another would consider a B average. I know it would be completely impossible, as many people would disagree and have many arguments against it, but there should be a national grading system that all schools follow in order to clear up confusion, even if there was conflict about it. I think grades should be interpreted by each individual educator and schooling institute, but it creates a lot of havoc for students and teachers. I almost feel if such a grading system were to be established, a lot of problems would be solved, but of course, more would arise. I hope when I am a teacher, I am able to accurately interpret how grades should be.

Roger The seventh chapter of FIAE covers the different types of grading, and how to allow grades to have the best impact on the classroom. As some teachers use grading, it is a simple letter or number that is stamped on work, with no definition and no real value. This is a worst case scenario. Most teachers, especially on rough drafts, are known to write commentary and provide criticism where needed. On a typical paper, most students will expect to know what they did wrong in order to improve their grade – this is how the grade system works.

The grading system was designed as a simple and effective assessment method. Grading allows a quick overview of the general quality of the work, but the whole point of assessment is to determine what is working and what isn’t. This is where constructive criticism comes in. Citing specific examples of both good points and weak sections provides the feedback that students need. The letter or number grade is nothing more than a simple representation of general work quality, and should be seen as such. It is condensed for the reason of simplicity and functionality. This is why teachers maintain a gradebook – not just record a grade for the whole class at the end of the year. If a parent asks why their child is failing their class, the teacher needs to be able to give the parent feedback and reasoning for their child’s grade. In modern days of online record keeping, parents can see each individual assignment and be able to ask their child and the teacher about a specific grade.

Alex Slack
FIAE 7 - This chapter of fair isn't always equal had its pluses and it had its minuses. To start it was extremely repetitive. I feel as if I have read almost the exact same words before and even if they aren’t the exact same words this chapter had a lot of repetitive information just said in a different voice. Yet I found in this chapter that they once again focused way to much energy on what kids were earning for grades. They talk that using words that help boost desire and better grads and work harder, but still they are just making the kids want better grades not a better education, and not a desire for learning. The true art of teaching is not get the kids to learn an become future learners that means giving them strategies that they can take into life, not just do well to get a good grade. Yet on the other side of this equation is the fact that you need to give assessments and with these assessments you need to be able to grade. These assessments though should be real world relatable, engaging, and also challenging that makes the kids learn and want to learn. With these great assessment comes opportunities to get the kids great work and with this great work comes easy assessment, well maybe not easy, but the grading will be easier to do. Therefore moral of the story don’t give up.

Lizz
Grades. When you hear or see the word grade it sends a little tingle up your spine because growing up we were taught that grades were everything and getting the highest grade meant you were best in the subject. Grades are usually presented in A, B, C, D, and F but sometimes students get grades on a 4.0 scale. Today the students and even the parents associate grades with how smart their children are and that is not entirely true. All students are smart just might not be the strongest academically. Just as all students learn in different ways, students also achieve success in different ways. The first thing that caught my eye while reading chapter 7 was the part about how teachers felt guilty for adjusting students grades based on their socioeconomic status. I am on the fence on this topic because well I understand that students have things going on in their lives that create conflict with school but on the other hand, I want to push my students to achieve success. I am afraid that I do not push my students who are in a lower socioeconomic status that they will become comfortable, not try, and maybe think that things like school will always come easy for them when that is not the case at all. When it comes to grades though I want my students to know that for me grades are not important, I just want them to show me how much they have know and how much they learned over the year.

Caleb- Dr. Grace is a legend
Grades. I want to know how such a term even came to be. Through this chapter there appears to be a growing dichotomy between learning and achievement. Let’s take a look at the letter system. In our modern culture, especially in American, we tend to look at the two of the five letter grade values. A’s and B’s become a main part of our focus. If we do not get an A or a B then a overwhelming feeling of I am not good enough tends to push us down. Now, this has been a more recent development. Over the years a C used to be considered an average grade but now this average grade has become less then okay. We assign grades but do we really understanding what that grade means or entails. Is a C a bad? Is a D bad? How good is B? What teachers should be doing when they assign their own work is to figure out what a certain grades look like for their class. Now, when we are talking about these grades of us we have to remember there is another aspect that goes into the whole process. It’s an aspect has been brought up and then talked about like it’s a newborn baby at a party. This aspect is known as differentiating. What does that mean again? It means that every student is different, which entails that we need to teach him or her differently and that we need to grade him or her differently. That is the key behind what we are talking about. Grade students based upon their individual achievement, that’s what we need to do. Learn the difference between success and learning so you as a teacher can grade a student effectively. Yes, there are times when a student’s home life is a major factor into the grades you are giving. But do not let that stop you. Take this opportunity and slam it to the ground, teach them how to succeed without you taking sympathy on them.

Abby
Chapter 7 discussed this idea of grading and how this can help or hurt students. It discussed the fact that grades are subjective and can often be affected by bias. Who determines what is A work as opposed to B+ work? What goes into determining this? After reading this chapter, my beliefs about grading are even stronger. I think that students should not be given grades or at least not have the emphasis lie on grades. Students can be greatly affected by their grades and although some might look as a bad grade as a reason to improve this is not always the case. Students should never become labeled by their grades. The other day my sister, who is currently in high school, said something very disturbing. She is a sophomore and the guidance counselor decided to tell all of the students their class rank which is based off of their GPA which is of course based off of their grades. Well my sister was assigned a group science project and my mom asked if she needed help with it since my sister is not good at science and my sister replied that she was fine because she was working with 2 and 4. My puzzled mother asked what this meant and was shocked that my sister was referring to students by their class rank, which my sister informed her the whole sophomore class does. This is one of the reasons that I would like to avoid grades as a teacher. School should be about learning and when grades take precedence over this you can tell that we are no longer on track.

Brittany
The grading system can bring about many issues. Are grades an accurate reflection of what students are learning? Wormeli doesn't think they do, and rightly so. Not everyone has the same view of what a C or and A stands for, and what the quality of the quality of a product looks like with that grade. This seems to be the major problem with grades. When there are no finite definitions of what a C constitutes it is hard for students and teachers to truly agree with the value put to the product. The same essay can be graded on levels from A-F based on the teacher, so how are students supposed to feel confident in their grades if they could vary by teacher? I think that grades would be more worth the time of the student and the teacher if they had definite meaning and standards that needed to be met.

For me, grades have always been important, and I think this chapter changed my mind on grades. I think that if they could more accurately show the level of learning that I have made it would be easier to be proud of them, and easier to strive for them.