FIAE+B1+Chapter+12

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Tyler W
Chapter twelve discussed the different types of grading scales and and how to apply them to a differentiated classroom setting. The two most commonly used grading scales are the 100-point system and the 4-point system. Some would assume that the 4-point scale is more subjective since the teacher is not adding up a bunch of numbers to find a grade. Actually, the 100-point system is more subjective because teachers can adjust the grade of certain parts of the work to reflect non-academic mastery. The 4-point system is best utilized with assessments, such as group projects and papers. While it may take time for a rubric to be officially completed since it is constantly under revision, but the more that the teacher does, the easier they get.

What if there are some teachers who grade on the 4-point scale but the school requires a final grade on a 100-point scale? Then they should follow the scale correlation the author provides in the book. A 100-94 equals a 4.0, 93-90 equals a 3.5, 89-84 equals a 3.0, 83-80 equals a 2.5, 79-73 equals a 2.0, 72-70 equals a 1.5, a 69-64 equals a 1.0, and a 63-0 equals a 0. The author argues that the difference between a high letter grade and a low one is not significant. In terms of mastery, determining the exact score down the percent is “splitting hairs.” This is just an example of one type of grading scale. There is one scale where an 80-100 is considered an A and another where a 90-100 is considered an A. The grading scales are completely arbitrary.

Jasmine This chapter is all about different types of grading scales. Grading scales are either used in a 4 point system or a 100 point system. This causes teachers to justify their grades mathematically; what the math comes out to is the fair grade for the student. However, this does not take mastery into account, and more justification for students grade than just mathematical reasoning is called for. Armstrong suggests using rubrics for assignments, which help to justify a grade clearly to students, but is also mathematically correct, and uses a point system. I completely agree with this because when using rubrics, it is completely clear and justifiable as to why a student received a specific grade, and the student was provided with a rubric ahead of time and thus knows exactly what to do and what is expected of them in order to have the most success with an assignment or class in general. Armstrong used a lot of different point systems in the chapter, to stress that interpretation of grades is not always universal. I did not like the 100 point grading system that went 94-100 and so on. A 93 as a B+ does not make sense to me, and feel as though this hurts students since most other schools on the 100 point scale use 90-100 as an A. This skews the other school because a person in the first school with a 90 only has a B, while the student in the other school with the same grade has an A. It really doesn't seem fair to be able to grade that way.

Ally
Grading scales have always been questionable about which type is better. The two major options are a 4.0 scale or a 100 scale. Most grading are based off of rubrics that are given with the assignment explaining how students can receive a high grade and the requirements of them. Students should be using these tools because they will ultimately find success. I have mixed feelings about what constitutes an A as opposed to a A+ because there should be a drastic difference. When looking at projects the teacher should clearly explain what the difference will be otherwise students will complain why they have just an A as opposed to the perfect standing A+. In my school the grading seemed a lot more difficult because a 92 was a B+ and in some schools it is an A-. To some students that makes a big difference and I think there should be a national or regional grade level otherwise many students are confused. I have seen both styles of grading but I think the 100 scale has the clearer grade that students like. If they are a three then would that be considered a solid B or is there a range. Students expect accurate grades and it is up to the teacher to provide them. I think this will effect my class because my students will be graded for their work but it must be my job to grade them fairly or else it is not fair to them. This will effect my classroom because they are going to be graded and they need to know how they are being graded and why.

Abby
In Chapter 12 of //Fair Isn’t Always Equal//, Wormeli talks about the idea of our grading marching our teaching philosophies. We should not be grading simply to put grades in the grade book, but rather grade them on their learning and progress. In our assessments we need to maximize usefulness and minimize subjectivity. Students should not be graded with averages, but rather on the mastery of the subjects being taught. This chapter also looked at class ranking and whether or not this is a sound practice. If we are truly judging students on their progress and their mastery then we should not be comparing students to one another, but others argue that these rankings are important for students as they apply for colleges. I think that Wormeli brought up a lot of good points in regards to grading. One of the things that I feel most strongly about in regards to grading is this idea of ranking students. I do not think that it is a good practice and colleges do not truly care if you are 1st or 4th as long as you are a hard working student who has done well in school. Also, these rankings are all relative, being the valedictorian of some public school that simply pushes its students along to the next grade or a preppy private school that requires you maintain a certain GPA to even attend their school is entirely different. Students should be judges only on what they know and how they have improved and not what their peers know. I also think that it is degrading to assign students numbers and I was always embarrassed of having a number in school and I was one of the fortunate ones who was actually in the Top 10.

Caleb "Iron Chops" Fletcher
Grading scales are crucial in showing students their own levels of achievement. A teacher could choose between 100-point system or a 4.0 system. Whichever system they choose they will end up grading the students accordingly. In my own experience teachers have rarely used a 4.0 system. It was only in college that they started to use it. Surprising I know but teachers felt that grading on increments was more mathematical justifiable. Reading through the chapter it appears that if I were to grade my students that rubrics would be my best choice. I agree with the use of rubrics, after all the measure more then just the right answer. But at the same time there are times where Wormell makes a statement on education that fits in rather nicely with other subjects. Yes, he does specifically mentions Math every once in a while but there is still a large gap in the use of rubrics. It’s like the Green Arrow trying to be the Green Lantern. They both have green in their names; it doesn’t mean that these guys have the same abilities. All I am saying with that analogy is that grading differs even though we might call it by the same name. In the end as a teacher make sure you understand what you are saying when you have a grading scale. There is a lot of confusion with students when they don’t understand what is going on. Students like knowing their grades and how they relate to their own letter value. For nothing speaks louder then an A.

Katie
In this chapter of Fair Isn’t Always Equal, the idea that is being discussed is whether teachers should grade their students using a 100 point scale or using a 4.0 scale. A 4.0 scale is easier for teachers and for students because it is easier to grade and to figure out the letter grade as well as it is easier for students to understand that they received a grade that was not rounded up to the next percentage. With a 100 point grading scale, teachers mainly grade and round grades up or down based on the students performance on the assignments they handed in rather than their mastery of the material. In a 4.0 grading scale, students are graded based on what they know and their mastery of the material. When I become a teacher, I am going to use whatever grading system seems to work for my students and their parents. I was always brought up in middle school and high school on a 100 point grading scale where much of what I did was written into percentages that were either rounded up or down and which would then determine my letter grade. Once I reached college, I received a 4.0 grading scale and now my grades seem to be easier to read because I can now just determine what range I was in based on if I received a 1 or a 4 for the semester. The grading scale is also easier for a 4.0 grading system because it is separated into ranges such as a 4.0 -3.5 is an A and a 3.5-3.0 is an A- and so on.

Jake
This chapter continues Wormeli’s discussion on grading and how it affects the classroom. He specifically addresses in this chapter the pros and cons of the 4.0 grading scale vs. the 100 point grading scale. This is an interesting discussion as it is not an issue that I have ever given much thought until know, and will certainly try to remain conscious of Wormeli’s discussion as I progress in my education.

Often time’s colleges and universities will look at student’s grade on a 4.0 scale and upon graduating high school students class ranking is measured on the same scale. Wormeli argues that with a 4.0 scale there is a greater focus on student’s mastery of the material and that there is not as much room for personal bias. Whereas with larger grading scales, like with 100, there is a lot more room for personal bias. The issue that I see with what Wormeli points out is that if we are going to apply the principle that we read about in chapter 11 of giving students 60’s when they fail to complete a project, then we are not really doing anything different with a 4 point scale than with a 100 point scale. We’re merely using whole numbers instead of decimals. This just seems like a slight contradiction, and I’m not sure this subject was one Wormeli needed to devote a chapter on; if personal bias is going to come into the grading system then it’s going to come into the grading system whether we grade on a 4 point scale or a 100 point scale.

Jenn
In chapter 12 of //Fair Isn't Always Equal //, it discusses the difference of smaller grading scales and larger grading scales. The main argument of this chapter is that using smaller grading scales is more useful for depicting an accurate grade. It moves away from the exact percentages that come from using a large grading scale. Larger grading scales seem to only really be beneficial when it comes to calculating a class ranking, which is going against differentiating by supporting the grade over the learning. Using a smaller grading scale also allows the teacher to grade on knowledge gained or used, rather than the content, because it helps to create rubrics that are moving away from just getting the correct answer. Instead, these rubrics focus on the multiple variables that relate to the objectives of the lesson. By doing this teachers are now able to effectively communicate to the student what they've mastered and what they haven't. It also allows the teacher to assess what needs to be reintegrated into the following lesson, or what the class as a whole isn't understanding.

Another suggestion in this chapter is to work with abstract ideas of grading scales, moving past the typical association with letter grades or converting other grades into letter grades. Using things like 3.0, 5.0, or 6.0 scales help move students, parents and teachers away from those old relationships, that once again, focus more on the grade than the learning, even if not intentionally. Other ways to use grading scales in this fashion are to come up with descriptors that go something like A, B, C, and "not yet achieved." With these descriptors the students understand that failing isn't in the equation and it clearly communicates that anything below a C is not worthy of a true grade. I think this related back to the previous chapter's conclusion that putting in a 60 is better than a zero. Instead of thinking of a product as a failed piece, it is just considered incomplete.

Dan
Using a proper and appropriate grading scale not only makes it easier for the students to understand, but takes a lot of pressure off of the teacher. Using a larger scale for grading rather than a smaller one creates more havoc and problems than you would think. When the scale becomes larger, based on a scale of 100 or 300, things start to become more subjective than they would with smaller scales. If you use a 4 point scale as the grading tool, it becomes a lot easier to give the right grade letter. On page 154, there is a breakdown about which letter grade would go with each number on a 4 point scale. Personally I like the 4 point scale a lot better than the 100 point scale. I feel it is easier to distinguish the proper grade, and makes it easier to map out the steps that students must complete in order to receive their desired results. Making rubrics on a 4 point scale is a lot less complicated than trying to create one on a 100 point scale. I do see some minor problems with the 4 point scale, as it can be possible for students to get full credit on a test without getting all the answers right. I was brought up with the 4 point scale, and many times I could get one or two answers wrong and still receive a 4 as a final grade. I feel as if students would take advantage of this, and instead of trying their hardest would slack because they know they can miss answers.

Lizz
Chapter 12 of Fair isn’t always Equal is all about the different types of grading scales. Two of the most popular grading scales that are used inside the classroom are the 4-point and the 100-point scales. My personal opinion is that I do not see the point of a 4-point scale. Maybe it is because I grew up with the 100-point scale but I do not see the point/ get the 4-point scale. How students are suppose to know their grades because there is a huge gap between 3.0 and 4.0 for grade numbers. When using the 4-point scale students and parents will just assume 4.0 equals an A. No matter how much time and effort a teacher puts into the descriptors on the scale, the students and parents will not pay attention to them. They will only care about that actual score. One thing that caught my attention was when the book talked about how in some schools the school did not allow minus-version of grades. The book says that minuses are not useful and they do not help instructional decisions nor provide feedback. I found it interesting that the book says that a C- tells a student “they are a c student, but a loser of a C student, closer to being a D student”. This was an interesting point of view because I would have never seen it like that. My high school gave out minuses all the time and it never bothered me. In reality, it made me personally want to try harder to get the grade higher. This helps me become a better teacher because I don’t want my students to feel like losers if that’s how they actually feel so I don’t plan on using minuses in my grading.

Alex "Gallant Guardian" Slack
As far as grading scale is concerned I would have to say that it is a situation that has impacted me a as a student greatly when I was in high school I had the raised GPA scale based on the 4.0 this scale seems as and fit but with the high requirements for passing it lead to many students being cut form sports teams that should not have been as well as student not getting treated fairly for the work they were asked to be completing. For example if you were on the honors or AP tract your classes were not weighted they counted the same as the regular and pre classes, which made the final GPA standards extremely unfair. Kids, who took harder class, got harder work, did harder projects, and were graded to a much greater severity then the rest of the class. Therefore when the top ten came around there were students in the top ten that were not even challenging themselves in high school or they coasted their way through learning. Then there students liked myself that had worked there ass off to take all the hard classes to look good for college and only failed one class who were left out of the top ten. If you were to go back and change the math and actual weight classes on the 4.0 scale I would have been in the top ten. Because of this situation I believe the ten point grade scale is the best better chance for athletes as well as much easier domain to grade.

Roger
The twelfth chapter of FIAE focuses on grading scales and how best to use them. The author compares the two most popular scales, the 100 point scale and the 4 point scale. The author decides to take a stand for the 4 point side, arguing that the scale is more reliable and more broadly accepted. He goes on to say how the 4 point scale is easier to describe and justify. This makes sound logical sense, as rubrics often clearly define the 4 point scale instead of the 100 point scale. Also, when comparing the 4 point scale to the 100 point scale, the 100 point scale allows for a much wider variety in defining the actual letter grade. This a situation where appearance takes all – in reality, the two scales are the same in every way except number. The 100 point scale allows for more personal definition and interpretation of what deserves which grade, while the 4 point scale give the appearance of being a very tight and concise scale. Both have their strengths and weaknesses – the 4 point scale is easy to define, but does not allow for more creative grading. The 100 point allows for flexibility and better accommodates different grading strategies, but it is vague. In summary, one scale or method is not better than the other, but they are both useful if applied correctly. Both of these grading scales will probably make it into my classroom, since some assignments will be better suited to one or the other. Options are always good things to have.

Brittany
This chapter talks about the major grading scales, 100 point scale and 4 point scale. Personally I like the 100 point scale because it provides more opportunity for the student to earn a better grade. Unfortunately this scale also has the problem of what constitutes an A? A 90 or a 95? Each school has its own system. My school had the 100 point grading scale on a 10 point slide (100-90 A, 90-80 B, 80-70 C, 70-60 D, 60-0 F), and within the ten points would be the pluses or minuses. I liked this scale as a student because it was easy to understand. However I think it was also easy to get an A in this grading scale. After hearing stories from others in Block One about not receiving an A unless they got at least a 95 I thought to myself "How much was I actually pushed to learn?" I think that while I will maintain the grading scale of the school I work in there really is no way to decide which scale is the better one.