Chapter 14 FIAE: Responsive Report Card Formats

Report cards and progress reports are considered very important to most parents, and also to most students who care about their grades and how they’re doing in school. In this chapter one thing that I really liked and will probably use when I’m a teacher is showing the students personal progress and their achievement against the standard. This way, the student is able to show their parents their own progress as a student in the class, and the parent is able to see how their student measures up to the standard at which I am using to grade them. Number and letter grades can sometimes be daunting, however, if a school or school district says that’s what has to be on the progress report then that’s what has to go on there. It is always nice to add comments to the grade, that way it could possibly answer any questions the parents might have.

Chapter 13 FIAE: Gradebook Formats for the Differentiated Classroom

Obviously when we have grading in the classroom, we’re going to need a place to put those grades. This is where a teacher gradebook comes in. This chapter discussed four particular ways to organize your gradebook. They are: by standard, objective, or benchmark, by weight or category, by date, or by topic. Since I’m a particularly organized person with a slight case of OCD, I will most likely sort my gradebook by date in which the assignments were assigned, the date that the tests were given, and the date that the projects were assigned. I feel like I will most likely have multiple sources in which I use to remind myself of the assignments that are out without grades, and then just use the gradebook for the final result of my students.

Chapter 12 FIAE: Grading Scales

This chapter focused on the different grading scales you can use in your classroom. It focused mainly on the 4.0 grading scale, and the 100 grading scale. It offers both pros and cons to each. However, one thing that is really obvious to help grading by creating a rubric. It says that “In order to create objective, accurate grades, then, we should use a rubric in the majority of our assessments” (153). As a student, the grading scale was something that was always changing. It was infuriating that they grading scale for one class was different from another, and that it was different from the schools grading scale as a whole. I understand that the grading scale for the school is set, however, in my classroom I definitely like the idea of using a rubric to grade, and then using that to create a number grade. The story about a kid missing an A by less than half a point is a little ridiculous, if the kid is working and showing improvement, then they should be given the less than a half a point to get the A. The grades should always be to the teachers discretion, and should not always just rely on the numbers.

Chapter 11 FIAE: Six Burning Grading Issues

Grading is most definitely one of the most challenging things about teaching. The one pressing issue that really stood out to me in this chapter was the question “Do I keep the zero or turn it into a sixty in order to make the grading scale fair?” (137). This is a very important question, and it will be something that I’m faced with in the classroom. There are going to be those students who don’t do their homework, or turn in their project, or just don’t participate at all. As a former middle and high school student, and a future middle and high school teacher, I am quite aware that sometimes life just gets in the way of things being turned in at a timely matter. I like the idea of putting an Incomplete in my grade book for homework that has not been turned in. That way the students will have until the end of the grading period to give me their work. If and when the students don’t turn in their work then I will most likely give them a 60, not a zero.

Chapter 10 FIAE: Conditions for Redoing Work for Full Credit

This chapter talks about differentiated classrooms, and “allowing students to redo work and assessments for full credit” (131). One thing that really stood out to me was that the book says that we should treat the students in our class as adults. That when they slip and completely forget to do something, to tell them that that’s fine and to just get it to us at…, and give a day to them. This stands out to me, not because I think it’s wrong, but because, until I came to college, I have never seen this happen in a middle or high school classroom. It also may be because I never was in this situation, and still have never been in this situation. However, I really hope that this book isn’t just full of it, and that there are teachers out there doing this for their students. Because, like the book says, everybody slips up sometimes. One thing I really liked from this chapter, and will use in the classroom is that we should not allow students to turn in any redone work a week before the grading period. This forces the students to manage their time properly, and if they really want that improved grade, then they will get it done in the allotted time period.

Chapter 9 FIAE: Ten Approaches to Avoid When Differentiating Assessment and Grading

This chapter outlines ten things to avoid with differentiation. Two that really stood out to me were: avoid grading practice (homework), and avoid allowing extra credit and bonus points. The first one concerning avoiding grading homework I feel is really important. Because I know that when I was a student in the classroom I didn’t enjoy taking the homework I had done and turning it in just for a grade without any discussion on the homework that we had the night prior. Giving homework is fine, but having it as a check to make sure it was completed is all that the teacher really needs to see, grading what they are doing for practicing to master the content just seems to tear the students down. The second thing of avoiding extra credit and bonus points is really interesting for me. Because the student side of me really wants to say that that’s not fair, but the teacher side of me knows that when giving extra credit, it needs to be presented to the whole class, or all students taking that particular class. Which then leads to more work for me. I like the alternative idea though of improving old work instead. Both sides of me like this, the student and the teacher, because it makes it easy on both. While in the classroom I will definitely use this technique.

Chapter 8 FIAE: Why We Grade, and What About Effort, Attendance, and Behavior?

This chapter discusses just why it is that we grade, and the other factors that always seem to be put into final grades, which are essentially really hard to justifiably put into a final grade. Grading is there to be able to gauge the student’s mastery. Therefore, it is hard to be able to incorporate behavior, attendance, and effort into an academic grade. What I learned from this chapter was that participation should never really be involved in an academic grade, unless you know of a special situation where the student is unable to provide the outside work, but they really excel in the classroom to make up for it. Effort and behavior are really tricky when it comes to putting them into the final academic grade. In the book it says, “if we incorporate behavior into the grade, we run afoul of our intent to keep grades as accurate indicators of mastery” (104). This goes to show that if we stay true to grading based on mastery, behavior is not something that involves mastering the content.