FIAE Chapter 8 synthesis

As teachers it is likely that we will struggle with decision on how to grade attendance and participation and if we do what weight it should have. Some teachers have rigid attendance policies, and have varying amounts of emphasis. Grading participation is even more hazy and grading attendance tends to benefit a certain population of students. If you decide that class participation will be incorporated in a students' final grades then you should have some preconceived notion of what kind of participation you expect in students.

FIAE Chapter 14

Most teachers tend to get bogged down in the differentiated instruction model when it comes to report cards. We all want to follow this but it is difficult to represent what students know in a simple form. Report cards and progress reports need to somehow reflect that the students may have been taught differently. Simply saying that the grade reflects differentiated instruction should not cause negative thoughts about the student's grade. This is something that I am personally scared of even though I probably would not admit it in person. With the competitiveness of students and parents I think that they are still going to want a simplified version of how their student is doing.

FIAE Chapter 13

In this chapter we are told that our grade books will almost certainly reflect our lessons. It will most likely take me a long time to figure out exactly what grade book format will work for me. When formatting the grade book we need to make sure that we are not only designing it based on what is easiest for us, but will accurately reflect a student's achievement. When we begin a unit, all the grades for that unit should already be in the gradebook, this reflects the backwards design model in this way. None of the examples provided in the book really appealed to me, I guess I will have to be like John McCain and be a maverick and find my own way.

FIAE Chapter 12

As the title of the chapter would suggest, we are told about grading scaled in this chapter. We as teachers tend to use the the 100% grade scale since it is traditional and most efficient to use. Wormeli however suggests using the 4.o scale since it's more subjective and puts less of an emphasis on the grade. Since there is less variation in the smaller scale it is easier for faculty to agree upon what criteria is required for each grade. This provides more consistency for students and teachers. Making rubrics, which is something that is required for the 4.0 scale can seem daunting but it will be worth it in providing students and teachers with a more accurate reflection of student achievement.

FIAE Chapter 11

Chapter 11 tells us more about grading and how it reflects student achievement. I was interested in how much recording a zero as a grade negatively effects the students grade and does not accurately portray a student's level of achievement. The section on here regarding how to grade gifted students kind of angered me. They didn't really offer any kind of real suggestions other then to add some sort of supplement or make sure that the name of the class is reflected. This is unfair to gifted students since they are taking on more challenging work, without adding a weight to these or anything, the incentive for taking honors classes is lost. The rest of the chapter pertains to late work and making sure that we are not grading automaticity instead of concept attainment. This are all important to me in helping me decide how I will tabulate my grades.

FIAE Chapter 10

The topic of this chapter is redoing work for full credit. We should basically trust our discretion when deciding if work will be allowed to be redone because students should not take the ability to redo assignments for granted. Take into account outside factors that may have played a role in the quality of a students work, listen to them and try to put yourself in their shoes and think about how you would want to be treated if you were in the same situation. Wormeli suggests having parent sign an agreement about make up work policies. You should change the work that is being made up so that students cannot simply memorize something. The two sections that I found most important were not allowing students to make up grades near the end of a ranking period because at this point students are only thinking about the grade and to have students attach previous work so we can see progress. Basically use you best judgement and discretion.

FIAE Chapter 9

Chapter nine basically did exactly what the title suggested it would do: It suggest "Ten Approaches to Avoid When Differentiating Assessment and Grading." That chapter wants us to avoid using nonacademic factors when we are determining the final grade. We should not penalize students when they need several attempts to master something, and similarly homework that is meant for practice should not be factored into the final grade. We need to make sure that whenever scaffolding is needed that it is made available to our students. When we are grading we should not use assessments that do not accurately assess how well a students has mastered a subject, and extra credit is not cool. We should not give group grades and zeros do nothing to motivate students to learn and do their work.