FIAE+B1+Chapter+9

Click on edit this page. toc
 * 1) Use the down arrow on your keyboard to get the cursor underneath the horizontal bar.
 * 2) Type your name, highlight your name and then select Heading 3 at the top.
 * 3) Copy and paste your reflection underneath your name.
 * 4) Insert a horizontal bar under your reflection.
 * 5) Click save.

Amanda Martemucci
FIAE-Chapter 9: Chapter 9 describes Rick Wormeli’s ten approaches to avoid when grading. The two I particularly like are “avoid grading practice (homework)”, and “avoid withholding assistance with learning” (p. 116, 120). Wormeli explains how homework should be used as a practice tool for students when they are learning a topic. Grading the homework takes away the practice component to learning. I think that if I am to grade a student on their homework, it will be on a checkpoint scale or I will simply write them feedback. I won’t be grading too hard, mostly for if they complete the homework and appear to show me that they understand what they have done. Especially with homework where students will need to interpret readings, I want to give them feedback. I also think it’s important to give students assistance when needed. All my students will not be on the same level in learning. I want to give students any opportunity to allow them to learn at the best of their ability. If this means I need to give them new tools or a different form of the homework, I will do it.

Bridget Ferry
Chapter 9: Ten Approaches to Avoid When Differentiating Assessment and Grading Chapter nine is a list of do-nots in differentiated instruction. The chapter covers many items on the list that were the focus of previous chapters. The main idea is avoiding the grading of anything that isn’t mastery. Homework shouldn’t greatly affect a student’s grade, and neither should extra credit. Students should be allowed to try to prove their mastery as many times as they need to. Scaffolding and differentiating are tools within the classroom; we should not withhold them. We should not assess students in ways that will not allow them to demonstrate their mastery, differentiation is all about making sure students have the opportunity to show how they know something, not show us in one specific way. Group grades are another thing to avoid, as they don’t represent what individuals know and feedback is more about group dynamics than student knowledge. Most of this list was already on my own, and now I have more to add and think about as I start teaching.

Chelsea
As teachers should avoid incorporating nonacademic factors as these do not represent mastery. We should also avoid grading homework and multiple attempts at mastery, as it is considered practice and not a true representation of a student’s mastery. As teachers it is important that we offer assistance to students especially when it’s in terms of learning. We should find ways that allow us to accurately assess student’s mastery. It is important to avoid giving out extra credit because we should be stretching and encouraging our students without incentive. Grading in groups is something that should be avoided as well. Teachers should also avoid grading on a curve because it skews the fades, also grading on a curve does not help truly assess a student’s mastery. We should grade on standards and not as a means of meeting criteria. The book also describes not grading zeros, as it only distorts the usefulness of a grade.

Moe
It is very important to remember that not all of our students will be ready for what we have to offer them for information. This is crucial because we need to make sure that we don’t assume we know where the students are in terms on understanding. Confabulation is the when you don’t fully understand something so your brain fills in the empty spots and you get all confused. I believe this is real and I speak from experience! Wormeli makes a good point that this natural phenomenon begins when homework is given that is too advanced for the student’s ability. Another point with homework that was made is to not put zeros in the grade book for late or missing work. This will only discourage students even more. I liked this because I don’t want my students to feel like their grade is done because they missed one assignment. I’d rather have them meet with me and do the work, then freak out and not learn the material.

**Kristen**
Don't grade them in "non accademic factors" (p 113). Also, consider the fact that it might be the test that is failing the student and not the student who is failing the test. Wormelli provides examples of how a test can poorly depict what the student actually knows just by the format of it. If you ask a student to do an interpretive dance about weather patterns and they can't dance they will fail the test. Can they draw it? Can they write it? Why is it that the only choice they have is to do the dance? Perhaps there is a better way to demonstrate their learning. Provide the test that will best assess and show the student's learning for the course. Not all students will excel at the same test but they may all know the material. Provide the student with the necessary tools, like scaffolding to help them learn the information. Extra credit, zeros and curve grading all skew what students really know, and though sometimes they seem necessary or appropriate this doesn't help the student learn the material and it doesn't help the teacher understand what the student knows.

Jesika
Graded homework is considered a non-academic factor which is detrimental to learning. Also grading homework that may be too difficult for the students could be unnecessarily damaging to their grade and discouraging to the student. I think that I will not necessarily //grade// homework, because it is true that grading someone for doing poorly for something that is too difficult for them is unfair. I will however keep the students accountable for doing their homework. I will implement a point system. I will give students a point for at least making an honest attempt at the assignment. Leaving no consequence for not trying the work is not helpful for teaching work ethic.

Christina
Chapter nine lists ten approaches to avoid when differentiating assessment and grading. Mainly these restate past chapters that discussed flaws and ways of grading that should be avoided, such as grading nonacademic factors like attendance. It even jumps ahead by advising teachers to stay away from giving zero's, as is the basis of chapter 10. One thing to avoid that I found interesting, and really does make perfect sense, is avoiding allowing students to do extra credit. Often the extra credit is busy work and does not use the same skills that were meant to be built in the original assignment. The teacher can allow an alternative and allow students to receive a better grades by allowing re-do's on assignments.

Kevin
Chapter 9 discusses 10 practices to avoid when differentiating instruction and assessment. This first hearkens back to the previous chapter which is that non-academic factors should not be included in grades. The second one is to avoid multiple attempts at mastery. I understand where the author is coming from but I can also see how this could be unfair to students who studied and did well on the first try. There will be many times in life where students will not be given a second chance. I think some students could take advantage of that policy by always counting on that second, third, fourth…etc chance to finally do well. The third is to avoid grading practice i.e. homework. The reason more teachers don’t do this I think is because if homework is not going to be graded it needs to be something meaningful to the students otherwise they aren’t going to do it. Four is to avoid withholding assistance, and five is to make sure that students are assessed in a way that adequately measures their mastery. If a teacher refuses to help a student I think that the teacher has lost sight of what the purpose of school is. Number six is to avoid doing bonus points or extra credit and seven is to avoid group grades. The way I see it, it is attractive for teachers to have students work in groups, projects are often more successful this way; but how does a teacher evaluate individual performance in a group. Unfortunately the author gives no suggestions for this problem. Eight is to avoid grading on a curve and nine is to avoid giving zeroes for work not done. The author says that zeroes skew the overall grade so much that it becomes not an accurate representation of student mastery. Instead he recommends giving the highest possible number F. Standard 10 is to “avoid norm-referenced terms to describe criterion referenced attributes.” This means that standard based grades a mastery of learning not how a student is doing in relation to other students.