UbDDI+B2+Chapter+8

Abstract
Amanda Fitzpatrick

This chapter dealt with how to grade and [|give students feedback] in a differentiated classroom. The chapter had six main points when it came to grading. One, teachers should base grades on clearly specified learning goals and performance standards. Two, teachers should use all valid evidence available when grading. Three, base grades on established criteria, not things that are made up while you are grading. Four, do not include everything when you are grading. Some items, such as participation are important to the classroom but are difficult to grade. Five, try different means of deciding upon a grade instead of averaging (because when one averages an abnormally low or high grade could skew what the true average should be) such as mode or median, and finally, focus on achieving and report other factors separately. The chapter focused on how to grade students who may or may not be on the same level when it comes to the work (amount and difficulty) they have done.

Synthesis
Most members of this class thought that they would use what they learned in this chapter in their classroom--it seems like a fair and [|effective way to grade]. It also seems like the most sensible way to grade as it goes right along with what we have done thus far with designing our units. A common theme in most blog entries was that of feedback. Most everyone thinks that in order to really grade appropriately and to know where your students are feedback is a must. For many in the class this chapter clarified how to grade in a differentiated classroom. toc

Diana Quinlan
Chapter 8 of UbD/DI is all about the grading system. The problem with grades is that reporting them is not a differentiated system. This is some what problematic because successful teaching is a differentiated system. Grading is simply assigning letters or numbers and reporting feedback to students and parents which will help the student succeed. There are six different principals of grading which all teachers should be aware of. The first is that grades should be based on specific learning goals. In order to do this I will need to make sure that the learning goals are clearly stated for my students. The second principal is to use valid evidence when grading. It would not be beneficial to the student if I graded them on their penmanship when the assignment was to address causes of the civil war. When evaluating students it is also important not to grade on arbitrary norms. Grading based on norms can lead to unhealthy competition among students. It is also important not to grade on a curve. We want all students to be successful based on their own achievements. The forth principal of grading is that not everything should be graded. Assessments are used for gathering information on students learning styles and progress whereas grades are an endpoint to the learning which took place during a unit. Also, averaging all of a student’s grades together is not recommended. It is better to only average the later grades of a unit into the final grade because earlier grades are not a good representation of learning; they are based more on what a student already knew about the subject. Lastly it is important focus on achievement in grades; other factors can be reported in a different manor. In my classroom I am going to make sure my expectations are clear and I am available for help any time my students need it. I want them all to earn good grades so that their motivation to learn will never be stunted.

Understanding by Design Chapter 8: Grading and Reporting Achievement 2/23/10

This chapter talks about the importance of grading and reporting achievement. There are two parts to the grading process. First, you need to assign a grade, usually as a letter symbol, to an assignment and second, you need to report these grades to parents and students. The book talks about six different strategies of doing so. One, base grades and reports on clearly specified learning goals and performance standards. Two, use valid evidence for grading. Three, base grading on established criteria and not on arbitrary norms. Four, grades should not include everything. Five, avoid basing grades on averages and six, focus on achievement and report other factors separately. These are the six grading strategies that I will use in my classroom. I will use rubrics that will clearly map out what I am looking for in each assignment. Although, if I want my students to improve their grades I will grade them for each separate factor of learning. I will grade my students based on their achievements, progress, and work habits. This way I will be able to be specific in what needs to be improved.

Sarah Robinson
As a teacher it is always hard to find a grading process that will accommodate your students and what your school system wants. This chapter has taught us about a grading process that can be made with backward design and it is a grading process that benefits everyone from the student to the teacher and parents. This chapter was made the very good point that as a teacher you must make it clear to the students what the goal is for the students to learn, therefore also making sure that the students know clearly what they are going to be graded on. A grade should be something that represents a students learning on a set goal. This chapter has also taught that you should not bring the grading scale down for students who are struggling; you should adjust the work you are giving students that are struggling. This chapter has impacted my future classroom because it has made me realize that you still need to have individual goals to help students succeed. This chapter gives 6 main principles to building a good grade process, and one that stood out to me was that students should be graded often because it provides a better look of how much the students know. Finally this chapter has taught me that it is important to report grades in different ways, and one way would be making it easy to report to parents. Getting the parents involved is very important to a students success.

**Jason Malbon**
With so many variables in measuring learning, how can one symbolic grade tell the whole story? It is very deflating for a student to have their school experience come down to a letter grade or a number. This seems to trivialize the whole process. According to UbD, the important thing to remember is to give regular, fair feedback to the student. In this way, a student is not surprised by their grade. The author argues that grades should result from clear goals and not be subject to arbitrary factors. Losing points for not putting your name on your paper does not measure content understanding. I believe in giving students multiple chances for showcasing their learning. I also like the idea of dropping the low grade at the beginning of a unit, if the student demonstrates knowledge by units end. Why penalize a student for a grade that no longer measures understanding? Students also deserve the safety of showing what they know without the pressure of getting that grade. Students should be encouraged to take risks in their learning without fear. Formative assessments and diagnostic assessments should never be graded. A more modern and fair way of grading may be though averaging the mode. This is not the same as finding the usually expected average as is in most cases. The mode is the numbered occurrence of student grades over a span of time. This eliminates the need to record a zero.

Alicia Kenison
Grading should be easy, right? Well, Tomlinson and McTighe explain that grading is a two part process. I always thought you get it, you grade it and your done, but you must report the grades by numbers or letters and then send them home to students and parents. The students must completely understand why they achieved a certain grade so mistakes don’t happen again. Feedback is almost the most important part of grading. It allows students to reflect on their grade. A simple letter or number tells nothing. We’re here to guide the students and not leave them stranded with no why out of a rut. Goals are to be set and to be met. I always appreciated knowing exactly where I had to go and how I had to get there, of course, it was up to me to go about the path and make the correct choices. I liked how they pointed out staying away from the norms because getting an A always seems like you are the best and an F feels like a failure and a heart-break. I know for some an F means a loss of privileges at home. I feel a J curve or a point system would be a much better grading mentality. This system allows students to figure it out on their own where they stand. They will none-the-less strive for perfection no matter what. I also completely agree with their saying that, “what a student learns should be more important than when he/she learns” because we all have different speeds of processing the materials. We must set variables for every assignment along with being clear on what we are looking for. As teachers it is important to grade for achievement, work habits and progress because they all factor into the motivation of the student and their final product. We want the student to be proud of what they do so explain with great intent as to what you want and remember, “success breeds success.”

Amanda Fitzpatrick
During a majority of this book, it came across like the authors were pushing allowing everyone to get a good grade. This would happen even if the lessons were modified to allow the students to succeed. Although that statement is quite correct, in my head it meant that even if the student did not get the full understanding of the lesson, or the entire lesson itself then that was sufficient, as long as the student got a good grade. However from reading this chapter it became clear that this was not the case. Instead, through the grading process the teacher can really assess how much the student actually learned and thus will know what the student's grade should be, given how much they learned, what steps they took to learn and what the actually product from learning was. I plan on using this tactic in my classroom. I liked how the authors really made it seem like by implementing this assessment strategy not only will the students work harder to get better grades by actually working harder--participating more, striving for higher quality work, etc but they will also appreciate the grades that they do get because they will know that no matter what the grade itself will be (and the assessments that get the students to that place work to make each student capable to succeed) the student will know that they worked to the best of their ability and earned their grade. I also like the idea of less grades in a grading period. Although students would attest that if they have more grades they will have a better chance of succeeding, on the teachers side if we have to evaluate their overall achievement I think that they will not only get a higher grade than averaging all of the grades together, but a more accurate grade as well.

Jared Merrifield
Chapter 8: Grading and Reporting Achievement

This book has done a very concise job of explaining how one teaches in a differentiated classroom. However, the question that remains is this: how does one grade students’ work in such a classroom? The chapter stresses that grading is much more than just a letter or number system; it must accompany constructive feedback, praising the student’s work and identifying what they could do better. I actually had several teachers in the past who did not provide enough feedback and used complicated, out-of-context words like “elaborate” and “expand” on my assignments. I found the principles on effective grading to be familiar but helpful, and I strongly agree with Principle 3, which stresses to not grade on a curve. This practice has happened only once or twice throughout my life as a student, and it never really made that sense to me. It does indeed make the work competitive amongst the students, which is unhealthy. I can think of no reason to grade based on norms in my classroom and will stick to grading according to the goals I have established for my students. I am a little on the fence about the principle regarding averaging the final grades, however. I assumed that teachers assign a larger portion of the final grade to the harder assignments that truly demonstrate understanding and usually take place near the end of the class. That way, the final grade will more accurately reflect the student’s progress and final understanding. I absolutely agree with the book that achievement should be regarded as the most important aspect of grading. Other elements like attendance and even behavior do not make sense to me. If the student is there to learn, their performance should be graded on what they were able to learn, and that primarily consist of achievement, which truly envelops a lot more than what most people think.

Eric Cole
I think that there are two things that I learned in the chapter that have really altered the way I will teach. First is the section which preaches that grades should not be about anything other than achievement. We like to award students for participation, showing up to class on time, effort, and other things, but this is not a good practice as a student who achieves well on a project could get the same grade as someone who doesn’t simply because the other person showed up to class on time more. How fair is that? Grades should be about what students produce in their work, and nothing more. The other section that I enjoyed was the section dealing with motivation in the classroom. I know that in my school the only motivation students had to do any kind of work was to get a good grade. Is this useful? NO! If students are only doing something for the grade then they are not really learning. We need to figure out a new system that will promote learning simply for the sake of learning, and not to get a grade.

Scott A. Bowden
This chapter was a discussion of grading using Understanding by Design and Differentiation. It suggested that instead of one unified grade, that one grade for progress, one for standards, and one for work and effort are gathered. This makes sense to me as many teachers in my history really didn't grade for effort of progress except in an attitude and participation section of a standards system. I think I could use this when I'm assessing and make considerations for it in the final grades of students, but unless a system can be overhauled and different forms of grading can be inserted, the only thing I can do is try by integrating all the different aspects into my grading.

Susanna Cooper
I really liked how this chapter synthesized what we have been learning in class and was restating it once again. Since I know how to do Stage 1 and Stage 2 in lesson building, I could really understand what the chapter was telling me. I think this is an important concept to use with students. By presenting the information to them in a hands-on way, then explaining it in detail, written or oral, the students can understand and comprehend what I am telling them and the info doesn’t just fly over their heads as fast. I also liked the point this chapter made about praising students progress. I think that our goal as teachers is to help students slowly or rapidly improve and gain new knowledge. Even if some of my students still aren’t at the “norms” I should still praise them and make sure they realize the progress they have made. I think I could do this, by asking them to make a concept map of things they have learned, each week I will have them reflect on anything new they have learned and add to the map. At the end of the year they can see how big the concept map has become. I also found it interesting when this chapter explained that good classroom habits like asking questions and listening are really great skills for students to learn too. If you think about it, they will need all of those skills at most future jobs someday. Learning to listen and ask questions are excellent skills that not only get the student thinking about the new material that is being taught, but also it lest them practice skills they will need as adults to focus on their jobs and be successful citizens.

Jared Boghosian
Using a letter grade to judge a student is often considered insensitive towards the many differences of the students. It is okay to use letter grading as a //symbolic// representation of a students' progress and an easily recognizable method of assessment for parents. When putting together an evaluation scale be sure there is a clear distinction about what is required to achieve a certain grade. Also while grading make it obvious as to what a student needs to do to reach a higher scoring grade, do not make it a cryptic message for the students to decipher. The most valuable piece of information I learned in this chapter is that not everything needs to be graded. Most quizzes should in fact be used to track progress while the summative assessments determine the actual grade of the student.