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Abstract - Scott A. Bowden
This chapter was about whether or not teachers should [|grade students on participation and effort]. It also discussed where our grading system comes from and what we can do with it. The book suggested not grading on effort unless that is a goal that teachers want out of their class. The reason we grade is to give feedback to students and that's what our grading should reflect, the feedback and information that we find as important or necessary for our content. We have to decide if effort and participation is something we want to reinforce because those are required and desired in the real world by employers or colleges.

Synthesis - Scott A. Bowden
Most of us agreed that grading is something that teachers are dealt and it is sometimes difficult. We saw that putting a number to attendance, participation, and [|effort] can be detrimental to a student as it tells them that their behavior will affect their grade. Some agreed that it was okay to put a number to it as long as it was a minute portion of the grade and not the deciding factor between passing and failing. There was some controversy on effort however, some argued that if a student puts in a lot of effort and still only earns a D or an F that it sends a negative message to them about their time, hard work and effort. Others argue that it needs to be about the material. It's an unfortunate crossroads that teachers get stuck at.

Sarah McGinley
Fair Isn’t Always Equal Chapter 8: Why Do We Grade, and What About Effort, Attendance, and Behavior? 2/25/10

This chapter focuses on how to grade attendance and participation and if we should be grading things like these at all. I agree with the reading about how putting a grade on attendance and participation means threatening the student to behave or their grade will suffer. I do not believe we should be grading attendance and participation but instead recognizing the student when they do a good job that day with participation. Everyday acknowledgement for the students who do come to class and participate in the lesson would be good but this does not mean students should get rewards if they show up to school that day. Grades most of the time cause trouble in these areas and some people agree that grades should be taken out of the equation all together. I would not like to do away with grading but I would like to be able to grade students accurately and not in a harmful way. By harmful way I mean grading attendance when a situation like a funeral comes along or other situations that will harm their grade if they are not in class because the student did not say the reason for the absence.

This chapter was also about grading. Most teachers see grading as a necessary evil but they do it to document progress, provide feedback to students and their parents, and make informed decisions about instruction. Grading for any other reason than the three listed in the previous sentence compromises the integrity of the grade. Grading can be a very daunting process because there are so many questions about how and if participation and behavior should be included in grades. This chapter says it is ok to grade participation based on work habits and homework as long as it is only worth 10% of a student’s final grade. However it is strongly recommended that teachers give feedback on participation and behavior without adding it into the student’s final grade. Most importantly though this chapter urges teachers to make grades as meaningful and accurate as possible. It does nothing for a student to give them a grade based on good behavior when they haven’t mastered the material necessary to succeed in further levels or in life.

**Jason Malbon**
The danger of grading is that it can lead students to tune out. A student who gets straight A’s may become complacent and bored because he or she is not challenged. I have heard of students who received superior grades in high school but failed in college. Maybe this happened because A’s were handed out to freely giving the student a false sense of themselves as learners. The other side of the coin shows a student pushed away because they get the failing mark. The word “fail” or “failure” is a horrible word for students to associate themselves with. Teachers should be aware of this as they grade students. If we are supposed to measure mastery, then why not allow students to fix their work, make up tests, and throw out a low quiz grade. As long as mastery is gained, why hold a student accountable for work unrepresentative of their current knowledge? Certain areas of grading such as class participation and effort are controversial. Are we penalizing students who are shy by nature or who would rather not speak up? How do you measure effort? Should a straight-A student be docked a few points because they don’t have to try hard? I believe in a case by case basis for this. Fair is not always equal, therefore if a student struggles in many areas but shows great effort and participates in class then I say work with them. The real world certainly likes those who participate and show great effort. Hiring managers want sincere people they can trust and work with. The classroom can be a way to promote these ideals if used in a constructive way.

Jared Merrifield
Chapter 8: Why Do We Grade?

Now that we know how to grade and assess student performance, the question now is why do we do it, instead of just sticking to assessment? From what I have learned from this class so far, I believe the primary function of grades is to give students’ parents an excuse to either rejoice or gripe, but I’m sure it’s just a little deeper than that (although from the six reasons listed, this one is actually featured). Even though it sounds pretty conclusive, I disagree with the concept that low grades do not motivate students to do better. I would have agreed if the word “always” was incorporated in it, and I am an example. When I received a C- on my pre-calculus test in high school, I went straight to my teacher for help, and I worked my head off to understand the material correctly. I still received a C+ as a final grade, but I know I at least tried to do better. I do, however, agree that students who received high grades are not always motivated to earn another one; once again, I am an example, for I sometimes find myself slacking if I know I am earning a good grade in a course. Another essential question is how do (or should) we incorporate the student’s behavior, effort, and attendance habits? This question has stumped teachers for years, and quite honestly, before reading this chapter I was quite stumped myself. He chapter does indeed frown upon extensively incorporating behavior into a student’s final grade, and it’s simple why: it muddies the waters and stays away from why we grade in the first place. The section about grading participation was helpful to me, and I can think of some examples of when this came into play when I was a student. In one of my math classes in high school, we were graded almost solely on quizzes and tests, and we were encouraged to pay close attention to the lecture and raise your hand if you had a question regarding the subject. I hardly said a word in that class and got an A-. However, last semester, I was in a British literature class that was almost purely discussion based. As many of you know, I am typically the quiet type, so even though I did superbly in all my essays and class notes, I still received a B-. Grading in terms of effort and behavior is an even trickier notion, and I already had the idea that I should keep this to a minimum. Instead of basing the grade around it, I would just report it.

Mike Lawson
Without question there is a lot on the plates of every teacher. Not only do we have to grade, but we also have to cater to the needs of our students and whatever else we may run into during the course of the day. However, this doesn’t mean that we should try to lessen the amount of work we do by assigning things that don’t get graded. There is a time and a place for assignments that do and don’t get graded. They both serve a special purpose for both students and teachers. By presenting students with a grade they will immediately know where they are in terms of where we want them to be, assuming they tried the hardest they could. Simply reading how much a teacher must do is overwhelming. I hope that in one of my classes during my college career I will understand how to manage my time as a teacher. For example what are things that need to be done before others? I like how there was a section in this chapter about compliance. I believe that it is almost a sign of weakness from a teacher if they tell a student as long as you do the work you’ll get a good grade. That works to an extent, but then that poses the question of are my students mastering my content. Grading participation is something that I believe in. I think that it should never account for more than 15 percent of a student’s overall grade. I think this because as a teacher we don’t know what is happening in a student’s head. Some may be afraid of being wrong; others may just not like showing their understanding in class. As a teacher I will always promote participation every day, whenever possible. As mentioned in my last response it is very hard to assign a letter to a student at the end of a semester, this is why I like being able to grade on many different levels. I like being able to grade effort, participation and whatever else I may deem necessary. This makes it easier on me and makes me feel more confident when grading.

Sarah Robinson
This chapter has reminded me of the question I once asked in high school, how much should behavior, attendance, and participation matter in your grade? This chapter teaches once again that every student is different and teachers should take that into concentration when grading students. After reading this chapter I know what I want to include behavior, attendance, and participation into my classroom. This chapter has taught that grades need to show what students have learned, not how they performed in their learning process and how long it took them to achieve an understanding. Therefore I believe that students should be grade on such things as behavior and attendance because that is showing how much they are learning and how much they want to learn. I also agree with the statement teachers should only give homework if their students have master the subject they are teaching. When a student goes home and can’t understand something and has no resources to help them it can be very frustrating and cause the student to not want to learn that subject anymore. This chapter has been very informational for my classroom and classrooms all around the world, if more teachers took this advice students will be learning more than ever!

Eric Cole
This chapter is also all about grading and if we should grade students on two important factors: Participation and Effort. Now this chapter says that it is not a good idea to grade on either of these two factors because it doesn’t matter how hard we work, or what road we get there, but what the final destination is and looks like. I have to completely disagree with this assessment. Is that really the message that we want our students to learn. “Hey Johnny, I know you did your best, but your best still sucks and that is all that matters. It doesn’t matter that you worked until 2 am every night getting this done to the best of your ability, it is still an F product.” What kind of message are we sending kids if we say that participation, and more importantly, effort doesn’t matter? Do you think that will motivate kids to work even harder, or will they just completely give up and shut down because what they do is not good enough? I think that students should be rewarded for how much effort they put into something. Sure, it may not end up being the best thing in the world, but life is not all about the destination. Sometimes, it is about the road that we take to get there.

Amanda Fitzpatrick
In the past, I have always learned best from discussing ideas and reading rather than reading it then never really applying it in any way. Therefore, in my classroom I plan on having it be heavily discussion based; whether it be a full group discussion or just in smaller 4-6 student groups or just in pairs. I have been under the notion that because I hoped for the participation of my students that I would need to add participation [to discussion] to my grading criteria. In the chapter they mentioned that giving bonus points or higher grades to students that actively participated in class was detrimental to students who may benefit from the discussion even though they do not participate in it. I really liked this approach to thinking about grading for participation because I had never thought of it that way. Instead, the chapter urged, make your students see the own "bonus" in sharing--that when more students share and more ideas are circulated there is a richer experience for all in the class. Students, quiet ones especially fail to see how their contribution by adding their ideas may really benefit the entire class--and I think that if I can get that point across then more students may share.

As far as grading for effort and behavior, I really do not think that I can or should be done in an academic setting. I completely agree with the chapter when it urged its readers to add a comment on how Jimmy is behaving or participating in the class--how much effort is going in, instead of bumping up his grade or lowering it because of it. I think that especially because of the way that we have made our lessons, it is going to be really difficult for students not to put in effort and still completely master and comprehend the material. In this way, effort will be put into the grade because without effort, or with addition of effort the grade would be different.

Alicia Kenison
Wormeli made us believe that grading occurs to encourage students. It is important to look at all the factors such as effort, attendance, and behavior but we do not have to place them on the report card. I find it odd that in most schools attendance is required. I mean, shouldn’t we all acknowledge that things come up people get sick, family members die, etc.? Although I think attendance is unimportant, but the learning is what matters. If they learn than their grade should be higher, but I do agree with Wormeli that school is the child’s job. We do not get breaks in the real world. But how do we determine the break that we should give out? We also have to acknowledge that laziness does not exist, if a child is lacking than we must find out what is going on. We need to get to know our students. So, in marking off on effort we see the fluctuation and can figure out where they need help and how we can indeed help. Looking at all these factors make us better teachers, yet if it has nothing to do with the project than why include it in the final grade? Through this chapter, Wormeli gave us a lot to look at and decipher through when we actually become teachers. I will take his advice to heart!

Scott A. Bowden
I really liked this chapter as it brought into question, in my opinion, the most ambiguous of teacher's grading areas, participation. I will admit that I included it on my syllabus, but it only counts for me as 1/20 the total grade and mainly as a borderline or deserving case. I think that participation and attitude shouldn't be used as a full-fledged benchmark because of all it can't say. The book brings up really good points that it's a limited view of students as the only people who get recognized in class are the interpersonal ones who throw their hand up in the first 3 seconds of having a question posed with whatever idea they had, regardless of if it's right or not. When I deal with participation, I look at what the student has done and completed and the effort put forth. Whether or not a student is active in class is irrelevant, provided they complete their homework, show that they understand the material and put in the work. The interpersonal student who says whatever just to get participation points is wasting their time if the only thing they are doing is spewing garbage.

Jared Boghosian
This chapter was not messing around when it gave a fairly frightening look at a teacher's workload. Grading is for three things: giving feedback to students, parents, and teachers. To track a student's progress towards mastering the material. And to decide instructional choices. It talks about how low grades severely demotivate students, and part of that is right. This chapter goes into detail about whether it is alright to grade based on effort, attendance, and behavior. My personal feelings towards attendance is that you should be there everyday, I thought the example of that school who fails students after three absences was a little drastic. However, if a student has ten or more unexcused absences, I think it might be time to factor their willingness to work into the grade. Effort and behavior alone, I flat out don't think should impact a grade. If a student tries really hard, they will get the grade they get and maybe have a chance to do it over with some feedback. If a student has a behavioral disorder or a really bad day I'm not going to mark them down for it.

Susanna cooper
I liked the argument that this chapter started out with. I can see how students could be allowed not to come to school if they are proving they can pass the material when the time came. Yet I can also see how this is unfair to those students who don’t get things easily and must stay in school, and what about a job? Just because your job is easy the boss won’t let you skip work every other day. I think that along with teaching kids material, we as teachers are also teaching responsibility and work habits for the next step in student’s lives. School is a job, and students need to attend. If they know enough material to skip, then maybe they need to be challenged more. Another point the chapter made was that a D will not motivate students to keep trying. They will into be motivated. Instead of giving my students Ds, I think that it is better to not give them the grade. You show them what they need to fix, and the student has an incomplete until it gets done at a proper level. This way both the teacher and student is saved the grief of Ds and Fs. The only way a student would get an F is by not try at all.