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Amanda Martemucci
__FIAE-Chapter 13:__ Chapter 13 describes different types of grade book formats that all work well in a differentiated classroom. The type of grade book chosen depends on the students, curriculum, and the teacher. All of them have their strengths and weaknesses, which Wormeli clearly addresses, but I particularly like two of grade book formats. I like the “Grading Assignments by Date “ grade book (p. 166-168). This grade book allows the teacher to put in grades in a timelines so he or she can look at a students growth over time. This can help a teacher decide whether to focus on the most recent grades to use for the report card, or to use all of them as they configure how the student has been improving. I like this way of viewing a students grades and I will definitely consider using it as a teacher. The “Topics-Based Gradebook” (p. 168-171) incorporates many types of grading into one. It uses a timeline, standards/understanding, and a 4-point scale. It is excellent for differentiating as the teacher merely can change the standards for the grading and explain why. Each assignment also gets grading on several standards/understandings for one assignment so the teacher can recognize where a student’s strength and weaknesses are. Teachers are able to explain to parents in detail where their child is struggling, improving, and excelling. I think it’s a great format but definitely one I will use once I get used to teaching because it is very complex with all its components.

Bridget Ferry
Chapter 13: Gradebook Formats for the Differentiated Classroom To truly be a differentiated teacher, one must embrace differentiation in all aspects of the classroom, learning, and grades and this includes gradebooks. There is no one right way to set up a gradebook, and it takes experimenting and thoughtful planning. One general rule of thumb is to categorize based on standards and benchmarks, not on homework, tests, and quizzes. This way, when you look at your grade book you will see what needs to be covered (or uncovered) still in the curriculum and how well students are meeting standards. The feedback you give students, parents, and other teachers will be so much stronger, because instead of saying “Jimmy failed his last test” you could explain that Jimmy just hasn’t grasped the concept of the standard or benchmark and therefore more easily help him work towards mastery. Since I’ve never used a gradebook before, none of these options in the chapter really jump out at me, nor can I think of the perfect way to set up my first gradebook. But I do know that it will be based in standards, not in categories of the type of work being done.

Moe
One of the first quotable reminders in this chapter was, “Flexibility, not rigidity, enables trees to withstand the changing winds; it’s good advice for our grade books as well.” Whenever you find yourself getting rigid in the grade book or the classroom, you have to snap back and become flexible again. Another important aspect of keeping a grade book to remember is that stuff happens in our students’ lives that can, and will affect their scores. In order for us to check their progress we must look for trends in student scoring and assignment completeness. A factor when looking at the weight of aspects within the assignments, you can only reverse the weights if the two aspects in consideration are similar. You can’t just change the weights of two aspects if they aren’t similar in any way. I thought that this chapter was good information for any teacher to know. There were some great reminders about what to focus on when grading and recording grades. The end of the chapter reminded us that “grades should be clear, undiluted indicators of what students have learned”. All of the factors in this chapter will easily be practiced in my classroom because I don’t think that any of my grading will be pointless or focused on anything other then student progress and the road they took to get there.

Kristen
There are many different ways you can record your grades while using differentiated instruction. The author provides examples of recording the grades according to standards, summary of evidence, weight or category, date of assignment or topic. I personally prefer the idea of recording them by the date of the assignment. This provides the teacher with the ability to see how well the student has progressed over time. This method can also be enhanced so that the assignments can be color coated to indicate the different types of assignments given like class work, written papers or a test. The different types of grade recording can help teachers organize or even focus their efforts so they can see if a student reached a certain goal or mastered a certain type of work. Over all its best for the teacher to use the organizational method for their grade book that helps them assess the student best.

Christina
This chapter describes various formats a teacher may use when creating and organizing their grade-book. The assignments can be grouped by by category (test, quiz, homework) and by date. I think that those two formats would make it very simple to record grades and figure out averages. Everything would be organized in a way that leaves no room for guessing what each item is (like in the topics-based grade-book). I had actually never thought of how I would organize my grade-book until I read this chapter. I think I will definitely utilize either the format of grouping assignments by category or grouping assignments by date.

Chelsea
This chapter discussed grade book formats for teachers. The two grade book formats that I liked the best were placing assignments together based on weight or category, because it easily allows you to go through and view how a student has done in each section and makes for quick calculation. The other format that I liked was by date. I like the idea of listing assignments by the date because you can easily track a student’s level of mastery throughout the unit you are able to tell where they have difficulty based on the assignment. I think that in a classroom a system that uses both grouping by weight and then date would work because you see what category a student is having trouble but you can also correlate it where in the unit the student is having trouble.

Kevin
Chapter 13 gives advice on effective ways to set up a grade book. This is definitely not something I would have thought about in terms of differentiation. The first idea presented is that instead of listing assignments across the top and putting a number underneath that teachers should instead of assignments put the standards students are trying to receive; grades for assignments relating to that objective go in that column. The author brings up an interesting idea which is that if we want grades to reflect a student’s current level of mastery should would hold them accountable if early in the year they were getting C’s or D’s but now they are steadily getting A’s. Wormeli says the student should get an A because that is their current level, the fact that it took them a little while to get their should not hurt them.

Jesika
This chapter was about the different formats for grade books. There is the standards based grade book, which is based on the concepts of synthesis, analysis and prediction. The evidence based grade book, which is based in the core bench marks of the class, such as the ability to successfully complete certain tasks. The weight based grade book, which has different sections for types of assignments that have different weights. The date based grade book, which best shows the progress of the student. And the topic based grade book, which is itemized to every piece of every concept.

The last one seemed a bit impractical to me as well as the first. I think the most effective grade book would be a combination of the weight based and the date based grade book.