FIAE+B2+Chapter+13


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Sarah McGinley
Fair Isn’t Always Equal Chapter 13: Gradebook Formats for the Differentiated Classroom 3/23/10

In this chapter there are several examples of keeping a gradebook for the differentiated classroom. The purpose for a gradebook is to keep track of the students’ progress and to keep of the students’ struggles with each assignment. Knowing that the students only received partial credit is not good enough. Teachers need to keep track of the students’ difficulties so that these issues can be addressed in another assignment or project. There are a few different formats to gradebooks and some work better than others. One of the formats has to do with grouping the assignments according to the standard. The problem with this is that it is hard to determine what part of the standard the student is having problems with and therefore, it is hard to address this problem in further learning practices. Another format for the gradebook is listing the assignments by date. I do not like this format because it does not relate any of the assignments to anything at all. I would not know what standard the assignment belongs to or what unit the assignment related to. One of the formats I like best is the topics-based gradebook. This shows exactly what the students are going to be graded on and it shows what category each assignment relates to. The only problem I foresee is if the teacher has to add another assignment to the list. Maybe each student could have their own page in the gradebook but the way it is set up right now there is no room for add-ons. I still like the rest of the set-up though.

Jason Malbon
Grade-books should give us an easy to read and follow snapshot of student progress. Ideally, any other educator should be able to understand the format and follow its logic. I have in mind an instance where a teacher may be out for an extended time and someone else has to cover. A long-term sub for example. The grade-book I particularly favor is the topics-based book showing a great amount of detail on each student’s mastery by topic. This is relatively lengthy but seems easier to follow and readily shows areas of expertise as well as troublesome areas. The teacher can then make decisions on what support needs to be administered to the student to gain better mastery. Again, no grade should be etched in stone until the final bell has rung. If we dedicate ourselves on measuring mastery, then grades are only temporary. They can change as long as new efforts are made and progress is real and measurable.

S arah Robinson
This chapter has taught that when looking into a grade book it should be clear what each student has learn and mastered, and if the student needs to work on certain areas. This chapter has made me realize that when creating a grade book for my classes I must keep differentiated classrooms in mind. This chapter has shown that grade books should show student progress. It is clear to understand from this chapter that there are many ways to create a grade book that best represents what students have learn, and how to clearly see where the student stands in the classroom. The first type of grade book the chapter talks about is grouping assignments by standards, objectives, or benchmarks. This allows teachers to clearly show where the student is standing in each section. The teacher must make the decision of how to group such standards, objectives or benchmarks, but this can be made into something that can be individualized to each student in order to help in a differentiated classroom. This next idea given is grouping assignments by weight or category, I believe that is one of the easiest ways to show a students grades through differentiated classroom because each grade can be shown in any individual way. Listing assignments by date is something that is important to me because I know I will use this in my future classroom. This way easily shows how the students are improving over time or it will bring attention to where some students are struggling. Topics-based grade books seems to the something that would take some time to create and understand, but the book makes it clear that it is worth the time and effort because it helps organize the students success and where the students need help. Before this chapter I thought there was only one way to have a grade book, but this chapter has proven that different grade books can help benefit students learning.

Amanda Fitzpatrick
This chapter was all about creating an effective grade book in a differentiated classroom. This chapter urged that despite what kind of grade book one keeps, or how they keep it, the main point of student success must be kept in mind. In other words, when one looks at a grade book they should be able to clearly see what each student's successes are and what areas they still have to work on. I like the idea that instead of having specific assignments in the columns of the grade book instead keeping the desired standards. Then, teachers can see which standards have been accomplished and which are still under satisfactory mastery. Also, teachers would be able to assure that they have aligned different lessons and assessments to the standards that they have set. In the grade book, then, teachers could write a small description of the standard and any work involved so that when students miss an assignment it is still obvious what they are missing. I think an important detail to a grade book (going along with the previous sentence) is that of adding in dates--this will help when a student is absent. Students will be able to tell the teacher what day they have missed and the teacher can look on that day in the grade book and inform the student of exactly what they have missed. I think the most effective way to keep a grade book is in fact keep two. Most schools have an online grade book that students can access and perhaps that grade book should be set up by specific assignments and the dates in which they were do. Then, the teacher grade book can be set up via standards which would be most beneficial to the teacher.

Jared Merrifield
Chapter 13: Gradebook Formats For a Differentiated Classroom

I am one of those people who stresses organization: if one thing is out of place, I will not be comfortable until everything is in order. This chapter focuses on some of the most recommended ways to keep an organized gradebook, and from the looks of the figures and explanations, they really do work. In my lessons, I do have certain standards for the students to reach for, including plot, literary devices, conflict, and theme. I’m sure I could divvy those into even more elaborate lists (especially the devices column) and have each assignment or assessment pertain to at least one. This would mean that some assignments would be counted twice, and Wormeli justifies that: it helps monitor the student’s mastery of each aspect of the class, not just the whole thing. The weighting gradebook format seems like a tried-and-true formula; most of the teachers at my high school used this formula or something similar. The chronological list seems to be the least effective format, since it does not summarize a student’s progress by just glancing at it, but Wormeli states that this shortcoming can be altered using color coding. I still doubt I would use this, since it might prove to be too confusing to me. The figure for the topic-based gradebook scared the life out of me at first, but after taking a better look at it and reading the explanation behind it, it actually seems to be the most effective and organized format of the bunch. It may take some extra time to set it up, but in the end it would be rewarding and save the teacher loads of hassle.

Diana Quinlan
This chapter deals with the different types of grade books that are kept in differentiated classrooms. The point of keeping a grade book is to keep track of student’s progress. It also helps keep track of areas where students are struggling. There are three different ways to keep a grade book. The first is by grouping assignments with standards. This sounds good in theory but it also makes it hard to identify which part of the standard the student has met and which part the student is having difficulty with. The second way to keep a grade book is to list all the assignments by date. This is how I always thought grades were kept. Before reading this chapter I did not realize that this format does not relate the assignments to the standards making it difficult to see where students are excelling and struggling. A topic based grade book is the third format. I would use this way of keeping a grade book over the first two because it relates the assignment to the standards and it also provides lots of detail to show where the student needs help or is excelling.

Alicia Kenison
Everything we do should promote students learning. If a student comes up to ask for a grade, we must be able to give it correctly and be able to explain why they have what they have in my class. To get to this organizational result, we can group assignments by standards/objectives/benchmarks, weight/category, date or topic-based. I find the topic-base grade-book confusing and hard to follow. Wormeli sees this as an appealing way to grade and keep track of work because it has a key. I don’t think any of this will be much of a problem because nowadays, teachers have online grade-books in which students and parents can check for themselves. It is not a bad idea to keep a paper grade-book in case anything happens, but nonetheless, they should be clear, organized and easy-access.

Eric Cole
This chapter is all about different ways to keep a gradebook in a differentiated classroom. Now, I am going to be honest, while I thought that some elements of the gradebooks in this chapter were good, I don’t think I would use any one specific design in my classroom. Instead, I believe I will use my own design. I think that is part of becoming an effective teacher. Yes, you want to look at what other people have done, and use them as a good model, but you don’t want to copy them exactly. In my gradebook I will follow the basic structure of grouping assignments by weight or category because I think that this is the most organized and easy to read way of keeping a gradebook. However, in the back of the book I would have a list of all the standards that I want my students to learn in my class, and I will keep track on what standards each student has met. Now, of course, this is all assuming that I will even have grades in my classroom.

Jared Boghosian
This statement says it all: "There is no one gradebook format that works best for all teachers" (161). Not having a whole lot of experience with gradebooks I found it difficult to choose one of the examples in the chapter as being my preferred gradebook of choice. However, I did choose one I liked and one I was weary of. I liked the set up and format behind the grouping of assignments by weight and quality. The one I wasn't so hot on, mostly because I haven't seen anything like it, is the topics-based gradebook. Amidst the busy life of a teacher, I would think it would be unnecessarily difficult to manage the topics-based gradebook. The gradebook of choice for my mentor teacher is the chronological gradebook that has color-coded assignments. I grew accustomed to this in my three weeks and feel like I could use it very effectively.

Scott A. Bowden
The focus of this chapter was about gradebooks. I think keeping a gradebook that lists each individual assignment, the number of points it was worth (i.e. its weight) and the date is a powerful tool. My mentor in the field keeps one with the name and the date and lets her online gradebook keep all the weights, but I want one in my own book so I can determine the final grade my way first then translate it all to the computer. I like the ideas this chapter brought up about grouping the assessments by topic, standard, or weight value, but my idea will bring them all together in a unique and powerful way for me as the teacher. It's important for me to be able to see going across how my students are doing and the chronological method will do that for me in addition to the points method.

Mike Lawson
Chapter 13 Grading is something that goes hand in hand with teaching…this is a fairly obvious statement. Well this may be true but grading must also be clear. Using a grade book can vary from writing down the grades to recording them electronically. I think I will use both. Electronic grades allow students to see how they are doing in class and allow them to make inquiries to me about what needs to be done. It also allows parents to see how their child is doing. Now, I personally like the idea of keeping my own grade book and writing down the grades…in pencil of course. The most important aspect of a grade book should be its legibility. Anyone looking at my grade book should easily be able to tell what the assigned grade is, what the assignment is, and if the student has completed the task. I want to be able to look at my grade book and see how a student is doing, check their mastery of a subject just by looking at this recording. Understanding how to use a grade book is obviously a must by all teachers, but understanding what it is telling you about your students is what really counts.

Susanna Cooper
I liked the point about how no 1 grade book works for every teacher. I have seen many different grading techniques and I really haven’t thought much on how I intended to grade. I liked the grading style in Figure 13.1. I like how it shows where students are at in 4 different areas. I think this type of grading would let me see over time if a student did better a writing assignments, vocab, or tests. By setting my grade book up a certain way, I can record grads and see feedback while I do it. I also think that it is probably good to keep in mind that I may need to change my grade book depending on what my class is like. Dating the entries also seemed like a really good idea. This way I can reference back to what was happening when a certain student got a certain grade. I can show parents, perhaps something happened at home that week, and I could compare with other teachers if they dated their grades too, then we could see if a student’s grades changed at the same time in both classes.