FIAE+B1+Chapter+8

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

Amanda Martemucci
FIAE-Chapter 8: Chapter 8 discusses why teachers grade. There are many instances in which grading is unnecessary. Rick Wormeli uses an example of “when a student realizes via a peer critique that he or she needs to make a concluding sentence to connect the supporting evidence of a paragraph back to its main idea” (p. 101). An instance such as this doesn’t need to be graded. So why is their grading? Wormeli claims that grades are helpful for three reasons: “To document student and teacher progress, to provide feedback to the student and family, and the teacher, to inform instructional decisions” (p. 102). I think these reasons are important for grading. I will need to grade students on their achievement to show me how well they are grasping the topics in class and how I am doing as a teacher. Grading specifically on achievement is also discussed in this chapter. Combining participation, effort, and behavior into a grade does not show achievement or mastery in a subject. I do believe that participation should be taken into account to some degree, but on a small percentage that is separate from grading a student’s mastery. As a teacher, I am more concerned with how a student is learning. I want them to learn and build upon their knowledge. Grades will not show that if I include other components to the grade.

Bridget Ferry
Chapter 8: Why Do We Grade? And What About Effort, Attendance, and Behavior? The purpose of grading it to communicate to students, parents, and teachers the student’s level of mastery, and use this information to provide feedback and make informed decisions about what to do next. Grading is already so easily muddled by subjectivity that adding effort, attendance and behavior as factors in grades is too confusing and unnecessary. While participation is important in learning, a student’s grade shouldn’t hinge on how many times they speak up in class: if a student and produce good work and prove that they understand what is going on, they shouldn’t be punished for not raising their hand more. Nor should students who constantly participate in class discussion be given a higher grade when they never do their homework and don’t demonstrate full mastery. In order to grade effort, one would need to be able to define and put it into standards and criteria. While it may seem unfair that some students don’t need to put in a lot of effort to receive a good grade, it’s also unfair for students who tried hard and learned little to receive a good grade for just trying. Attendance is an important aspect of learning: if you don’t show up, you don’t receive an opportunity to learn. But a few missed classes shouldn’t lower a student’s grade if they can still prove mastery of the subject: you never know what is going on at home or outside of school. I firmly believe that effort, attendance, and behavior are all important in life and in school, but they can be communicated in ways other than grades, and that’s how it should be done.

Moe
We should never use grades as methods of punishment, sorting, or manipulation. All of these methods are sometimes employed by teachers to hurt or motivate their students, when in actuality they distance the students from what you want them to learn. The author also makes it a point to remind us that participation is a hard factor to grade, but it can be done. It gets tricky because one student’s outward participation is another student’s inward reflection. As an educator you can use a participation grade to help some students break out of there shell. One way to help students achieve full mastery is to have them find alternative ways to master the material. If we help the students find other ways to master what they are learning, they will be more successful. Homework should never be graded, or have any effect on the final grade in the class. Homework is only meant to reinforce concepts the students already have a hold on. I like the idea of not grading homework, because it doesn’t make sense to assess someone over his or her practice work. I’d like to use all of these concepts in my classroom; it’d be great to show students that homework can be productive and not the most important thing in the world.

Chelsea
Grades should be used as a way to document the progress of both students and the teacher they should also be used to provide feedback, as well as to help us make informed instructional decision. Participation is something that is inappropriate to grade as it is part of the process of achieving mastery. As teacher we should not grade the process in achieving mastery, instead participation should be used as a way to provide feedback. It is important to give students the tools to succeed, this included time, reflection, and feedback. As long as we can teach students the skill of self-discipline it is not necessary to grade on effort, effort becomes a path to mastery. We should only use effort, attendance and behavior as long as it is a mean to mastery.

Kristen
Many teachers feel that grades are a "necessary evil" (p. 102). They are tasks that bog us down and take us away from other things like helping the students learn the material. Grades don't offer a learning opportunity, they're just the end picture that is difficult to changer or alter. Students need to be able to demonstrate their knowledge, however, and we need to have a way to assess it that is clear and really tells them what they know and what they need to know for the future. If we're grading them on their promptness, whether or not they are prepared for class, how well they participate and whatnot we are not grading what they know, but we do it anyway. At the end of the chapter Wormelli indicates that perhaps there should be a separate page at the end of the chapter to discuss their abilities to participate, come prepared and be prompt. They should not be factored in but are good qualities to have and things the student and parent should see as part of the teacher's observation of progress.

Jesika
This chapter is about how grades are necessary for tracking progress but at the same time they are not necessrilyaccorate indicators of learning. the latter point is because of the way students learn. Some students are extroverted and are more prone to speak aloud in class. Quieter students may have equally brilliant thoughts that they keep to themselves. Though grades are an incomplete picture they can be a good way to communicate with parents on how their children are progressing in the class. I have noticed that the school in which I do my practicum field expeience does not grade homework. I feel that their reasons are valid but it lowers the accountability for students.

Christina
Chapter eight discusses whether teachers should incorporate behavior, attendance, and effort into the students final grade. Overall, the author was against using any of them as part of assessing a student. The argument was that often times these serve to discourage students when they are penalized. There are often factors or reasons behind why they have not been in class, have behavioral problems, or are missing assignments. There are times when a student has missing assignments because they could not complete the assignment, not because the student decided not to do it, but teachers treat them as if they chose not to. There have been past experiences in school were I had extenuating circumstances and could not complete an assignment on time, but teachers punished me as if I just decided I did not care or just blew it off. In the case of some teachers, it feels as though they do not treat students as people with other priorities and problems outside of school. Taking time to understand students instead of reducing there final grade for not being in class is important as a teacher.

Kevin
The author says that teachers have sorted the reasons for grading into two groups of three. The first three are documenting student and teacher progress, providing feedback to the student, family, and teacher, and to inform instructional decisions. The next three are to motivate students, punish students, and sort students. Wormeli says the first three reasons and are positive and important. The second three he says are negative reasons that should not be used because they don’t work. According Wormeli low grades do not help to motivate students but instead have the opposite effect. I can’t think of how many countless times I have seen someone receive a low grade and then to distance themselves from it say “whatever” or “I don’t care.” An idea that the author makes sound so easy that I’d never really thought of is that a child certain circumstances that you can’t help but be sympathetic to and their grade isn’t necessarily reflective of work because they may have missing homework you can record that the grade earned is based on a modified curriculum. On the subject of effort I agree with the author that it is impossible to objectively measure effort. This makes it very difficult to factor into a grade but I feel like it shouldn’t be completely ignored. When I am working with a lower achieving student and getting him or her to put their all into something and they do, I can’t help but feel like a bad person if I give them an F even if that may be what they objectively earn. It is definitely a difficult situation.