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Jordan
Differentiated classrooms a hard enough to manage and keep an accurate evaluation of as a teacher, but the practices that we promote need to extend beyond the four walls of the classroom and reflect on our student’s report cards in a way that parents can understand. The standard report card gives parents a “letter” report as to how their child is performing in school, but in a differentiated classroom, a single letter grade does not represent a student’s performance. Many report card formats are designed for functionality and responsiveness (a place to put a letter or a simple comment) and are not developed with the differentiated classroom in mind. Wormeli suggest what teachers should do is star to indicate that this curriculum is “adjusted curriculum”. By doing this, it does not necessarily prompt parents to think good or bad thoughts because gifted students have adjusted curriculum as well. If this is not an option, Wormeli also suggests the “dual approach” where the teacher provides a letter grade (that measures how the student is performing against standards) and a rank of 1-3 that describes how much the student has grown throughout the course of the year. A higher rank (such as a 3) symbolizes that the student has made tremendous progress. Wormeli also suggests a continuous progress report or multiple categories within one subject, but I did not feel that these topics were as relevant. As a student, I would have like the dual approach and as a teacher; I think it tells the student and the parents the most accurate progress in terms of the student’s learning.

Leah
Grades should be a way of mapping the progress of a student, but also a means to give feedback. In the beginning of the chapter there is a quote from Grant Wiggins that notes a very widespread problem about reporting grades: teachers want to map progress while parents want to be able to compare their children to their peers. A way to map both mastery and progress is with the dual approach. A student is given a letter grade and a numeral grade on a small scale. The letter represents the mastery of content and the number shows the students growth over the grading period. Another way to provide more feedback is to have multiple categories to grade or write comments on. Multiple categories helps target areas that students need to work on while still acknowledging their achievements in other parts of that subject area. Lastly as a teacher it is important to note on a report card when curriculum has been modified for a student. This is especially helpful for future teachers to asses what level students are at when they are first placed into a new classroom.

This chapter was not any better than chapter 13. I feel that these report cards would simply confuse students and parents when they received them. If I were using a differentiated curriculum with a student, I would sit down before hand and discuss with the student and the parents what the report card grade would be reflecting. I feel this would eliminate the need for special report cards because the student and parents would understand what the grade meant.

Ryan
This chapter discusses the importance of grades and how they can be a way for teachers to learn a little bit about their students. Teachers can learn a lot about their students by seeing their student’s progress by the grades they get. Also grades will allow teachers to give feedback and see how students react to positive and negative feedback. Teachers can also follow the student’s mastery of a topic by watching the grades on certain assignments, but teachers can also see student’s strengths by watching students over the entire course. As a teacher I will watch students grades as a way to see their progress and to see when students need help or are having trouble in a specific area. This is how this will be incorporated into my classroom.

Cara
Although Wormeli has some good insight on report card formats, I feel that this may be asking too much of some teachers. My elementary school had report cards that had a lot of comments and broke down each of my grades for my parents...but, elementary schools are much smaller than high schools or some middle schools. I think it would be great to create a progress report/report card in the ways that Wormeli suggests, but I feel that it may not be practical for a high school teacher. I will look at students' grades because I will learn a lot about the students and how I can help them, but I really am not sure if I will be capable of creating report cards in the ways that Wormeli describes.

Brittany
The most influential piece of paper that a student will possess is the report card. A report card should be a compilation of grades that accurately reflect the progress of learning for each student. The tricky part of making report cards clearly reflect a student’s achievement is in the case of differentiation. Through differentiation, students are graded on an altered scale. So how can the teacher reflect this idea on the report card? This seems to be the running question because there is no clear way to record this without assumptions being made about the student without room for explanation. For example, some schools are putting an asterisk next to the subject of the differentiated grade and noting that this subject has a modified curriculum. The problem with this is that it does not indicate whether the curriculum was altered to be more or less challenging. In cases such as this, it is important that parents are involved so that they know where their child is standing in comparison to the curriculum. Communication is the key to finding a successful way to relay the modification of curriculum.

Scott
Most teachers tend to get bogged down in the differentiated instruction model when it comes to report cards. We all want to follow this but it is difficult to represent what students know in a simple form. Report cards and progress reports need to somehow reflect that the students may have been taught differently. Simply saying that the grade reflects differentiated instruction should not cause negative thoughts about the student's grade. This is something that I am personally scared of even though I probably would not admit it in person. With the competitiveness of students and parents I think that they are still going to want a simplified version of how their student is doing.

D rew
Making notes on a report card for a differentiated curriculum can be difficult, as described in this chapter. I find this chapter to provide a lot of useful insight on reporting grades. I feel like more important that making notes on report cards would be communication between parents, the educator, and the student. However, this society is not Utopian. That being said, the teacher is bogged down with hundreds of grades to report, not all parents truly centralize on their child's success and the child may also reflect this apathy towards their success.

I find a progress report is more useful than a report card. This allows for the student to have more time in order to advance themselves in the classroom. It also provides the educator a chance to track his students and see where their strengths and weaknesses are in time.

Ryan Martin
This chapter discusses report card formats that are responsive. Wormeli suggests using a report card that grades students against their own progression. In this approach, teachers examine and report where students are at the beginning of the period and at the end of the grading period. The difference between the start and finish is the statement of their growth. I like this grading format. It ensures that students are not hurt by one bad grade. An issue that teachers face is reporting adjusted or modified curriculum. A possible solution to this problem is putting an asterisk by the grade, so that the viewer will know to look at comments. Another report card format to consider is the “Dual Approach.” In this approach, teacher record a symbol that marks the student’s personal progress and a number indicating where the students stand against the standard. I like this approach too. It can be used to keep track of where the student is personally, as well as keeping track of where the student is at grade level standards. This seems particularly useful especially in today’s move toward standard – based grading.

Kirsten
This chapter looks at four different formats for report cards: Adjusted Curriculum, The Dual Approach, Multiple Categories, and Continuous Progress Reports. All four give educators an opportunity to explain to students, parents, and future employers/colleges what each grade means. All four made sense to me on some level. The first format, adjusted curriculum, seemed like something that could be enacted at schools who still dish out the usual subject/grade format with little or no other information. I feel like this format is a stepping stone to something more progressive. I thought the dual approach was the next step towards revamping how report cards are done, and thought that might be the ideal in some situations where you have a hard time moving some to a more in depth report card. My favorite format was the multiple categories one, where there is no overall grade. It reminded me a lot of the report cards you get in elementary school, where we had the four-point grading system and you received a grade for each individual category. When I look back at my report cards from elementary school, I can see exactly where I excelled and where I needed some help (strangely, the same places I excel and struggle in now). I think that this offers a really good way of showing students and parents exactly what the student does and does not know and where efforts should be focused to improve.

Tim
In chapter 14, Wormeli writes about responsive report cards and the positive affects they can have on a student. The book talks about how report cards must be responsive to a student’s experience and how report cards “must” reflect the differentiated practices used. The report cards, as Wormeli explains, is a great way for teachers to monitor a student’s strengths and weaknesses over a period of time and gives the teachers a great opportunity to learn more about their students. Wormeli also reiterates how the comments a teacher places on a student’s report card supersedes the grade as the most important aspect of the report card to the parent. Report cards, as stated before, are a great way to monitor a student’s growth as they progress through the school system. This will be a great way for me to pay close attention to when a student needs help and in what subject area.

Jennie
Wormeli talks about different report card formats in this chapter. The idea that I really liked was the multiple categories idea. If there are different sections in the report, the students can see what they have done specifically. It also shows them how it all of their work fits into the different parts of the class. It also shows them what they have learned. I really like this idea. I had a couple of teachers do this based on assignments, tests, and projects but I think when I do this I think I will do it based on the different things that I want them to learn.

Rachel
Again, grading formats are being questioned because of their potential inability to offer an accurate picture of what a student knows. Report cards are even more difficult to accurately assess student knowledge because generally they use one number to represent everything a student has done for the past semester. Also, report cards do not say anything about differentiated classrooms. Students who are considered gifted but in a regular level class aren’t taken into consideration and neither are students who may have a slight learning disability but can still manage in a regular level class. Also, should you record understanding or achievement? Which offers a more accurate picture of the student’s accomplishments? Wormeli suggests always recording the higher grade, and I agree that this is more useful.

Corinne
Armstrong expresses the need for responsive report card formats. As in my high school, a lot of report cards just have the letter grade, and then generic responses from the teacher who used a number key to comment on how I was a pleasure to have in class. My grades on my report card were never justified or explained. Responsive report cards will help parents to understand why their child got the grade that they did. My mentor teacher uses powerschool to put students grades so that they can see them and show their parents. Beside the grade for each assignment, he write comments about if they didn't try, or it was late, or any other reason why they got the grade they did. It lets the parents know how the student is doing academically as well as any problems with understanding or missing work.

Sarah
Chapter 14 of Fair Isn't Always Equal discussed report cards. In this chapter, Wormeli presented an array of different ideas on how a report card can be used to convey information other than how a student is performing academically in a class. For example, upon using special characters or another unique system, report cards can tell a parent how well a student is meeting the standards for that subject or how the student's skills compare to their skills previously (student growth). This is truly a more informative format of report card that enables students and parents to be actively involved and adequately updated on their/their child's progress. While this is a spectacular idea, I do have concerns about how I would integrate such a method into my own classroom. I know most schools have a set format that report cards are sent home in (they merely have A, B, C, D, F lined next to the course title) and I would be hesitant to approach administration with an idea to reform this format, especially in my first few years of teaching.