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Abstract:
More than grading, educators need to monitor the progression of their students’ learning. A grade is a good tool to gauge memorization of facts, but for a teacher to truly understand whether a student is learning or not there needs to exist a method of common ground or communication. Enter the rubric. A rubric is a scoring tool for subjective assessments. It is a set of criteria and standards linked to learning objectives that is used to assess a student's performance on papers, projects, essays, and other assignments. This criteria serves as a common ground of understanding between teacher and student. It is a common consensus that when students are apprised of grading criteria from the start, they can be more involved in the process of working toward success.

[|Damian's Synthesis]
Writing a rubric is a contract between a teacher and the students outlining what will be graded. It gives students clear goals that they aim for and, if done properly, leaves no margin for error in a students thinking. Using subjective terms in a rubric can not only detract from its efficiency, but potentially derail a student’s efforts to operate within the rubric’s parameters. Writing clear expectations is paramount. Rubrics are only one example of grading criteria though, also mentioned were portfolios and self-assessment. A portfolio serves not only as a showcase of a student’s work, but also as a sample to be reviewed by the teacher. Self-assessment allows a teacher the unique opportunity to see how a student feels and thinks about there work. This type of communication may not be possible through verbal methods due to comfort levels or an inability to vocalize a precise feeling or thought.

Cassandra
This chapter is all about Rubrics and Assessments. The rubrics should have clear lines and goals, not riddled with opinionated requirements and "gray" areas. When the kids don't know what it is that they must do in order to have a great grade on an assignment, teachers don't usually know exactly how to grade the assignment. Take the time in the beginning to decide on what you want the students to give you or else they will take more of your time asking questions in the beginning and questioning your grading decisions in the end. This way you will also be less likely to be accused of playing favorites. In English, many times teens will get their essays back and just focus on the grade, not focusing on the mistakes within. To prevent this from happening, I like what my Junior English Teacher did, after we wrote our first essay he kept giving us 4 errors that occurred most frequently and that student was graded on only those mistakes the next essay. This continued until some students were graded on all mistakes or close to it. It was a great grammar teaching tool.

Amy
Assessment of a student’s work is one of the most important roles of a teacher, because it lets teachers know what the students know, and where they struggle, so they can be helped. Assessment should measure learning, and therefore is best if materials are gathered over time to assess. There are three very important types of assessment: Portfolios, Rubrics, and Student Self-Assessment. Portfolios are a very unique type of assessment because they allow teachers to collect samples of a students class work, and therefore make a more accurate decision on the mastery of the content. Rubrics are useful tools for teaching because they provide students with rich feedback that lets them know what they are doing well, and what needs work. However, rubrics are complex, and require a lot of time in order to be made into fair, content-correctly judging tools. A third useful type of assessment is, Student Self-Assessment, which allows the students to critique themselves, and possibly critique their peers. One way to self-assess, is, respond to what has been learned, which can be done by writing a brief paragraph or two explaining what content has been covered and how it applies to the “real world”. After finishing the entire unit, students can go back and read what they had originally written, and compare that to what they now know and understand. Also, while assessing yourself, one learns strengths and weaknesses.

Zack
The part of this chapter that stuck out to me is the part that discussed the students need to be able to self assess. The more a student is able to self assess themselves, the more feedback the teacher, as well as the student will be able to take in. The student will be able to tell what they have done wrong without the teacher actually having to grade the work at hand. The teacher in the end will allow more learning and less correcting to be done. A student whom can self assess will allow the teacher to see more into what the child is trying to say on the inside rather than the stuff just on the surface. A student whom has learned how to correctly correct themsleves, they will be able to delve further into what they wish to learn from a subject, in the end creating a better, more bright student.

Dan
Chapter four talked about creating portfolios rubrics and self assessment. All three of these things can measure knowledge, understanding and mastery. Portfolios are most useful because the teacher can select how long they want the portfolio process to go on, and how much they want the students to put in it. It is straight forward but in the creativity you find out about their individual knowledge of a subject. The other cool thing about portfolios is that they can be a lasting artifact in a students education and beyond. Because of it's professionalism, a student can easily keep it safe and it can be used in many different ways (for our grade level it will help us get jobs). I have seen two types of rubrics in my time through school. The first type just gives the point value and the way you can get all the points. The other way tells you how to get all the points leading up to maximum value. Both can be helpful depending on age. Overall the second rubric will help secondary students more because it doesn't just tell them what they can do, but shows them what they shouldn't do. It was nice to see a rubric broken down into different parts with names. After reading this chapter I think it will help me understand the rubric set-up better. Self assessment doesn't just mean an ungraded test, although it can. Self assessment if you focus on the words more means that the student and teacher gets an understanding of the knowledge the student possesses.

Andy
This chapter discusses, from the name of title, the three important types of assessment at portfolios, rubrics, and student self-assessment. I have never really thought about portfolios as a way of assessment. From my own experiences as a student I have always looked at portfolios as a way to show off, or a way to show that we completed everything the teacher has asked for us. In retrospect I guess the teacher was being sneaky and was assessing us the whole time. Rubrics, to me, are pretty self evident in what they are trying to achieve, but student self assessment can be difficult to pull. I feel that students will not take it as seriously as they should. The book suggested that you give them an assignment that you gave them right away at the beginning of the unit and see how they compare along with have them analyze their response.

Ethan
This chapter gives us three ways to do assessment in a differentiated classroom. The first they talk about is portfolios. Having kids keep artifacts they have done over the year allows for all the students to have a chance to show their best work. For this reason I think it’s the best form or assessment they give in this chapter. Student self-assessment is also effective for not only finding out how well the students have learned, but how well you have delivered the lessons. It gives the students a chance to reflect on what worked well for them and also parts of the lesson they may have struggled with. Rubrics were also mentioned. They provide the students with more of a guideline for completing an assignment. A lot of students just need this direction to perform at their best. It also mentions working together with the kids to create a rubric that they will be graded on. I would like to use this in my classroom because I feel like it would be most beneficial for the students. If they have a hand in setting the standards they will work harder to meet them. In order to be the best I can be, I would use all these types of assessment in my classroom.

Josh
When assessing students learning, there are three very helpful methods that FIAE recommends. First, portfolios. "Portfolios are an excellent way to determine accurate grades for students in differentiated classes"(FIAE page 43). This is helpful for teachers, because they do not need to make any guesses as to how the student is mastering a subject. Many student samples of work give a teacher a broad range of work and gives the teacher a better idea of how learning is progressing. Portfolios are helpful to students because they help to set goals for the next thing a teacher will grade. It can be a good reflection period for both the teacher and the student. Rubrics are another popular tool used by teachers. They help focus learning and give a clear report of student comprehension. Student self assessment "is an important aspect of successful differentiation"(FIAE page 51). It give invaluable results and helps to set goals for both teacher and student. A recommendation is to make the first and last assessment of a unit the same. That will really give the teacher an understanding of how the students have grown.

Brian
Chapter four prominently displays its intentions in the title; “Three Important Types of Assessment.” The book describes the three important types as; portfolios, rubrics, and self assessment. The book makes arguments for and against all three, I felt how ever it particularly develops the need for self-assessment. As educators, we need to be sure to offer all kinds of different assessments to involve all different types of learning styles. It seems to me that the assessment missing from most classes is self-assessment. Because of its nature, self-assessment should never or very rarely be graded. It’s such a useful tool because it can shows us, the teachers, what pieces of the unit we did well, and what needs work. Not only that, but it can show precisely what each individual student learned and took from the unit.

Sean
So there are a few ways to determine how much a student has learned. One is using portfolios, which can help keep students on track of their work, as well as allow both student and teacher to understand how much a student has gained from the class. Another is using rubrics, which can be helpful for students to know exactly what they need to do for work, but it can lead some students to doing the bare minimum, achieving enough requirements in the rubric to receive the grade they desire. Self assessment can be extremely hard to grade, but is also very important to build. If students can have a thorough understanding of how much they are learning, then they can decide if they are working too hard or not enough and adjust.

George
This chapter introduced three assessments that can be used into the class room in lieu of traditional assessment. The first was a student portfolio. Portfolios can be a timeline of work from artifacts from across the year. These can be non-paper items as well, there can be audio recordings and videos. My senior exhibition class has a portfolio and it was one of my better classes. Another form of assessment is to use rubrics. The requirements are laid out and this makes it easier for students to know what they need to do. The third and last was student self assessment. You can give students a set of questions to do or a rubric to fill out. Students are probably going to know the best about what they have and haven't done.

Darren
The main focus of chapter four in //Fair Isn't Always Equal// was rubrics and their creation. The author gave specific, insightful steps to create rubrics with tips that I had never thought of. For example, I had never considered how a five step rubric parallels the A, B, C, D, and F grades kids are used to seeing. It now makes more sense that I have mostly seen rubrics with assessment on a 1-4 scale. I also preferred the terms "//proficient, capable, adequate,// and //limited//" to label each of these four steps (this was another example the author gave). Lastly, I liked the suggestion for a teacher to define what a number four--a //proficient//--might be, and evaluate student work by the highest standard. He then suggested to mark on this highest measurement where the work wasn't up to par. This was a very interesting concept, and I think it would produce students to more carefully analyze the work they did.

Liz
Chapter four of Fair Isn't Always Equal regards different methods teachers can assess learning. One way to assess learning over a period of time is to have students gather together a portfolio of their work and progress. Portfolios work really well for differentiated instruction. Another section the book addresses is self-assessment. This is assessment done by the student on their work. The teacher has them reflect upon things that they did during a project and where they are now compared to where they were before. The other section the book addressed as far as assessing is rubrics. Rubrics assess the information or tasks that were completed. Rubrics have sections that relate to a certain aspect of the project and how the student did on it. Rubrics tend to provide large amounts of feedback. Why this is important in my classroom because these are all viable things I could use. Rubrics, portfolios, and self-assessment are ways to monitor learning that have been found more valuable than the typical grade system with little feedback. Also as a teacher this will be important to my classroom because this is how they will most likely be graded on materials the students create.

Jennifer
I think that having students create a portfolio where they get to choose their best work and explain how it shows their understanding of the topic and why they chose it would be a great way to assess them. It will also help them see their own progress. Self-reflection could also be incorporated into a portfolio by having them look back over all their work at the end of the year, semester, or unit and reflect over what they did. A self-reflection could also be done separately. Rubrics seem to be the hardest type of assessment because you could get bogged down in the details. There is a lot to making a good rubric that is practical and will accurately assess students.

Damian
Writing a rubric is one of those things which can be wonderfully helpful or dreadfully destructive. A well written rubric--or analytical grading sheet as other term like criterions--can not only help facilitate a teacher’s grading process, but more importantly help a student focus their learning and know clearly, the expectations of the task. If a rubric is poorly constructed the student will have very little idea of the expectations, and the teacher will be hard pressed to grade accurately and fairly. Creating grading criteria in a quantifiable object is a feat that many might take years to perfect. Practice helps but practicality may be better. After devising a rubric, grade the process that was used in the creation of the project. Did you need to do everything on the rubric to get it done? Were steps omitted or superfluous? If a student knows exactly what an educator is expecting they will be better equipped to complete the project with a satisfactory grade.