FIAE+B1+Chapter+8

Abstract
In this Chapter Wormeli continued to look at grading and what should be included in the grading system. Wormeli place the stress on if a student has mastered the content and what tells the teacher if they have mastered it. Overall the book analyzed grading participation as a part of a students knowledge of mastery. The overall look is that grading needs to be based on thoughtful creation based assignments and NOT multiple-choice tests or participation.

Liz's Synthesis
It seems that, after completing the reading, we, as Practicum students, are more baffled by grading then ever. I would like to point out that other [|experienced educators] still have that problem. For some of us this brought to light some of the more complex parts of being a teacher: how do I know and show my students have mastered a subject. Part of Wormeli's look in this chapter focused on grading participation. The class was both intrigued by the idea and trying to gain a better understanding of how to grade it. It seems safe to say that we saw the "need" to grade students but also how it lacks the show of mastery. It also appears that some were interested in how the grading [|should be done]. As teachers we recognize the need to find content mastery from our students and not just let them skip by. When we think about class participation is helpful to have an understanding of students and [|why they stop participating.] Another thought we should keep in mind is how we [|convey grades to parents.]

Amy
CH. 8 There are many questions regarding the hows and whys of grading, but almost nobody can agree upon the right way to grade, and what grading truly is. Grading is designed to show how well students know what they have been taught, however, a letter or number printed in a box under the individual’s name shows nothing. A student might know every aspect of String theory, but they did horribly on the multiple-choice test, which is then placed in the grade book to “show” what the student knows. Unfortunately, a multiple-choice test cannot exactly show that a student has/has not mastered learning. Most teacher agree, that grading should “document student and teacher progress, provide feedback to the student and family, and inform instructional decisions. However, grades are often used to motivate, punish, and/or sort students” (102). Only the first seem reasons are useful in the process of uncovering knowledge and understanding in each student. It is important not to grade students by effort, attendance, and behavior, because they throw a wrench into the mix. How can a “C” grade represent what a student knows, when the teacher takes off points for missing class, being sent to the office for being disruptive, and not “trying” hard enough? It can’t. That student might understand and be able to apply every aspect of the lesson to any situation, but with additional items included in grading, the student could lose points. What if, for example, a student lives in a house where her father is abusive, and controlling, and after an argument, decides to punish his daughter by not allowing her to attend school? Is it fair for the teacher to deduct points because the girl missed her group’s presentation? This is only one of the questions a teacher must ask herself before considering grading attendance, which has nothing to do with what the student knows.

Dan
Chapter 8 dives further into the grading process. Now that we have discussed the symbolism of grading and fair grading, we move on into the why and whats that we are slapping a numerical value to. The book proposed a simple and straightforward question that I couldn't find an acceptable answer to before reading on. "Why do we grade students?" (page 102 FIAE) I thought about this for a good ten minutes and tried to brainstorm some ideas. For me this is one of those things you can think about, but have trouble getting into words. I decided to question my thinking further. What would the world be like without grades? The first thing that jumped into my head was that we would have no way to separate students. Right away I knew my thinking on this whole subject was off. The book says that grading should do three things; show progress for both instructor and students, give feedback to parents and teacher, and help teachers understand how to better present information for the future and the present. The sorting of students, and using grades for motivation or punishment is wrong (102). What about putting grades on 21st century skills such as attending class, participation in class, and classroom behavior? If we use the information from above we can tell that by grading these three parts we can document progress for students, provide feedback to families, and as far as participation goes, teachers can see how they can better make the lesson in the future. So apparently they should be part of the grade? I find these to be bad examples for grading. We need to find students mastery of content, and these other grading benchmarks get in the way of teachers ability to find that.

Cassandra
This chapter was about why we do what we do: grade. The chapter asks if our reasoning had to do with documenting student progress, discovering the teacher progress, providing feedback, and informing the students of our instructional decisions. However, it also says that we probably arent' alsways grading for those noble reasons. Sometimes teachers are grading to motivate, punish, or sort students. This reminds me of an actor trying to make the audience laugh or cry. If that is the goal, then most likely the actor won't be satisfied because all people react differently to the same thing. Some people laugh when they are nervous or sad for the main character. If a teacher tries to motivate a student by giving him/her a bad grade then somtimes that will shut the student down and prevent them from trying. However, sometimes students get comfortable with good grades and start to slack off. Therefore, the goal should be learning, not the student's reaction to their grade.

Andy
This chapter was interesting in its own sense. The main reason I say this is because while I am putting together my lessons and unit I will be using participation as part of my grade I will give out. It was interesting to read the author take on whether or not participation should be graded or not. To me I personally think that in almost all classes it should be. Even though they may not be able to perform whatever it is you are doing as well as everyone else having the students just participate can make the difference in aquiring the knowledge you are trying to pass on and not understanding at all. Lack of participation can also hinder other students learning efforts. So, for me I believe that participation is important in the class room.

Sean
Grading can be a tricky thing when dealing with high school students. At first, it can be a helpful way to judge the progress of a student, and we also have to give some sort of indicator at the end of the year to show how much a student learned. But it can also be something of a hindrance later. Students will learn how to do the bare minimum to get the grade they want, and then they will stop trying to excel. I would know, I admit to doing this in high school on some occasions with classes I cared little for, such as chemistry or advanced math. And I know I was far from the only one in my high school that did this. That's why you need to be very careful when designing rubrics and grading scales. Some students will go for the "100" or the "A+" but only to have the grade, and some will just go for a C so they can say they passed the class. As a teacher, I will need to be very careful when designing methods of grading.

Ethan
In this section Wormeli talks about measuring things like participation, effort, and behavior. I especially found the complexity of measuring participation to be interesting. Personally I never thought measuring participation to be that difficult; ether you participate or you don’t. However, through reading this chapter I discovered that things like the validity of what the student says and the growth a student makes of the course of the year in class discussion can be factors in a student’s participation. I found it interesting that Wormeli says these factors should not be included in the academic grade. I would think he might think it should be because it’s a part of learning that goes unnoticed, but I now understand that it has nothing to do with what they actually learn, it just helps to provide a better classroom setting that is helpful to the learning process. I will use what I have learned about effort, attendance, and behavior when evaluating students in my classroom.

George
In an interesting segway from my closing comment on my last comment, this chapter asked the question “Why do we grade?” Proper grading should help show progress for teachers and students, help with feedback for parents, and to help the instructor see if they are doing a good show presenting info. While a word without grades seems nice, they can still be a strong tool to help in assessing students. The chapter also looked at another aspect that I think is important which is giving a grade for participation. I like participation grades because I hope to run a classroom that doesn't pump out oodles of homework. I'd rather have students contributing in class then spending hours at home reading a chapter.

Jennifer
Grades are not a treat that should be dangled in front of students, taken away if they are "bad" or given to them when they are good, thinking that it will motivate them. When using grades like this, neither the teacher or student win. It will no longer become an accurate indicator of the students mastery and students will not see it as feedback of their understanding. This chapter also talks about grading participation, behavior, and attendance. With participation I think it is a good idea to grade it when it is one of the standards or goals we are trying to teach our students, but for other uses, it should be a small factor. One question teachers could ask when contemplating grading participation is, will it really show their mastery of the subject, are their other ways I can observe their mastery, and will it take away from class if they do not participate?

Darren
I don't see the importance of grading, honestly. I don't think that teachers can give grades that perfectly reflect how well they learned something, how well they paid attention. To me, this chapter simply reiterated what the seventh chapter had begun to address. However, I don't think this is without a purpose. Furthermore, I think that this topic can never have enough chapters written on it. Do A's and B's reflect the extent to which a student was engaged? Can these grades reflect content knowledge and participation with a single letter? Should these be split up? These are questions that I have, and reading these chapters only made me consider the further extents of the answers. In fact, is there an answer? I don't think the strategy that teachers use can make these observations and make them clear. There will always be variables that interfere. For instance, even though I don't agree with the method that teachers use, the only alternative I really consider is the elimination of grades. And in our goal-driven, grade-oriented society, this will never happen. I don't think grades will ever be eliminated, and to an extent, this is a shame.

Zack
As a teacher we need to remember that grades are not about whether someone attends class each day or if he completed the assignment fully correct the first time. We need to realize that as teachers we should grade for understanding no matter how many times it takes for them to understand the subject. This means we need to let students redo a project as many times as they wish to do. The more times gthat we let them redo their work the better the chance of them being able to recall the subject in the end. We need to realize that people do not always learn something the first time that they hear it instead we need to realize that it may take time but we need to give the students who took the time the grade they deserve. Students are all possible of understanding why deny the students that take more time than the others?

Brian
Chapter eight, further embellishing on what chapter seven had discussed about how terrible the grading system is, brought something to my attention. I feel awful about becoming a teacher at this point. These readings we’re doing are not comforting me to the fact that I will be helping kids learn, grow, and succeed in life. All these books are doing is filling my head with how terrible school is in today’s society. It’s scaring me a lot to think that all this stuff that teachers do is just wrong, and coming to that realization now is making me feel like I won’t be able to fix that stuff. Honestly, how are we going to fix the grading system, and even if we did, how would we get it to change. I feel like the regular A,B,C, system is so embedded to school today that there’s no way it will ever change. Obviously I’m going to try my best to make the system better, but these books aren’t making me feel excited about it, they make me feel hopeless.

Liz
What is fair? Why is it fair to grade all students like they have a perfect home life? This chapter requires me to think about how well I will know my students and how well I understand them. One thing that caught my mind on page 106 is what Cassondra George shared about her student. George understood her student and understood that he was a willing learner in school but could not be one at his house. I thought the school in the beginning of the chapter who wanted to make the participation grade be worth 25 present of the grade is absolutely insane!Like Beth Evans says (Ms. Evans is an educator for pre-service teachers at the University of Maine at Farmington) students do crazy things. That includes going away with the fair and returning later in the year. For me one thing I want to bring into the classroom is a better understanding of a learner and not just any learner but MY learners.

Josh
Chapter eight discusses whether teachers should incorporate behavior, attendance, and effort into the students final grade. Overall, Wormeli 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, and often there are factors or reasons behind why they have not been in class, have behavioral problems, or are missing assignments. I like how Wormeli states that often students missing assignments aren't because they just decided not to do it, but teachers treat them as if that is the case. 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 human beings who have a life outside of school with other priorities and problems. Taking time to understand students instead of reducing there final grade for not being in class is important as a teacher.

Damian
An expansion of the previous chapter, this reading further attempted to reiterate the failings of the conventional grading system and the potential flaws of the participation grade. Personally I loathe the participation grade. There have been and will be many more, classes that I just don’t participate in because I don’t want my opinion known. This has NO affect on the degree to which I learn. I can learn just as well by sitting quietly in the back corner of the room and listening (even when it may not look like I’m listening.) Grading our student’s participation is a detriment to the trust that we are attempting to facilitate with them. If they learn the material and know the subject matter, why penalize their overall grade just because they were quiet in the classroom? Seriously, think about what the point of school is and stop trying to force students into the hard shell of conformity.