FIAE+B2+Chapter+8

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Abstract
The purpose of this chapter is to expand upon the ideas that Wormeli has regarding grading. The focus is on whether or not things like attendance, and participation should be reflected in a student's final grade. The only purpose that grading of attendance and participation seems to have is in threatening students to behave or their grade will suffer. The chapter asserts that participation and attendance are important but it is difficult to do objectively because of a lack of tangible evidence. In an ideal situation grades would be taken out of the situation since they seems to cause more problems than they are worth.

Synthesis Scott
As teachers it is likely that we will struggle with decision on how to grade attendance and participation and if we do what weight it should have. Some teachers have rigid attendance policies, and have varying amounts of emphasis. Grading participation is even more hazy and grading attendance tends to benefit a certain population of students. If you decide that class participation will be incorporated in a students' final grades then you should have some preconceived notion of what kind of participation you expect in students.

Kirsten
This chapter discusses how, when, and if things like participation and behavior can be graded. It seems the general thought is that they really can't be done objectively unless the behavior or participation is a skill being learned (like in a gym or drama class). Some say that these shouldn't be included in the final grade for the class at all, or only a small percentage. Others suggest that there should be two grades, one for skills (effort, turning things in on time, participation, etc.) and another for academic things. I feel a little funny in all those. I think in order to really get on the road to mastery, you have to participate and put effort forth. Those who "get" the material, but don't participate are generally just b.s.ing their way through a class. That's not to say there aren't some students who can't master material and put minimal effort forth in a class, but I think that's rare. I think the two grades system is a good compromise for those who feel that students need to know that effort and participation are still important.

Jordan
In this chapter, the discussion of grading practices resurfaces. Wormeli exposes to the reader that grading ethics become complex quickly through reading a student sample and having us grade it. Variables tend to affect how a teacher grades an assignment and much of the time there is question to whether or not the grade is a good representation of what the student learned. If teachers choose neglect a certain student’s situation (such as a language barrier), they are putting the curriculum above the students. Inversely, if teachers alter expectations to benefit the student, the student is then above the curriculum. We need to remember that grading is a multidimensional process and that the same routine is not going to work for every student. Some students take longer to do perform the same tasks; some students need to work with information for a longer period of time before gaining a true understanding, while others need consistent feedback to understand their areas of improvement. If we grade our students equally, the grade is unauthentic and inaccurate. So frequently have teachers become complacent with grades that students see them as a burden, not as a measure of their success and achievements. Grades need to measure what a student has learned, not how they performed in their learning process and how long it took them to achieve an understanding. As a teacher, I am going to try and work hard to work towards good ethics in grading in the classroom that evaluate the learning of the students, not outside factors.

Ryan Snowman
This chapter discusses the issue of including attendance, effort, and behavior into grading. Wormeli disagrees with putting any of these in a student’s final grade, and I would have to agree with him. He writes that “It seems counterproductive to muddy the waters further by doubling their [grades] influence …and overtly entangling a teacher’s subjective insertions regarding nonacademic factors into a grade” (p.112). This means that it does not make any sense to include nonacademic factors like behavior and participation into the final grade because it will distort the academic finality of the grade. Grades are meant to measure what the student has learned. Participation, effort, behavior are all important aspects of a classroom, however, they should not be included in the final grade. In my classroom, feedback shall be given on these areas, not a grade.

Mykayla
I have always thought that attendance and classroom participation were a part of every class and every student’s grade. After reading this chapter I am torn. I believe that students should have to come to class and participate in the activities that are being done in that class period. However, I see that they are not the best aspects to grade students on, but how do you get kids to take them seriously if there is no grade for them? I understand that participation and attendance do not show a student’s mastery of a topic or information, but by what I have been reading, not many things show this mastery. I think I still want to include attendance and participation as some sort of point value in my future classroom, but I just won’t count it as a huge part.

Leah
I found it very interesting that most teachers said that they only graded students because they were required to. As with students, it is unlikely that a product, this time grading, will be as successful as it could be if the person executing it does not see value in it. For touchy subjects like participation a set standard must be discussed regarding how that topic can be graded in a whole school system. As with effort, it is almost impossible to grade due to the lack of tangible evidence to support the grade. Think, if it is wise, I would incorporate effort into my participation grade that counts for ten percent of their final grade.

Ryan
This chapter deals with the concept of grading still, but deals more specifically with grading participation, effort, and behavior. I have always felt that participation, and effort should be included in the grading process, but as far as behavior goes I feel that it shouldn’t be included in grading because behavior doesn’t affect students knowledge of a subject. However, if participation is going to be graded then the teacher will have to state that at the beginning of the course and how one will be graded. I feel grading participation, effort, and behavior is something a teacher has the choice of. As a teacher I will have to think about how I will grade these three controversial topics.

Corinne
Chapter eight discusses wether 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. Wormeli's 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.

Jennie
This chapter talks about what to include in a teacher's grading. Should attendance, behavior, and participation be incorporated into the student's grade? One of the things that surprised me in the chapter was the section on laziness. I couldn't believe that some people think that laziness is a myth. I don't agree with this. It could be in some cases but not in all people. Laziness caries on to later in life. If a person is lazy in class then they will be lazy in the work place. Attendance, behavior and participation should be incorporated but in small increments. You can't punish people who aren't there, who don't speak up because they are shy, or the like. Its not fair. I think that effort should be put into the grade a little too. Wormeli brings up a good point in this area. How do you measure effort? To answer this, I think that teachers should get to know their students to understand what good effort and bad effort is to each student and grade it that way.

Rachel
Grades are supposed to determine what a student has learned, not whether or not they attend class. I can see how tempting it would be to take away from a student’s grade for showing up late or not attending because they are missing out on valuable class time. But perhaps the reason that the student skipped class is actually a valid one. Also, grading over attendance does not demonstrate the student’s knowledge. In my opinion, grading is only productive when it is used to give valuable feedback to students. Another valuable part of teaching is encouraging students to speak out in class. If you keep them interested and engaged, then they will be less likely to skip in the first place.

Sarah
This chapter made me rethink how I want to grade students on trivial matters. I believe that in the ideal classroom, I would not grade anything that did not directly relate to student mastery of a concept and have attendance be determined necessary by the students themselves. Unfortunately, that is not how high school works. If I tell my students that it is fine with me if they chose not to show up for class, they end up wandering the halls (something that administration automatically associates with trouble) and they will be forced back into the classroom which is a place they obviously do not want to be if they were skipping in the first place. I am only now beginning to realize how many conflicted my classroom ideals are, but I am glad that they are being called to my attention now while I still have the opportunity to revise them before putting the plan into motion.

Tim
This chapter had to do with the attempt of incorporating behavior, attendance and effort into a student’s final grade. Wormeli speaks out against throwing these components into a student’s final grade. Although it is important to be present in class and behave well, how would these aspects help to prove a student’s mastery of a subject? What’s the justification in failing a student for missing three classes if he still is able to master the course? Wormeli, in the case of effort, also shows how difficult it is to grade effort when there is no clear cut way to measure it. This chapter made me realize how ridiculous it was for some of my teachers in high school to let participation, effort and behavior have such a severe impact on a student’s grade. I hope that when I am a teacher a better system of assessing these four components has been discovered so I don’t have to deal with unfairly incorporating them into a student’s final grade.

Cara
Even though Wormeli thinks that things like participation and behavior should not be included in a student's grade, I feel that effort should be graded. A student may be struggling with the material, but that student is trying so hard to master the stuff. They do all of their assignments, participates in class, asks questions, and they still are not doing well with the material. I feel that their effort should be recognized. I do agree that attendance should not be included in a grade. My first year of college, I suffered from migraines frequently. Almost all of my professors graded on attendance. So, even though I did all of my homework and did well on tests, my grade was lowered because of my health.

Brittany 
Where should teachers draw the line on what to grade? Many teachers factor class participation into a student’s grade. A grade should be a reflection of the learning that a student gains from the lesson, but if participation is factored into the final grade this does not clearly reflect the learning anymore. I feel that participation can be used in a way that it can be graded to reflect the student’s learning. For example, if the students are taking part in a class discussion, a form of assessment for the students is what their contribution is to the discussion. This portrays learning because students will need to be knowledgeable on the subject to contribute. There are also teachers that grade students’ behavior. This should not be factored into a final grade because there is no knowledge content that is exhibited.

Scott
Most teachers do not like grading, they see it as unnecessary and time consuming. Grading has to be diplomatic and tedious. The six main purposes of grades are to document student and teacher progress, to provide feedback to the student and family, and the teacher, to inform instructional decisions, to motivate students, to punish students, and to sort students. The last three reasons are not useful, usually when a student receives a bad grade they are not motivated, they end up shutting down. One of the most difficult issues to grapple with when grading is how to make sure that the grades do not cause students to turn away from the subject being taught, yet not all students can receive high grades because that is an inauthentic measure of learning.

Drew
In this chapter, one of the main concerns that struck me was the idea of grading based on participation, effort, and behavior. I can appreciate participation and effort reflecting on a grade (one, because participation shows student engagement and two, because effort shows work towards mastery) but, for behavior to reflect on a students grade blows my mind. If that were the case, a lot of my peers would have been held back and probably would have dropped out of school as soon as they were legal to have it signed off. I know if the later grades in high school, I personally would have run into a little bit of trouble. And, it's not as if I had unintelligible things to call out (which is why I never was formally punished) but the fact that I would call out answers. Which leads me to wonder, can the level of student engagement effect student behavior?