UbDDI+B1+Chapter+8

**Amy’****s Abstract**
This chapter stresses the importance of grading and reporting students’ achievement. So far, we have discussed teaching in a differentiated classroom, but this chapter focuses on how to grade in a differentiated classroom. According to the experts, grading consists of two parts: assigning symbolic letters and numbers, and providing feedback to parents and students. There are six principles for grading and evaluating, and before the grading can begin, and evaluation of student knowledge should be pre-tested. Three of the most important facets are as follows. The results of the pre-test can allow teachers to track growth over time. The second facet states that an assessment should reflect previously stated objectives, and not anything else. For example, if a student is asked to write a page long summary of why does “y=mx+b”, the student shouldn’t be graded on whether or not she correctly spells a word. An assessment should reflect what the student/s know. The third is to avoid grading on a curve, it doesn’t show what an individual has learned, but rather, what she has learned compared to her peers.

Amy’s Synthesis
Most of my classmates agree that [|differentiated] learning should prompt differentiated [|grading]. What is the point of giving students variety when learning, but then assess and grade them according to standardized formats. The six principles of grading and reporting achievement are very important guidelines to follow in the classroom. In the first principle alone, we agree that evaluating what students’ knowledge prior to teaching helps the teacher determine what level to begin instruction at. This works well, because it enables teachers to spend more time on the things that students struggle with, and less time on the things students do with ease. Pre-assessing also helps track progress over the course of the unit. We also have opposing views on the principle of grading that states “late work should not be taken into account in the gradebook or report card, other than in the form of a comment/s. Some of us agree that late work should not be included in grading because it gives an inaccurate reading of what a student knows, regarding the content. However, we also agree that late work/missing work should be noted. Others of us, agree that late/missing work should be incorporated into a participation grade that is figured into the numerical grade each student receives. We are in agreement about most of the principles, however, there are a few principles with which we [|disagree]. toc = =

**Amy** Ch. 8 Teaching in a differentiated classroom has proven to be a very effective way of getting through to students as individuals. However, many teachers question, “how do I grade in a differentiated classroom”? In order to grade in a differentiated classroom, a teacher must test the students’ knowledge and understanding of the subject/s, but how is it possible to test everyone in a way that they perform to the best of their ability? According to the experts, grading consists of two parts: assigning symbolic letters and numbers, and providing feedback to parents and students. When teachers provide high-quality feedback, learners become more encouraged, and know what needs improvement and what is being done well. There are six principles for grading and evaluating, and each one clearly states how to successfully accomplish those tasks. The first step starts before the actual grading can occur, and that is, determine the goals and grade based on whether or not the goals were achieved. Secondly, there should be no irrelevant factors in the test or assessment that could hinder the results. A test that is designed to measure a students ability to identify the major battles of the Civil War should not take a students limited vocabulary skills into account when grading the test. Another important concept involved with grading is, to avoid grading a student based on the grades of his or her peers-no grading on a curve- because that says nothing about what the student did/din not learn. Teachers must also realize the importance of deciphering what works make up a report card. For example, an assessment given to a student at the beginning of a unit to measure what a student knows in a specific subject should not be included in grading because it was intended to measure where the student is at (UBD/DI 131). Instead, grades should be based on an accumulation of a variety of tests that give each student to excel based on their personal learning style.

Brian
Chapter eight is predominantly focused on grading in a differentiated classroom. In which, we need to try to give as much feedback as possible. This can be much more effective than your everyday letter or number grade, however letter and number grades are still important. UbDDI is very anti-curve grading. Its stance is that grading on a curve creates a competitive environment where fellow students try to inversely affect each other in efforts to get a better grade themselves. This is exactly the inverse of what we want our students to cooperate with each other. We hope that students can learn and be taught by not only us, the educators, but their peers and fellow students as well. On a curve grading style this is compromised. A good structure is imperative to grading a differentiated classroom. By using techniques such as; laying out predetermined goals, eliminating irrelevant factors, avoiding the curve, and accumulating many different sorts of assessments we can not only successfully teach the content, but we can cover and grade on every learning style that is brought to our classroom.

Darren
In Dr. Theresa's class, we discussed whether or not late work should affect the grade of the overall project. For most of us, the consensus was that a teacher should first talk to the student(s) and find out why the work was not completed on time. If the student gives a reasonable answer, it is important to work something out grade-wise with that kid. Dr. Theresa mentioned how in this situation, teachers should avoid becoming defensive--even though it can be easy to do. This chapter supports the notion that lateness or other factors external to the content (behavior, attitude, etc.) should not be a part of the grade a student receives for the content-geared work. A section of this chapter describes these traits as being important, and all of them are crucial in the real-world, but they should be considered and reported separate from the project. I think that the easiest way to make this happen is to have a "participation" grade that reflects late work, behavior, attitude, and, coincidentally, participation in the student's class work. However, I would never combine any of these elements with a content-based grade. Quite frankly, that would be wrong.

George
This chapter discussed grading in a Differentiated Classroom. The main question being how to you put the fruits of a differentiated learning experience into a number or letter grade? The question is that you don't. The grade should be a part of assessing how a student is doing but you should also be sending feedback back with that grade. If someone gets a 90 on an English paper, that's nice and all, but how does that student improve that paper and turn it from a 90 into a 100? It is also critical of grading on a curve. I was against curves before reading this book, for many of the same reasons. It's not fair to grade a student's work against someone else's, especially when you bring in all the separate factors that one runs into in a Differentiated Classroom. It falls back on the main theme of this book, that everyone is different and to judge everyone the same is unfair to those who don't fit the mold.

Cassandra
I thought this was really helpful because I was really curious on how modern day grading was supposed to work with the differentiated classroom. I always think of the next class and college. There was that school who decided to stop giving grades- be totally radical. They didn't continue for long since colleges didn't know if those students were right for them. It ruined a lot of kids futures. However, if I take a few tips from this chapter I think grading would work out okay. One is no emotional grading; teachers must use pre-specified learning goals for the students to complete. Each teacher should be able to explain every point to a parent who is worried about their child's grade. Second is to not raise the bar just because one student is surpassing the bar. This reminds me of high school. I was in an A level class and this other boy was in my class when he should have been in atleast an AP level. He became the only A student because the teacher figured that if the one advanced boy could do that amount of work then we all should be able to. It made me so angry.

Andy
Two things seem to stand out for me in this chapter. The first being in principle 2 which is evidence used for grading should be valid. In this section they mention that, “Grades should not be influenced by whether students forget to put their names on their papers or whether they have lovely penmanship.” I can remember more then a few times where that was a point for a point off if you put your name on your paper. Now looking back I can see how ridiculous that is. The next point was in the principle that followed, which is grading should be based on established criteria, not on arbitrary norms. The point they bring up about a letter grade of “A” is the best and an “F” is the worst. I agree with them on how this can create unhealthy competition amongst the students. I can remember trying to beat out the smart kid in class, and would get upset if I didn’t get a better grade!

Zack
Grading should not be a right or a wrong thing, in the end it should be much more of whether a student understands the material or not. For a student to get a zero on a test and than the next week come back and get a hundred, the zero should not be counted nearly as much as the hundred since the student shows they know the stuff. As a teacher we should not get caught up on averaging rather than making a very good guess at how well a student knows there stuff. A student with an average of a C but demonstrates full understanding of the subject should get an A rather than the C. For a student to drop a rade level or two for not completing their homework yet gets an A on all the tests is not fair. A student should be judged on how well their work is in the end, work not done can not tell how well or poorly a student has done.

Sean
A student who does their hw all the time doesn't necessarily mean they understand the material. There was someone in my old high school who managed to get all his homework done for French, but didn't know a thing when it came to quizzes or tests or just in-class translations. Then there was me, who didn't always do the homework, yet I managed to work out in-class translations better than those who were doing all the out of class work. The fact if homework doesn't mean the understand the material. Just means they aren't overly organized.

Dan
This chapter gave information on grading and work in a differentiated classroom. The part I would like to focus on is the parts that we grade students work other than the content. It becomes a debate for teachers when we try and add other factors besides content mastery to a grade. Completing work on time is the most common piece we like to add in. Do 21st century skills show content mastery. No! However, as a health teacher I understand what underlying aspects of life must be taught in school in order for a student to succeed outside of school. I have tossed and turned and I still don't know what to do. If my student passed in all the work that was due, and it was all his own work, how could you give them a bad grade if everything was perfect? In a perfect world that doesn't happen, but would they fail the class? Its quite the interesting topic.

Liz
This is a very important chapter for a classroom teacher because students and parents are very GRADE based. The topic of this chapter is "Grading and Reporting Achievement". The book is about UbD and DI which focuses on how to get the students to the knowledge and to confirm that they are not just learning for the second but learning for the future. The class setup stressed is much more of a goal orientated and not test orientated. The goal is often a product that should be graded with a rubric. The chapter offers six principles to effective grading and reporting. These principles focused on what is being graded, how it is being graded, and how it is being reported to a student or parent. Another main point that the chapter stresses is that the criteria be obvious and well understood. I feel that this is valuable to my classroom and my future job as it is part of why I might get hired: a UMF graduate is expected to use UbD and DI. It is what the school prepares us for. The concept of grading for validity is often hard for people to grasp. I recall having problems with it in EDU101 with one of my groups: regarding grading objectively. That is something the chapter also addresses. One final issue the chapter addressed was that not everything should be included in the grading process. This is would include pre-assessments. UbD is about growing the learning and that is what its grading system is also about: grading the bigger picture.

Ethan
In this chapter the methods of grading come into question. An interesting point gets brought up that students grades should not but just one number. Tomlinson and McTighe discuss the idea of three grades; a grade for achievement of goals, progress towards goals, and work habits. This idea states that if we give a student a grade for each of these sections the three combined give us a better view of how successful the student was in the class. Achievement of goals gives a better idea of the opportunity the student has to succeed in the future based on what they did in the class. Progress towards goals reflects more on personal growth as an individual through the class. A poor student could make leaps and bounds towards a goal and not quite reach it, and though giving them a grade for that the student will see that they have actually achieved something even when traditional grades might say they haven’t. Overall I like this methodology and feel it would be very useful in my classroom. When grading students on how well they do in my math class I will use these ideas and concepts.

Jennifer
How should teachers be grading students? How can we grade them in a way that will encourage them instead of bringing them down. These were just a few of the questions answered in this chapter. Grades should not be just a letter or symbol hooked to a word such as proficient or average. Instead they should be defined in relation to the goals we want students to meet. We should not be bringing in other factors such as English Proficiency or spelling (unless that is what we are measuring) to the grading, but grade them on what we want to measure. While we are measuring their understanding the meeting of the goals, we should also be focusing on the achievements instead of what they are doing wrong.

Josh
This chapter discusses the problem of grading for the rule book, and the idea of assigning a meaningless letter or number to a student at the end of the year to put on a report card and show to their parents. Often times too much emphasis is placed on making a letter or number grade, and not enough on creating learning and understanding. A student can memorize information just to get a good grade, without really absorbing the material. This method of grading does not really motivate student to understand or achieve mastery in the content. The chapter asks teachers to give grades based on clear goals and performance standards. This way the student needs to understand the content and goals, and the grade becomes almost explained instead of just being assigned. This way, a teacher can use grades to motivate students to understand the content, instead of discouraging them so that all that is focused on is a meaningless letter or number.

Damian
A teacher should never emphasize the importance of an arbitrary grade in the form of a symbol, letter or number. And yet, this grading system has permeated society from its earliest inception in pre-kindergarten classes when you receive a gold star for being a great student and a red one for being less-than-amazing. Since when was the purpose of school to become the crème-of-the-crop student gauging self importance in terms of meaningless symbology? Teachers should be emphasizing the importance of learning. Schools are centers for learning because society believes that knowledge is power and the powerful will thrive. Many educators contest that grading on the ‘curve’ is unfair because it pits students against one another and in that atmosphere true learning is left by the wayside in lieu of less favorable actions. But no matter how you think you’re grading as a teacher you are always going to have to compare the student’s results against something. You just shouldn’t establish that one students work is the best and pit that work against all the others.