FIAE+B2+Chapter+7



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Synthesis/Abstract - Chris

 * __//Abstract//__**

Chapter 7 of Fair Isn’t Always Equal is all about grades and the importance of grading while in the classroom. The chapter gave a bunch of examples of what the grades A through F stood for in terms of the quality of student work or their mastery. It also explained different rationales from various teachers about their grading systems. More important than what grades stood for, was the mentioning of the reasoning behind the grade that they got. While it's one thing to give a poor grade to a student in the first place, but doing so without an explanation or any [|feedback] is not what teachers should be doing. We should instead be providing feedback with their grade so that they know what they need to fix in order to improve.

**__//Synthesis//__**

A common theme among everyone here is that we all seem to agree that giving a grade to a student with little to no feedback or reasoning behind it isn't very fair to the student at all. As teachers we're going to need to make sure that we provide timely and helpful feedback to our students if we want them to succeed in our classroom, otherwise we're falling into the norm of what many teachers seem to be doing. We all also seem to have the same knowledge that every grading system is different and we'll have to adjust our own philosophy's on grades and how we grade accordingly. While we have free range over how we grade in our classroom, what we can't change is what numerical value corresponds to a certain letter grade, and that is where we will have to find a system that is "school legal" and is [|fair]to all students.

Tiarra
In this chapter of //Fair Isn’t Always Equal//, we are shown the flaws and foibles of traditional grading systems. Because educators are forced to pack so much meaning into one little symbol that evaluates a students’ understanding of a variety of topics, grades are almost never accurate indicators of mastery. In order for a student to grow and learn teachers need to provide excellent feedback and not just a simple number or letter. This chapter emphasizes the importance of not simply grading your students but providing a rationale about why the student got the grade that they did and what that indicates. It has been my own experience with school that graded work is final work, however that provides very little opportunity for students to show how they can improve given the proper feedback. Wormeli also takes into account the fact that teachers frequently grade different students differently, which may sound unfair but fair isn’t always equal after all. For example teachers may take into account factors such as student backgrounds, readiness levels, first language etc. when grading a student’s work. While I can hope we have done away with traditional grading by the time I reach the schools it is unlikely that that will happen and so my goal must be to establish clear definitions for the grades I give in order to motivate students to keep learning.

Justin C.
Chapter 7 is all about how we go about grading our students. After reading part of the chapter, I realize that grading is a tough task to endure. There are many different ways that grading can be interpreted that there is no clear cut way to tell what a letter grade means. For me, I can see that figuring out how to assess my students is going to take time. If I go around asking colleagues about how they grade, it’s shown that I would get many different responses. One statement that really stood out to me was “We claim to be about standards and what individual students learn, but fall right back into comparing students with one another when it comes to grading” (99). When we compare a student’s grades with that of their peers, it does not show us how they have learned; it just shows us how they did compared to everyone else. It does not show what that student did individually to get that grade. When it comes time for me to have to grade my students, I think that I will need to take time to think about how I would be able to grade my students based on their personal performances, and not grade them based on how well they did compared to a fellow student.

Jen R.
Chapter seven introduces the difficulties faced when considering the task of grading students. Grading can be a daunting task for teachers due to the variation of students and their needs. Chapter seven states that in a differentiated classroom, it is very likely that the grading system will not be consistent throughout the entire class. Throughout reading this chapter, I learned how important it is to give each of my student’s ample amounts of opportunity to succeed through my grading. Also in this chapter, Wormeli suggests that students should not be graded the same due to the variation of learning abilities and student problems. Throughout reading this chapter, I learned that students should be assessed both by formative and summative assessment. In my classroom, this impacted me to develop beneficial assessment methods utilizing both forms stated above to ensure the best education for my students.

Grace K.
Chapter 7 discusses the nature of grading and the many problems that a traditional grading system presents for both teachers and students. The first is that grades are such a finite rating of a student’s success in a subject – a 3.87 with no other input offers very little insight into what parts of a subject a student has mastered and what parts still need work. Most of us have likely had classes where one terrible grade brought down our whole average for a class and did offer a true indication of our mastery in the subject. The chapter acknowledges what most teachers would be hesitant to: that we do not grade every student the same. Backgrounds, skill levels, first language status, etc. all come into play when we are critiquing students work. It was refreshing to hear Wormeli talk about this honestly, and about his own experiences with it. He does not advocate that this is the right way, but that this is a fact of life that we must all be aware of and vigilant in our own careers about recognizing that practice in ourselves.

Will L.
Chapter seven covered the idea of how grading is done in traditional schools. The definition the grading system seems rather vague, especially when teachers or professors give students each a grade, but with no comments or feedback for that assignment. Since students really need that feedback in order to show mastery in a subject, the various formative assessments teachers can use should be implemented for the sake of the students. A vague grading system will only hurt students, and I hope to model an adequate grading system so students know when they have mastered the content and know what is expected of them.

Danny K.
Chapter seven talked about the nature of grades and the difficulties that students and teachers may face with the traditional grading system that is used by most schools. It is more important for teachers to give their students timely feedback about their work rather than just giving them a number or letter grade. When you just give students grades with no feedback they do not what they did well and what they did not as well. Also, when grades are given students are now more worried about grades and less worried about learning the material. When I was a student in high school I would just study for tests to learn the material for the test so that I would get a good grade, then afterwards I would forget much of the material that I learned. I was more worried about grades when I was in high school than learning and I feel that I missed out on a lot of important concepts that I should know.

Kaitlin T.
Chapter seven of //Fair Isn't Always Equal// discussed the importance of consistent grading. Traditional grading systems may not be the best option when it comes to assessing students' knowledge. Students should receive feedback and receive it often! Grading is incredibly subjective; every teacher has his or her own preference for grading student work. What I came to understand by reading this chapter is that the grade doesn't actually account for much at all; it's the feedback the student is given that will help him or her progress. Letter or number grades are not the representation of a student's knowledge or capability of learning. As an educator, I need to offer my students plenty of timely feedback. Students need to have the opportunity to revise and make corrections. If students truly take advantage of this opportunity, they will gain more from understanding than just receiving a grade and calling it "good."

Dan B.
Chapter 7 talked about grades. What does a grade mean really? Well, Wormelli makes the case that a grade doesn't really mean anything, it is just a letter. I would have to say that I agree with him. A grade does not really indicate mastery in a subject; I mean you could stay up all night studying and ace a test but you 2 weeks after the test you don't remember anything that you had studied. I think that people put too much emphasis on grades. The student could really understand the material but perform poorly on a test. Grades are important in some sense, but they do not show if you have really mastered a subject. In my opinion mastery of a subject means that you not only know the material on the day of the test, but you also know it after the fact; I think that mastery comes from not only knowing the information, but retaining it. A grade does not show what you know, you could have memorized it and got a good grade, or you may have been really stressed and just had a bad day and you fail a test; I have said it before, and I will say it one last time, mastery can not be determined simply from a letter grade, and a check/check plus.

Jonathan B.
Chapter seven discusses the relativity of grades and how they relate to assessment. The chapter provides multiple scenarios where the the relativity of grades is manifested. There are many particulars that go into putting a grade into an assignment which are not always considered, and this results in grades being mostly subjective—not indicative of mastery or understanding. Grades must be consistent. The chapter provides some examples of non-traditional grading, like the “A, B, You're not done” system. These systems focus on student development and progress, often based off of standards of understanding and academic skills. This chapter is useful for a new teacher, because it opens up discussion on the problem of grades. It is not always easy to put a number on a student's progress, but it can be made easier if there are clearly defined objectives and no variables on the teacher's part.

Grady B.
In reading this chapter, I gained some insight into how ineffective grades can be as an indicator of mastery. I was pretty shocked to find out from this chapter how insanely wide the swing is between teachers grading the same piece of work, even when trying to grade the work objectively, but it goes to the point that assessment must be about more than a letter. I also saw from this chapter a fairly sound indictment against the current methods of teaching toward grades, as is done in virtually every public school. I immediately agreed with the statement on page 94, that if motivated by grades, students will be very hesitant to take academic risks. I know that personally, especially when being exposed to content that I could not find relevance in, I would follow the path of least resistance in order to get as high a grade as possible. I see though, as the author pointed out, that grades can indeed have a legitimate purpose in the class, and that the problems with grading that are discussed do not provide grounds for abolishing all assessment. However, the author makes a point of reminding the reader that there are often far better ways to assess mastery than through a simple letter grade.

Chris D.
Chapter 7 of Fair Isn’t Always Equal is all about grades and grading while in the classroom. The chapter gave a bunch of examples of what the grades A through F stood for. Bowdring explained how she grades an A in her classroom, and I can’t say I agree with it. She says that an A is not earned by mastering the standards, but going beyond that. While that is a good idea and all, it doesn’t make sense for when it actually comes down to giving students a letter grade at the end of the year based on what they’ve shown. Based on her grading system then, a student who has just mastered all of the standards can only get, what I assume would be, a B at best. I understand that every teacher has a different way of grading in their classroom, but I think that every teacher in the school should at least agree on what justifies an A, B, C etc. This way, no student can say that one teacher’s grades compared to another are unfair. Also, when grading papers, it’s important to provide feedback on the assignment. For example, when grading a worksheet in math and a student does a problem wrong or has the wrong answer, I plan on finding their mistake and highlighting it so that they know why they got the answer wrong. I also never plan on lowering expectations for students with low SES. While it may seem like it never happens, it’s scary to say that it really does in high schools all across the country. Every student has the ability to turn in outstanding work, and I will live up to that expectation with every one of my students. The grade of an F is something that I have mixed feelings on. While it may be true that most of the time students don’t do the work and they don’t care, sometimes you’ll have the student that you notice is trying hard, yet something isn’t clicking right away. It’s this reason that I don’t like the grade of an F. Instead, I’d like to implement using I for incomplete. This way, it will give my students who are putting the effort in and making the attempt to actually get a good grade that doesn’t hurt them. The only downside to this is that it will open the door for other students to not take the work serious and just get the assignment completed the second time around rather than get it done when it’s due.