FIAE+B1+Chapter+7

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Seth
Grading has always been one thing that’s been a bit hazy to me in my pursuit as a teacher but as I got deeper into college and even did some grading while at Mt. Blue I guess it’s starting to make a little more sense. I’m a social studies focus for a reason: math is //not// my strong point. I’m so glad that grade books can set up in Excel or similar spreadsheet tools and calculate the math for me, but that’s beside the point. A lot of things deserve the ‘A, B, C, D, F’ grading scale. For example: tests, essays and over-all average at the end of the semester. As a teacher I definitely would not grade homework on the same scale, but that’s not to say I wouldn’t grade it. Homework deserves the check-plus, check, check-minus and zero scale. If it’s late I’ll allow them to turn it in rather than take the zero but they’ll only be able to get a check minus. As for the ‘Outstanding, Good etc…’ that stuff belongs on rubrics. In my opinion, coming up with fun and interesting “grading levels” on the rubrics is a waste. It may look fun but it really doesn’t tell the student much if they got Lucky Charms instead of Corn Flakes for a grade.

**Mike**
This chapter talks about how teachers should grade their students. Some of the difficulties of grading students is how to grade students of all different learning styles and making sure they are understanding your expectations of them as students. As a teacher you also have to make sure that your grading system is straight-forward and not confusing for students. No matter if a student has an A or a D it is always good to give students constant feedback on all their assignments telling them what they did well and what they need to improve upon. A student can get straight A's all they want in a class, but if you are not giving them any critical feedback or criticism then they will never grow as a learner. As a future teacher, I will make sure that my grading system is not only fair but also very detailed for my students to follow along.

Jasmyn
Grades are a wonderful benchmark to show how successful a student is. But if you consider that these grades could just be a reflection of how the teachers feels the student compares to other students in the class than you may believe that the student has not done very well or, in fact, quite well. The reality is, grades should be based on the individual students learning and there should be no comparison to other students. A teacher must always make adjustments to the student grades by taking into consideration his/her background. Teachers need to bend sometimes, because there is so much going on in a student’s life. Unfortunately grades often reflect what kind of worker a student is and are not really subjective.

**Casey**
I completely agree with Bowdring when he stated “I fear we’re on a grade inflation roll these days. Colleges have to offer more and more redemption classes because high school students are going to college with less and less mastered for their high grades. Teachers have to hold students accountable for the material so those grades mean something.” I see students here at UMF doing this exact thing and I see where it comes from while I am out on the field. It is very frustrating that my mentor teacher does not assign her students homework. I asked her one time if the students knew we were having a test the next day, and she was like “no they will not study anyways.” This shows that she has absolutely no confidence in them studying. It was very frustrating to hear, I want to make sure that I give my students homework, and assignments to complete or it will not benefit them in their future education.

**Lily**
This chapter focuses on grades and how they are used in the classroom. The books suggests that grades are overly used. Grading is not talked about between teachers because each teacher grades students on different material and different ways, but they are still considered important. Taking grades out completely is not going to solve the problems but how important and the usage needs to change. We as teachers should not just be focused on the grades but what is being learned and mastered by the students. They should not be used as a motivation, there are other ways that teachers can motivate that are not as intimidating. I agree with this whole heartedly because though out my entire education grades have been the ultimate goal, and for students that have test ansiiety this becomes a problem. The focus needs be taken off of grades and turned on to the actuall knowledge that is soaked up.

Brody
In the seventh chapter of //Fair Isn’t Always Equal//, Rick Wormeli brings up the controversial subject of grading. The main theme of this chapter is a belief that I’ve held for some time- we’ve put so much meaning into a symbol that doesn’t reflect much meaning at all. After all, grades in today’s schools aren’t exactly accurate. Grades are subjective, often skewed by the teacher’s own biases and life experiences. I for one have noticed myself displaying a bias during my field experience at Mt. Blue High School. There’s one student who sits in the corner, is quiet, and always does her work without complaint. She reminds me a bit of myself when I was in high school because she’s quite shy and doesn’t have the outward confidence of many others in the classroom. I don’t grade her any differently as there are standards needed to be met, but I do keep an eye out that she understands the material, as she doesn’t seem to be someone that would outwardly ask clarifying questions. I need to be cognizant of the biases I have from my own experiences in school and I need to uphold fairness in the classroom, especially when it pertains to grading. As teachers, we need to speak openly about our biases so we can keep ourselves in line. Another interesting part of the chapter was the idea of grading students with “A, B, and ‘You’re not done’” (98). I like the idea of students seeing themselves as a work in progress, but I wonder how this would realistically work in the classroom. If I’m moving onto the next lesson and the student has not mastered the content, how will they master it when the class will be learning new material? I wouldn’t want to assign the material they have yet to master because then they’d be missing the new material and the informative cooperative learning activities that correspond with it.

Brittany
 Oh, grades, how the complicate and throw bumps into the best intentions that a teacher may have. That one little letter or number can either give a student a sense of achievement or let them know just how much they missed whatever mark they were supposed to hit. They are annoying things grades. I remember getting bad grades on things I had tried my very best at and then getting A’s on something that I did without thinking. In both cases, I had no motivation to learn anything. On one hand, it did not matter what I learned I was going to get a bad grade; and on the other hand, I did not have to try to get the good grade so why challenge myself. Going into schools I see the same thing; students working hard and getting bad grades while others do nothing and get high marks. It is unfair and everyone is left in the dark over where the student truly is in their learning. The worst part is that grades do not seem to be going away anytime soon and there is no easy way to give a student a grade and at the same time motivate them to truly learn.

Kim
This chapter focused on pros and cons of giving students number or letter grades. It made a lot of good points about why and how grades can be detrimental to students, especially if they earn low grades on their work. I find it interesting to think that in the 70s and 80s a grade of C meant that the student was an average student because it’s the “middle” grade, and it was a good thing to be a C student. Now though, a C is a bad grade and does not mean that the student is an average student. To be considered an average student, one must earn a grade of at least a B. One of the issues that this chapter mentioned is the inconsistency of grading among teachers, not only in the same school, but also in the same department. One teacher might be giving out As and Bs consistently for a particular assignment while a teacher down the hall grading the same assessment might be giving out Cs and Ds. I definitely feel as though there needs to be more unity among grading systems, especially with teachers in the same school. As educators we are supposed to believe that every student has an equal right to an education and the right to learn, yet we don’t offer those students the right to be graded and assessed equally. I certainly believe that every student is different and must therefore be assessed differently, but the same student should not receive two different grades from two different teachers for the same assignment. My high school English department clearly lacked continuity among their grading, and as students we were aware of this. Sometimes we took advantage of it, knowing that one teacher graded a lot easier than another, so we didn’t see the need to put that much effort into our work if we were going to get an A anyway. When students start slacking because they know you are not going to give them a grade that is truly reflective of the work they did then something needs to be done about it. What this makes me realize is that I need to be incredibly aware of how I am grading my students and seek out resources to assist me in making sure that I am grading each student fairly. I also need to remember to give good, constructive feedback to every student so that they know what they need to do to make improvements.

Jen
Grading as discussed in this chapter has many factors to it. Should it be adjusted to each individuals ability? Does it accurately show mastery? How does diversity play a role in grading?And as stated in the reading teachers unfortunately do make exceptions on grading based on a students socioeconomic background. (96). That's not morally correct but it's done and what does the education system do about it? Do we just let these student get by? Grading should be mostly based on the mastery of the content because that seems to be the best way to do it. That doesn't mean the grades should be limited to an A-F scale but some sort of grading system that the teacher agrees with and fits their curriculum should be used. All through my years of secondary education teachers weighed classroom participation, attendance and completing the homework as a major factor of the students grade, and this did not help me at all because I received good grades but I don't know a lot of content so this grading scale was very ineffective.

Another thing that came up in the book was the grading scale potentially being changed to A-I, I standing for "Incomplete." (98). I don't agree with this at all. I can see why some would think that F for failure is too harsh or hurts students self esteem but I do not think incomplete is the right approach. It sugar coats things for students so they think it's ok it's only incomplete. No. Students need to understand that going to school is a responsibility just as parents have a responsibility to go to work. Students need to work at school in order to achieve and not settle for incompletes!

Kaitlyn Bartlett
In chapter 7 of Fair Isn’t Always Equal, a chunk of the chapter deals with how teachers define grades. Wormeli talks about how grading has changed over time because a C used to represent an average student and now it seems that a B is more of an average student, along with parents either feeling that C’s are completely acceptable or that the student didn’t try very hard. I completely agree with his thinking. I feel that in high school a student needs to just simply hand in work to get a C, it doesn’t matter if it is right or wrong and that they need to really try to get a failing grade. I hope to bring this idea into my classroom because I want to challenge kids, not let them slide though my class. I want them to feel accomplished when they earn the respected grade on their papers.

Leighlan
Grades are largely subjective. The same piece of work will be given anything between an A and a D by a large group of teachers. Grades also don’t give much information on how much a student has mastered the material; they give no advice on how to improve, list no mastered topics, or what needs to improve. They are too small, too general, and given too much importance but our education system is not ready for the radical change abolishing grades would be. Grades are most useful if they are based on how well the individual student has mastered the material and are accompanied by detailed, specific, feedback. In order to get the most out of one’s education the focus should be on personal understanding of the topic, not the letter the teacher wrote on one’s record.