UbDDI+B2+Chapter+8


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Tiarra
Chapter 8 of UbD/DI deals with how to use effective grading and reporting practices in a differentiated classroom. Tomlinson and McTighe state that, “the primary goal of grading and reporting is to communicate to important audiences, such as students and parents, high-quality feedback to support the learning process and encourage learner success” (129). I particularly like this definition because it emphasizes grading as a feedback mechanism rather than a final judgment on a student’s intelligence. The rest of the chapter sets up guiding principles for effective grading and reporting which will be very useful in the future. Principle 1 supports the practice of backwards design and establishing well defined criteria, while principles 2-6 the proper evaluation and student evidence supporting that criteria. One thing I truly appreciated from this chapter is the three characteristics of a great learner: Persistence in the face of difficulty, the ability to take intellectual risks, and pleasure in work. All three of these characteristics are things I as a student have been working towards attaining in myself. They are not qualities that one simply possesses, but qualities that we develop as students of the world around us and I hope to instill these very qualities in my future students.

Danny K.
Chapter eight covers how to grade your students. The author also describes the interrelationships between the backward design, differentiation, and grading. In this chapter the author gives six principles of grading. These principles include: grades and reports should be based on clearly specified learning goals and performance standards, evidence used for grading should be valid, grading should be based on established criteria, not everything should be included in grades, avoid grading based on averages, and focus on achievement and report other factors separately. I agree with principle three strongly, when the author discourages teachers grading on a curve. I always found it frustrating that my grade could be affected by how a classmate of mine did. Grading on a curve could make for an unhealthy classroom environment because students hope for their classmates to do bad to make their own grade better. = =

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Justin C.
This chapter of the book was all about ways to approach grading students. The text states that the most important goals of grading are to “communicate to important audience, such as students and parents, high-quality feedback, to support the learning process and encourage learner success” (129). It will be very important to remember this statement because it is true. We want our students to know how we think they are progressing in our classroom. We want our students to not be in the dark and be fully aware of their success. When we do not give them timely feedback as to how they are doing, then chances are that they may start falling behind. The book also mentions six principles that we, as teachers, will want to remember when it comes to grading. The one that stuck out to me was the third one, which said that grading should be based on specific criteria, and not just on the arbitrary norms of the time (130). We want to make sure that our students know what we are expecting of them. There should be no doubt in their mind of what is expected. If we are able to spell out exactly what we are to expect, then the students should know how much time to put into the class.

Grady B.
In reading this chapter, I gained some important insight into what exactly a grade should represent. I found it especially interesting and surprising that this chapter brought into question the use of the bell-curve, which always felt like an untouchable aspect of grading systems. This chapter emphasizes what this entire book emphasizes, that there needs to be a dramatic shift in the way that we think about education. I also liked the statement on page 131, that assessment should not be automatically associated with grading; that assessment should be part of the journey, with the grade being an accurate depiction of mastery. Additionally, the idea that there should be a separate grade, which gauges overall growth, seems like an especially powerful concept. I feel that generally, it is important to ensure that grading is used in a manner which presents a fair description of where students have started and where they ended up.

Will L.
Chapter eight of UbD/DI primarily focuses on grading in a differentiated classroom. It describes how important it is grade using six various principles. They are: stating a clear objective and criteria that students will be graded on, assessing students based on what they should be learning, veering away from weighing all the assignments the same, focusing on achievement by the student, allowing the learning environment to become a place where everyone can flourish, and not mixing up the words grading and assessment. Those seemed to make a lot of sense to me, even though throughout my time in high school, I don’t believe all of my teachers did these things. I feel that grading is important, but it shouldn’t dominate the way someone runs their classroom.

Grace K.
Chapter 8 of UbD/DI deals with the often difficult task of grading in a differentiated classroom. One of the first things suggested by Tomlinson and McTighe is for teachers to avoid considering grading as their judgement of a student, and rather consider it a tool to communicate useful feedback to a student, their parents, and school officials. The chapter offered “Guiding Principles” of good grading, including basing grades on learning goals and performance standards, using reliable evidence to grade students, grading with established criteria, not “norms,” not including everything in grades (such as formative assessments), avoiding averaging all a student’s grades together to get a final one, and focus on the most important aspects of a student’s education, including achievement. The authors contest that, despite what initial reactions may be, a differentiated classroom can effectively use grading to improve learning. In addition to achievement, grading should focus on progress toward goals, and work habits. In UbD/DI, these three important factors result in a multipart grading system, which the authors suggest will allow students better opportunity to recognize where they need improvement and then achieve it.

Dan B.
I agree with the part that says that you should not grade all of the work the students do throughout the unit. You should not grade early work from the unit because in a lot of cases the student did not have a good understanding of the questions that are being presented. I think that you should grade students later on in the unit because this is when you can tell what they really know about a subject. I also think that as a teacher you really need to make your expectational clear, so that students will know what they need to do to show that they have really understood the material.

Jen R.
Chapter eight of UBD/DI introduces the importance of grading towards differentiated instruction. There are two parts to the grading process. The first step to grading involves assigning a grade, most commonly a letter symbol is used. The second step involves reporting this grade to the parents and students. Throughout this chapter, six different methods of efficient grading are listed. A few of those included basing grades and reports on specified learning goals, use valid evidence for grading and avoid basing grades on class averages. This chapter has also taught that you should not bring the grading scale down for students who are struggling; you should adjust the work you are giving students that are struggling. This chapter has impacted my future classroom because it has made me realize that you still need to have individual goals to help students succeed.

Tyler S
Chapter eight discusses grading, explaining that not everything needs to be graded, but when you do grade, expectations need to be clear.I have heard many teachers say they wish we could do away with grading altogether though, and I agree. Once I figure out how a teacher grades, I stop putting out my own material, and instead turn in papers that I carefully mold to fit exactly what I know that teacher wanted to see. It became like a game to me, and I would see how long I could wait before starting an assignment, or see how little work I could put into it compared to others, yet still get the same or even higher grades than someone who may have put hours and hours of work into something. I was able to succeed not by learning the material, but by learning what pleased the graders eye.

Kaitlin T.
Chapter 8, "Grading and Reporting Achievement," discusses the concept of assessment in differentiated classrooms. Tomlinson states that students should only be compared to their best work, not to other students. Students should also be graded on their goals, the progress towards those goals and their work habits. Grading progressively will allow students to see how they are improving and will understand that learning is something that occurs in a time fashion; that learning is not always instant. As a teacher, I want my students' goals to become visible. I want them to realize where they are at all times in regards to reaching their goals. It's important for students to be informed of their progress so that the end result is not a surprise, but a celebration.

Jonathan B.
Chapter eight of UbD/DI discusses effective grading and the issues surrounding the grading process. The author includes guiding principles for effective and fair grading. Most of these principles focus on the necessity of grades being objectively based on clearly stated expectations. The chapter also introduces suggestions for reporting systems. Reporting systems are are means for tracking progress in terms of achievement, personal growth, and work habits. These reporting systems include several means for communication between students, teachers, and parents. As always, differentiation should be considered in the grading process. I will include the principles of effective grading in my class in that I will be objective in my grading. I will not have favorites, and I will be consistent in evaluation.

Chris D.
Chapter 8 of UbD/DI was all about grading “rules and regulations” it seemed. It gave many do’s and don’ts about how to grade. One that stuck out at me talked about how a student shouldn’t be penalized if they mastered something in say week 7, and in week 2 or 3 they didn’t have a clue about it. In a math sense, the earlier week’s performances would depict outliers and thus the grade wouldn’t be an accurate representation of the student’s knowledge as a whole. I’ve had experience with this in my calculus classes here in college. If a poor grade (say a C or lower) was achieved on a single test, yet the other tests, including the final, were a B or better, then the lower grade would be ignored because it was obvious that the student had practiced their struggling area and made an effort to master the material. This is something that I definitely would want to incorporate into my grading structure. I firmly believe that //what// students learn is more important than //when// they learn it.