FIAE+B1+Chapter+10

toc

Abstract (Kim)
This chapter explained several ideas behind allowing students to redo work for credit. It explains some of the criteria teachers should taken into consideration when determining whether to allows students to redo work or not. One such criteria is to require parents to sign off on allowing the student to redo work, that way the parent is involved and can help to hold the student accountable. Another suggestion or criterion is to have students create a calendar or plan of completion. Don't allow students to have as much time as they want, but instead hold them responsible for creating a deadline to turn the revised work in by. Having students attach the original assignment to the revised assignment allows the teacher to see the progress made or changes made and helps the teacher to determine whether the student revised it themselves or had assistance. Something that goes along with this is to have students fill out the self-assessment again or to include a detailed list of what they changed/fixed/revised. This not only saves time on the teacher's end, but also requires that the student be able to determine for themselves what they changed. If they can't figure it out, then they didn't make a significant enough change. If a student's revised grade is lower than the original grade then the higher grade should be the one put into the gradebook. As Wormeli argues, "In most of life, we're given credit for the highest score we've earned," (134). Possibly one of the most important suggestions from this chapter is to stop accepting revised work during the last week of the grading period. This is done for the teacher's benefit. Having even more work to grade is not worth the loss of sanity that one would suffer if he were to accept additional revised work.

Synthesis (Kim) The general consensus is that allowing students to redo work is okay, as long as students have a valid reason to do so. If a student were to waste time and turn in an incomplete draft just because he or she knew that the option to redo it would be given, then we generally would not be likely to accept the redo. Students who always try and work hard in class would be given more opportunities to revise work, while students who never show up to class would not be. Creating a clear policy and sticking to it was also favored; no one wants to be the teacher who is walked all over because of their redo policy. Having students create a [|calendar/plan of completion] seemed like a good idea because it keeps the student and teacher on the same page during the revision process. It also holds the students [|accountable], just as having parents sign the original task or assignment before the student is able to redo it.. Attaching the original task will be helpful because we all want to see the first attempt or any successive attempts.

Seth
Chapter ten fits well with nine and I feel like they could have been combined into one. Teachers should accept redos, but not all the time. If teachers make a habit of accepting redos then students will make a habit of asking for/doing them. It’s fine to allow this every now and then but if a student does it over and over again it should raise a red flag in the eyes of a teacher. What could be so important that it always requires a redo? As for accepting redos and similar things during the final week of the marking period… no way; like the book says, it just saves he teacher sanity. And I like the idea of stapling the original task to the new one. That way, when the assignment is handed back the student can see what they had to go back and correct.

Mike
This chapter talks about certain conditions teachers need to consider when their students are redoing work for full credit. Students should use this opportunity to learn from this instead of letting their friends help them so they can receive the full grade. Students also need to receive feedback on why they did not receive full credit for that assignment so they can implement the teacher's advice when they redo the assignment over again. Students should also be able to redo assignments if they are really having a difficult time grasping a concept rather than someone who just skips classes frequently. If a student is making an honest effort to learn then a teacher will recognize it. I would honor a student who always tries rather than someone who is just lazy and turns in assignments two weeks late just like in my high school experience. It was very frustrating as a student who always tried and turned in homework on time. As a teacher, I will create some rules for students that need to redo certain assignments.

**Max**
I like chapter 10 was big expansion on what I wrote about chapter 9. When students miss class, you can’t just give them a zero, you need to find out why they missed and help them if needed. If a student has a good reason for missing, then they can make up class work during study halls and after school. The student should however show responsibility and approach you for the extra work. When a student misses work then they should show effort and that can make up for the work being late. I think it will be hard to decide whether or not the excuse is valid and a good excuse.

Jasmyn
There are many reasons a student may not finish their assignment on time and teachers must have a plan for how they are going to deal with it. Often the student deserves to receive full credit for the assignment if there is good reason. We all have unforeseen circumstances that cannot be avoided and as adults we just hope that the people we work for and with will understand when we don’t get projects or whatever assignment we are responsible for finished on time. As a teacher we must recognize these events and situations for our students and share with them that we “understand that these things happen “and decide to let them finish at another time for full credit. Because we appreciate someone giving us another chance and receiving no penalty, we can pass that feeling on to our students.

**Lily**
This chapter covers "redo's" or students redoing work that they did not do well on. But it strongly suggest that the teacher enforces a policy that states ahead of time how many time this is available. This ensures that the teacher will not be taken advantage of. It is really up to the teacher how they want to enforce it. But one example is making a timeline of how many days they have to pass it back in again before the original score stays. Having the studnets attach the first assignment is important for the teacher because they can see the progress that they have made. It is very important not to let the students take advantage of this so it should not be available on all assignments, otherwise the students will not try as hard and way for the edited/ seeing other students to do theirs.

**Casey**
In chapter ten it focuses on students redoing work. One quote that I agreed with was “there are times when it’s not worth students’ going through the whole project or assessment from the beginning for a redo.” I feel as if it is ok to redo things that are fixable, such as a paper. The students should be allowed to in some cases, fix errors and get a second chance. Although going through a whole project again that was your responsibility to begin with, and getting a redo because you did it sloppy, is not acceptable. You should do that right the first time! If a teacher lets the student redo the whole project for that reason, it is not fair to the other students that worked hard the first time around.

Brittany
Here is a headache in the making: do I allow my students to redo work or do they only get one chance to do something? If I say they cannot redo the work than what happens if a student was sick the entire week before a project was due and what they turned in was not their best work, or what about the student who did the best they could but just missed the mark? I would have to allow them to redo the work after receiving feedback from me so that they can truly be graded on their best work. Then if I let those students redo the work, should I let everyone redo the work? This may sound mean and nasty but if a student is not going to put the effort into an assignment the first time than I am not going to redo the assignment simple because they did not want to do it the first time around. At this point I start going in circles because I do not know, for the most part, what happens once a student leaves my classroom. Perhaps the best way to go about this is to let the students redo work but not make a major announcement about it. I could just put a little note about it in the syllabus and that way it is there for the students to see but at the same time it will not be the academic version of the escape from jail free card in Monopoly.

**Jen**
The idea of redoing work to me seems like it would only occur in my classroom if the student had an extenuating circumstance, if the grade was really bad and I saw legitimate reasoning or concern from the student, and or the fact that the whole entire class did poorly. Redoing assignments shouldn't become a frequent thing because it's not only good work habit but there's not enough time in the schedule to have students be wasting time redoing assignments when its important to start moving on to other things. As far as helping prepare students for tests or retakes is not a big concern for me and I don't quite understand why teachers feel they need to hide the information from their students or keep it secret. I feel they need to be open and honest with them and tell them exactly what to expect from the test. School shouldn't be a test as to how well they can recall everything discussed throughout the whole unit but rather that they have an understanding of the concepts from that unit. I also agree that allowing students to be redoing work during the last week of the grading period is not only add more stress for the teacher but it also seems really frustrating because it's like the student didn't care about the work until they realized it would impact their grade significantly.

Brody
“In a successfully differentiated class, we often allow students to redo… assessments for full credit” (131). I had to reread this opening sentence a few times before realizing that my eyes were not playing tricks on me. I originally wondered how that was possible. If an assessment’s grade is not counted the first time, wouldn’t a student just blow it off knowing they can have an infinite number of chances to make it up? Is that truly an assessment if it is being used as a constant practice? Thankfully, Rick Wormeli offers hints on how to make redoing work seem practical. I thought the idea of having parents sign the original student task and request for a redo was ingenious. This would prevent students from simply blowing off an assessment. After all, they would have to face their parents. Who’s to say their parents would sign the original task? This holds students accountable. I also feel the idea of creating a calendar of completion is effective. Working backwards to the present day is smart because students too often see a deadline as being far away in the future. By setting goals for the present day and all subsequent days following, the teacher shows the student that procrastination will not provide mastery of the subject. One question that arose for me was when Wormeli mentioned that he rescinds redo offers when he gets a hint that a student completely blew off an assignment. How does he determine when a student blows an assignment off? What if a student was simply having a bad day and completely missed the mark on an assignment? Would he allow that student to have a redo?

Kim
The conditions for allowing students to redo work for full credit were addressed in this chapter. I think the most useful piece of advice in this chapter is to create a policy that allows you to withhold the right for students to redo work depending on certain circumstances. If a student purposefully blows off a test, then he or she really shouldn’t be given a second opportunity when they did not take advantage of the first opportunity. With this policy, however, will come parents who disagree, so I also think it is important to inform parents at the beginning of the year that that is how you will be handling make up work throughout the year. I also don’t think that the redo assignment needs to be the exact same as the original assignment, especially if it was something that the student put a lot of time and effort into creating. In that case, I would find alternate assessments that will still show that the student has mastered the concept. I had a teacher who allowed us to revise essays after we turned them in, which was fairly easy to do, but when we revised projects, sometimes all we had to do was write an explanation of what we would change and why. Writing the explanations caused us to consider the content and material again and gave us another opportunity to show that we do understand what we learned. I think these conditions will certainly be a part of my classroom policy on redoing work.

Kaitlyn Bartlett
Chapter 10 of Fair Isn’t Always Equal talks about different conditions for students to redo their work. There are some suggestions that the book makes that I agree with and others that I do not; the first one I feel is important is not to allow student to redo work during the last week of the grading period. If we allow student to continually hand in work until the grading period is over, we will never be able to submit our grades on time. Although there are certain circumstances for some students, this will be something that I do not allow. The second idea I really liked was having students attach the original work to the revised work. This would allow me to look at both work and clearly see where the student might be having a problem with. Although I don’t feel as though it would affect the new grade, I do feel like it is important to see the growth.

Leighlan
The conditions that jumped out at me were treating the student how we as adults would want to be treated, changing format, and creating a calendar. All of these conditions are reasonable and logical. They can also all be used by a student to help themselves. Students can remember that everyone, even teacher make mistakes or miss deadlines; the important thing is to be willing to try until one gets it right. Students can also ask to change the format of their redo. If the assignment was an essay assessing their knowledge of the water system and they have difficulties with essays, they could ask to demonstrate their knowledge in a diagram. Students can also ask their teacher for help creating a calendar of completion if they are worried about time management. They could even ask their parents or roommates for help organizing themselves.