FIAE+B1+Chapter+14


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Olivia Wandelear
Chapter 14 deals with the most responsive report card formats to relay to students and parents. I found one suggestion to be particularly helpful and clear, and that was the idea that “educators should keep their report cards’ emphasis on the standards personal achievement but, when doing so, communicate their rationale for such a focus to parents, and also place a comment on the report card that indicates whether the student is developing the way he or she should be” (Wormeli 178). Parents worry about the development of their children and will be primarily interested in the progress they have made in the classroom. I can see myself using this report card format in my own classroom because it not only emphasizes the standards, which hold importance in our classrooms today, but it also includes the rationale as to why these standards //are// so important. I am a believer in personalized report cards for each student, even if this format proves to be time consuming. Choosing premade comments and notes off of a list relays very little to the parent //and// the student about the student’s performance in the classroom, and holds almost no value. Students should not be treated as numbers, nor should teachers robotically pump out report cards that include no personalized information about the student.

Kay Sue Collins
This chapter dealt with report cards and how they can be used to accurately report student work. The problem that many teachers find in reporting grades is how to differentiate between student mastery of the curriculum and student growth. If you give an A to a student that has improved dramatically over the course of the year but is not reaching the established standards, then others might have unrealistic expectations for these students in future years. On the other hand if you give them a D for their mastery when they have made spectacular progress they can get discouraged and give up. I really liked the format that had the teacher give a letter grade for mastery, and a number grade after it for the progress made. Therefore the student referred to before would get a D3, meaning their mastery was at the D level, but their progress was a 3. This would also help to describe upper level students that weren’t being challenged enough by giving them an A1 which would mean that they already knew the material and this was basically a wasted year for them.

Erika Tingley
It is critical that teachers are able to present accurate representations of a student’s mastery of knowledge when creating report cards. This chapter focused on how to give feedback on both how the student has grown and on the standards that are required. One of the things that really stood out to me was the idea of giving a student a grade based on his or her progress and than making a note about the differentiation of instruction that was used. I find it hard to wrap my brain around giving my student a grade that does not represent mastery of the subject, however I understand not discouraging a student who has made a lot of progress. I am not sure if I will actually follow this practice, but I must be able to come up with a solution to account for the student’s growth while still ensuring that he or she has reached an acceptable level in understanding the material, within his or her capability.

Ben Villeneuve
Chapter fourteen of //Fair Isn’t Always Equal// connects with chapter thirteen, in that it is about report card formats. Chapters thirteen and fourteen both have to do with the final product of assessment; the only difference is that one is what mostly teachers see, and the other is what mostly parents see. The quote at the beginning of the chapter is very telling to me. In it, Linda Starr writes about the different ways teachers and parents perceive report cards. In the teacher’s mind, the report card is a report of how the student is progressing; the learning process is a continuous spectrum, and as long as the student is constantly bettering herself, everything is okay. However, to the parent’s mind, this is not enough. The parent wants to know how their child is doing when compared to everyone else’s children. This doesn’t seem healthy to me. I think there needs to be better communication between educators and parents, so the parents can really know what the teacher is trying to do with grades.

Courtney Burns
Report cards should be informative of the student’s achievement; they should provide feedback, document progress and inform the viewers of instructional decisions. If you have a student with an adjusted curriculum it will be important to note this somewhere on the report card. This will be helpful for the advanced students who, in comparison to the other students, received a lower grade and the remedial student who grew immensely over the year and receive a grade that could lead some to believe they are at the same level as the regular students (in terms of mastery). In order to provide this information on the report card, I can place an asterisk or an “X” next to the grade as an indicator to the viewer that they should look in the student’s folder etc. for more information. If a teachers wishes to provide information on the report card about the student’s personal growth and where they stand next to the standard, they may utilize a dual approach. For example a student could receive an A3 which means, against the standards, the student earns an A and, in terms of personal growth, the student receives a 3 representative of exceptional growth. Another route a teacher may choice is to provide multiple grades. This means that a student would receive a grade for each of the essential standards or benchmarks designated for the classroom. Finally teachers may choose to use the continuous progress report demonstrates the child’s growth over two or more years. Many parents appreciate this method because it shows how their child has improved while also demonstrating how they compare with other students in terms of standards and benchmarks.

Andy Shorey
Chapter 14 discusses report cards and how to accurately report the students growth in class and also the grade that the student has earned based upon whatever scale you use. The book talks about the dilemma of giving a student a high grade knowing that the student hasn't yet mastered the material but has earned a grade based upon maybe a slower instruction scale or modified curriculum. The book says that an easy what to report this out is to put a asterisk next to the grade and write a little paragraph explaining what the student has achieved. It also says that a good way to show growth is put a 1,2, or 3 next to the grade showing how the student has progressed in the grading period. I think that it is important for students to know that their efforts have not gone for not and that doing the number next to the grade is a really good idea.

Kasey Darnell
This chapter discussed various report card formats that can be used in the differentiated classroom. Regardless of the format used, Wormeli noted that the grades should provide feedback, document progress, and inform instructional decisions (173). When a student is being graded against a modified curriculum, teachers can use narrative comments to convey specific information to parents about their child's progress. Another way to record grades is using symbols for personal growth as well as the standards. For instance, a student would receive a D3, meaning they scored a D in the mastery of the standard, but the 3 is indicative of their growth. Another tactic a teacher might use is recording multiple grades for the various standards. This approach makes the most sense to me, because it focuses the teaching and learning on the essential standards. This will likely be a format I will use (or at least try) when I am an educator.

Tim Grivois
Why can’t the report card be simple? I feel as though we are developing into a sugar-coated society where students cannot simply be told the truth about their performance. I find it helpful to know the truth. The grading system should be simple, and the reporting system should be as simple, if not even simpler. Parents should be able to understand the structure easily, and as the chapter says, should not need a user’s manual. In the same capacity, students need to be more willing to accept the truth about their children’s performances. If they are truly underperforming, parents need to accept it and deal with the issues at hand instead of trying to justify it some other way. I am a proponent of a continuous feedback system over the internet where parents can view current progress of their child at any time and have an open line of communication with myself. I do not think grades should be secret; I think they should be public knowledge, because with public knowledge comes scrutiny and motivation. If students believe they are hiding information from their parents successfully, they should be putting that effort into academics instead of espionage.

Kyle Rines
Chapter 14 discusses how report cards are an important aspect of grading and how they effect the students' and parents' views on the teacher's class. Report cards are important because contrary to chapter 13 and how gradebooks assess the teachers record of student work, report cards are what parents use to assess how their child is doing in class. For me, whenever I received a report card, either my parents were happy with how I was doing, or they were upset that I wasn't doing as well in some classes. It is a vital way to either improve or weaken the parent/child relationship, but it is also a great way to be in contact with parents and really show honesty and integrity when grading students.

Josh
This chapter addresses the poor format of the report card. After trying so hard to differentiate instruction for the students it seems inadequate to then simply send a report card home with a number or a letter grade. The best idea in this chapter is to write a note to the parents explaining how the child is doing. Even if there is not a section on the report card format, I think it would be very powerful to attach a note to every parent letting them know with some details how their child is doing. People are very protective of their children, instead of them simply seeing a number or a letter, they would have a written explanation about the grade. It seems like a lot of work for a teacher but really that is part of being a good teacher, dealing with parents, and it seems that dealing with them would be easier when they are kept in the loop about their child.

Caitlin Alexander
Report cards can often times be either very encouraging or very devastating to the self-esteem and ego of a student, and they can be indicators to parents of how well their child is doing in the classroom. However, for students in classes with modified curriculums, it is oftentimes difficult to convey the level of achievement that they have made based on the difficulty of a modified class when simply lined up in a laundry list of numbers with all of the other classes that the student is taking. The authors of the book suggest changing the title of the course to something akin to “Honors” if it is of a greater difficulty, to show that that course requires more of the students. However, if something as simple as a name change does nothing to convey the ultimate message of student achievement in such a class, sometimes an asterisk is provided on report cards to make room for side notes, detailing that this class has a modified curriculum, and is therefore harder or easier than other classes. I personally approve of the “dual grading” method, where a grade is given for achievement of the goals of the curriculum, and one grade for the personal achievements and progress of the student. This shows both where the student is now in the class, and how far they have come to get there.

Dylan Stefani
Report card should be more then just a grade given to a student at the end of the grading period. Chapter fourteen explains that report cards should be based on the students mastery of the content, what they need to improve on, and what they have learned corresponding with the standards. I always thought that the notes next to the grades were what I was looking for not. I found that the overall opinion of how I was doing in the class from the teacher reflected more then the grade. = =

Heath
This chapter addresses reporting progress data to parents. As the opening quotes by Linda Starr states, parents and teachers may be looking at different scales. Teachers should be evaluating students based on curriculum standards and parents often want information that relates them to other students. This is not surprising as parents have been comparing their children to others for their entire lives. Medical records relate what percentile a child’s growth rate falls into. Parents talk to each other about what behaviors are normal. Reporting to parents should implore all of these strategies. Parents should be made aware of how their children are doing in relation to standards and be told how that aligns with the overall class performance.

Shila Cook
Chapter 14 talks about the pros and cons of progress reports and report cards. The biggest problem that is brought up in this chapter is the fact that report cards do not show in any way the progress that a student is making in the quarter or trimester. It only shows the final grades, which I believe is still important, but sometimes I believe that the progress is the most important part. For example. If a student usually fails, doesn't do their homework, or just doesn't care and then turns things around so that they are doing everything they are supposed to but they are still only getting a D because of the beginning of the quarter their parents or guardians should see that they are changing things around. I hope to find a way to show an accurate grade and process when doing report cards.

Dan Horne
This chapter talks about the aspects surrounding report cards. Report cards are used to show how a student performed during that semester, but it only shows the end result. A student could be slowly improving but still only manages a C despite the fact that they have been doing A work for the last few weeks of the semester, but their beginning is holding their grade down. I believe that report cards should come with a more extensive explanation about the students grade, maybe only a few sentences just to explain the student beyond the grade.

Tyler Brookings
After reading this chapter, I felt a little confused as to how it is possible to adjust report card formats for each individual student. I am hoping the format for whichever school district I work for is flexible for narrative comments. I believe that if I have to stick to the rigid format I won’t be able to report a student’s grade clearly. However, when I am out in the field, I will make sure that each of my students report cards has comments which I believe will help the student understand they grade they received.