FIAE+B1+Chapter+9

Abstract & Synthesis
Ben Villeneuve

Chapter nine of //Fair Isn't Always Equal// is a list of ten ways to avoid common mistakes teachers make in grading. These mistakes include incorporating nonacademic factors into the final grade, not allowing students to redo work for full credit, grading homework (Because homework is practice), withholding assistance, assessing students in ways that don't reflect mastery, allowing extra credit, using group grades, grading on a curve, recording zeros for incomplete work, and using norm-referenced terms to describe criterion-referenced attributes. As you can tell, these mistakes represent a wide range of different elements of teaching, but they all build toward a common theme that seems to go against the established expectations in the field of education, and they all represent an increased trust of students.

The most common aspect of grading connected with in this chapter seemed to be the part about not grading homework. Almost everybody, in their reflection paragraphs, talked about the part of the chapter. There was a lot of support for the idea that homework is practice, that it shouldn't be used to address new learning, and that it sometimes shouldn't be used at all. [|This Powerpoint presentation] (Converted by Google to HTML for ease of viewing) addresses many of these concerns and questions, and gives additional perspective to the issue. It should be noted that the information at the link clashes sometimes with the information from //Fair Isn't Always Equal;// this suggests that the treatment of homework is something that teachers should decide for themselves, based on their subject and what they want their classroom culture to be like. [|This] is the first part of an article that provides more general tips on how to implement differentiation in the classroom. It should provide some illumination on the basic implementation of DI, and addresses some of the tips in FIAE. ([|Part 2], [|Part 3]) Finally, [|this brief article] discusses differentiation of instruction as it relates to assessment. toc

Erika Tingley
Chapter 9 of Fair Isn’t Always Equal focuses on ten ways that assessing and grading are done which should be avoided. These techniques are all common practices that are not effective in determining a student’s mastery. A point that was made which I had never heard was the idea that homework should not be graded. The chapter claims that homework is given for practice and refinement of skills and that it is not a representation of full knowledge. Homework should not be given to a student until he or she has a grasp on the topic and is only to be used to practice his or her skills. As a teacher I hope that I am able to make sure the homework I give out is effective and that I do not penalize my students who are still learning.

Tim Grivois
This chapter is very helpful for an aspiring teacher with many questions about the relationship between classroom dynamics and the grading process. I strongly advocate that grading should be a system put in place to show mastery, and factors such as attendance and effort do not necessarily affect mastery. At the core, they can have a profound effect, but in theory they do not. I am also all for grading homework only on completion; practice should be pressureless. In a game-time situation, athletes recall the hours put into practice and use that to succeed, but nobody should ever lose their starting position as a result of a bad practice run if they flourish during Showtime. I believe it is important to always be accessible to students and provide adequate assistance whenever possible; struggling uphill with some information can be helpful to some students in building character or resiliency, but help should never be withheld. I do not know if I necessarily agree with extra credit bans, but that is something I will have to work out in my own classroom. I believe sometimes curve grading is necessary, and zeroes as well, but I will afford students every chance to succeed.

Josh
Chapter 9 of //Fair Isn’t Always Equal// lists ten things that should not be graded when assessing a student. A couple of the ideas that struck me as interesting are not to grade practice work or homework, do not allow extra credit, and redoing assignments or tests. In my classroom there will always be chances to redo their work. I will steal Dr. Grace’s idea that the student has to receive a tutoring session about the subject while fixing the questions they got wrong, and after that they can redo the assignment. On a point based system there won’t be a need for extra credit, it will simply be just handing in an assignment. You can get points for doing the work. That is not extra credit. That is the learning we are looking for from the student. The homework issue is a sensitive one; I am currently on the side of the argument that homework is not a necessary tool to teach students. I think that there are too many outside influences at home that it is unrealistic to expect all students to do the homework. Then the kids who cannot get work done at home are behind the reset of the class, not because they are not as smart, simply because they do not have the ability to do their homework. My thoughts might change when I actually teach and see how homework affects the ability to learn math, but for now I agree it should not be graded, and only assigned as optional practice.

Olivia Wandelear
This chapter pretty much hit the nail right on the head in terms of how I feel about grading. I was especially drawn to the section that encouraged the avoidance of grading homework, because it //is// practice. Student cannot be expected to comprehend the material in just one night, and should therefore not be penalized for performing poorly on the homework. Likewise, I think it is super important to remember that not every student takes the bus home to a cozy house, where their mom is waiting for them with a snack and glass of milk. Some students enter “survival mode” when we they go home, and are too busy taking on the roles of their absent parents or guardians to even think about homework. There should be plenty of opportunities to //practice// mastery of concepts IN the classroom, and this practice should be acknowledged as just as important as homework to teachers. I am still working out the kinks in my lesson plan, but I am now seriously reconsidering my weekly blog entry assignment, that asks students to write a few paragraphs about each chapter or section of reading they complete. I considered this “homework,” but I now feel like there would be plenty of time during out 80 minutes together to write these entries and respond to classmates’ entries during class. At least students could get a head start on the assignment, so they would not be so bombarded at home.

Kasey Darnell
This chapter discussed ten things to avoid when practicing differentiated instruction and assessment. Practically everything mentioned in this chapter was done by teachers I have had in my school career. The idea of redoing a test/assignment for full credit seems foreign to me, because that never happened in my school experience. The author explained that teachers shouldn't penalize a student who does not learn at the same pace as other students,and it is important to have students reflect on their mistakes and revise their thinking. Also, homework shouldn't be graded in the differentiated classroom. Homework is practice for ongoing learning and should receive feedback, but not a letter grade. This is a practice I would like to incorporate in my classroom. My biggest concern is that students will not take homework seriously if it is not graded. The author stated that this notion is false, but I am not convinced. Another practice to avoid is giving extra credit and bonus points. This was something I had never considered, because this was an extremely common practice when I was in school. Teachers should not do this arbitrarily,because it can alter the accuracy of the grade in reflecting a students' mastery of the content. When I am in the classroom, I will try to avoid offering extra credit and bonus points for the sake of boosting a student's grade.

Courtney Burns
In this chapter the author explains ten different practices to avoid in the differentiated classroom, all of which can be side stepped if teachers take the time to consider the students and their individual circumstances. The suggestion made by the author to avoid grading “practice” (i.e. homework) was of particular interest to me simply because it makes sense. Often times teachers have students participate in “in class activities” which serve as practice for the students, these activities are not typically grade, why then should homework be graded if it too serves as a practice for students? I also like the suggestion which states that teachers should avoid giving extra credit and bonus points particularly if these points are being awarded for material that is irrelevant to the established goals. Finally, the author states that teachers should avoid giving group grades because these types of grades do not serve to assess individual students.

Andy Shorey
Chapter nine of fair isn't always equal gives teachers ten things that they should not do. Some of them I agree with others I do not. One of the ones that I particularly like is not grading homework. I have experienced classes where a homework grade is given if you tried to do it. I have also had classes where they grade homework on things that you learned the night before, that was something that I hated. One of the ten that I disagreed with was avoid grading on a curve I actually like the idea of grading on a curve I don't think that you need to let students know they did poorly and they just got a good grade because their poor was better than someone else's poor. I think that as teachers if we see a lot of poor grades it might be time to look at what we did wrong, grading on a curve might not make up for that but it at least shows students that based on what you did they did fairly well.

Dylan Stefani
Chapter nine lists ten things to avoid when grading students. Having nonacademic factors in a grading system is ok, but not averaged into the final grade. I disagree with this because I believe that if a student shows up to every class and does not miss one lesson, then they have proven a greater maturity level then others. This is something I would grade. I agree that students should not be graded on the works leading up to the mastery product. Students need time to master a subject so why should we as teachers grade their steps to mastery? We shouldn’t! Grading homework should be avoided because it is only practice. I personally believe that it shows a students ability to manage time and they will be more apt to do something that is graded if it also improves their knowledge in the long run. Help students when they need differentiating. I believe in the extra credit rule on some aspects of assignments. I feel that students should be shown they have done a get job at something by going above and beyond expectations. Although this chapter says otherwise, I still have to go with my gut reaction. Having no group grades and not grading on a curve are other evidences that I disagree with. I feel that I am equipped to teach and know if students work better with these tools or not. I can tailor them if I see need fit.

Heath
The chapter lists some of the pitfalls to avoid in the grading within a differentiated classroom. The phrase that struck me was “Remember, the most professional thing we do sometimes is to get out of our student’s way.” (Pg. 121) This was in reference to making some of the tools used for differentiation available to the rest of our students. This might be a bit off track from the grading issues in the chapter, but it’s powerful and deserves to be discussed. Teachers have to be prepared for the moment they release the training wheels and watch students wobble back and forth until they balance out. Of course, in a differentiated classroom almost every student will reach this goal at different times adding to the already difficult balancing act.

Caitlin Alexander
This chapter outlines things to avoid when grading students. Some of them seem very obvious, like not including irrelevant factors in the assessment process, not grading practice homework, and not assisting a student when they need help. When giving students an assignment, teachers should be available as much as possible, if at the least, enough of the time to reply to an e-mail from a student in need to set up a study time. Practice homework should never be graded because of the nature of the assignment: it’s practice homework. If we had wanted to have it graded, it would have been called regular homework. Some other factors, however, were things that really should be avoided, even though at first they might seem like good ideas. Group grades are difficult to manage, because there could have been different levels of effort put into a project from different members of a group, and it is difficult to see those levels when the group presents the project as a whole. Another one that is obvious, but wouldn’t seem so, is the “no bonus points or extra credit” suggestion. While it may seem tempting to give out bonuses or extra credit, it does seem too much like ignoring the original material that was not mastered in lieu of some other, possibly less relevant project. Allowing the student to re-do the original assignment with feedback allows a student to see their mistakes, re-evaluate their own work, and build upon foundations with new material.

Shila Cook
This chapter talks about how teachers need to do everything they possibly can to make the grades of every student as accurate as possible. Something the I do not agree with in the beginning of the chapter is how they would like teachers to avoid incorporating nonacademic factors into the final grade. These would include behavior, attendance, and effort. Now I completely understand that behavior is not something that should be taken into consideration when grading, but attendance matter as well as effort. If a student is showing no kind of effort to pay attention, or even pretend to pay attention, if they're not doing their work, if they are fooling around while the teacher is talking, why shouldn't that reflect on their grade? Because of the kid that is fooling around the students around them might not get all the learning and instruction that they need. That is not fair to me.

Ben Villeneuve
Chapter nine of //Fair Isn’t Always Equal// discusses more about grading, and links it into the concept of the differentiated classroom. Many of the points have to do with making sure our assessments of students take into account the fact that they are growing as learners at the same time we are teaching them. With this being the case, a student shouldn’t feel discouraged to make up work whenever they aren’t satisfied with how they did. A policy where makeup work receives less credit than work turned in on time may tend to discourage students from making up the work at all, because they won’t believe it will do much good. However, at the same time, if students feel they can just do the work whenever they want, some teachers may find it difficult to motivate their students. I feel it’s part of the work of the teacher to help students understand why it benefits them to complete assignments, even if students weren’t receiving a grade at all.

Kay Sue Collins
This chapter gave me a lot to think about. The things that I agreed with the most were that we shouldn’t be giving grades to homework, and homework should be used judiciously and with purpose. If I graded homework at all it would be a point or two to record that they actually did it. Middle or high school students that are not required by a grade to do homework are probably not going to do it because being with their friends will be more exciting than doing math problems or a science worksheet. They don’t have the ability to see beyond the moment and comprehend that if they do the homework they will get better grades on the assessments that are graded. I disagree with the idea that extra credit and bonus points are a bad idea. Everyone can have a bad day. Not every assessment is an accurate portrayal of what a student has learned. Bonus points and extra credit questions can fill that gap and generally fosters good will. Extra credit work can take the place of a poorly done assessment by allowing the student to show mastery of the material in a different way. However it should apply directly to the material that got the bad grade in the first place.

Tyler Brookings
Again, Ch. 9 discusses grading. In chapter 9 however, the authors want us to think about grading in a differentiated classroom. Each student is different and each student learns at their own pace. The author points out that we should always be aware of this and that we should never have such a system in place that a student feels they should redo their assignment if they have not done so well. A system such as making redone homework worth less than it was originally worth, this simply discourages student from redoing it, and thus are less likely to turn it in. I will most certainly be aware of the differentiated classroom, and redone work will most certainly be worth the same amount, as long as the student has a valid reason.

Kyle Rines
Chapter 9 gives ten things that should not be graded during assessment. One of the ideas that struck me was that students should not be graded for homework. I am a firm believer that homework shouldn't be labeled as optional, but it shouldn't be graded as well. There are many circumstances that students face out of school that renders them incapable of completing homework and basically understanding it. Sports, clubs, drama, working jobs, family issues are just to name the bigger ones. I believe that homework should be assigned but only homework that can help them succeed and excel in my own classroom. Homework directed to improve understanding of the unit will be ideal within my classroom, such as reading 20 pages of the assigned book. If students choose not to read, then they fall behind. It is up to them to stay on top of their work and in the least they will know the expectations of when work is actually due and what they need to know for assessment.

Dan Horne
Chapter nine once again talks about grading in the classroom. This chapter discusses grading in a differentiated classroom and how students are all different learners and how grading can effect that. There was a large section on the concept of make up work, where if students can make work up but it is not going to be the same grade as if they had it on time then students won't have the motivation to do the work and won't learn the materials. I am a strong supporter for make up work because if a student takes the time to do it after the due date has passed they do deserve a grade equal to everyone else's. That students could have a lot of non-school activities, such as family obligations, work, clubs, and sports that could get in the way of them doing the assignment. In my classroom if my students notify me that they will be late on something then I will be happy to give them more time because they do want to do the work, its just they don't have enough time.