UbDDI+B2+Chapter+8

Chapter Eight Synthesis: Justin Stewart
Chapter eight focused on the ([|Lunenburg, Fred C. Reporting to Parents and Families Schooling V1 N1 2010.pdf]) of achievements in the classroom. There are six principles of grading and reporting achievements in a successful way. 1.) Focus on giving students a clear understanding of what they are going to be doing to show their understanding of the topic, check the students based on what you explained and report the achievements of the students in a clear and consistent way. 2.) Grades should be based on their understandings of the material not on other factors such as forgetting their name on a paper or stapling the paper in the wrong corner. 3.) Students should not be graded on where they were in the class compared to his/her classmates. Teachers should not teach on a bell curve but a J curve. A student should not be able to get an A in class of lower achievers and a C in a class where the students are high achievers. 4.) Pre-assessments and formative assessments should not be counted towards a students’ grade. A pre-assessment is checking the knowledge of the students before the lesson is taught. Students should not be awarded or damaged by their previous knowledge of a subject. The students should also not be graded for formative assessments because they are suppose to be feedback for both the student and the teacher. 5.) Understandings should be evaluated multiple times in multiple ways so that students have the ability to show that they know the knowledge. Students should not be given zeros because they didn’t pass their work in on time. So if the student understands something, yet is late and you give him/her a zero, you are not accurately showing their knowledge. 6.) The last principle focuses on grading the achievements and separating the other stuff. Grades should focus on students’ achievements through the semester, not whether they got everything turned in on time. The rest of the chapter focuses on the different ways for teachers to grade and [|report the achievements] and other successes/problems.

Most of our class focused on reporting students achievements instead of just how they are doing compared to everyone else in the class. There are a lot of different ways that teachers can show students mastery of the material and also show the other stuff that is often included into the grade. Another issue that came up a lot was the idea of keeping students engaged and motivated. Many students feel that they are simply getting a grade and the learning is completely omitted. This is a large problem because students are looking to simply get a good grade on the test and not actually learn the material. This can be a problem and it can be fixed by giving a grade for achievements and not only the test.

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Kassaundra
Chapter 8: Grading and Reporting Achievement Chapter 8 discusses that the goal of grading is to provide constructed feedback to students and parents that encourages success and also the learning process. It highlights that grades should be given based on important goals and I, as teacher, should set up indicators of success, how success will be measured and then follow my guidelines to grade students appropriately. Other tips to make grading more integrated with your differentiated instruction are to be very clear on what you are grading so that other circumstances (penmanship, attendance) don’t get in the way of the student showing his or her true understanding, not to grade on a curve because it can create competition and not let everyone have a chance of earning a high grade, as well as the fact that not all assessments should be graded. The last tip might be hard for my students to understand because we are such a grade oriented society, they might think they are doing assignments for nothing. Also, I found it interesting that teachers shouldn’t grade based on an average but possibly on the median or mode. I have never heard of this before but it makes sense because this would better represent the students’ best demonstration of knowledge. The most important aspect I took away from this chapter was the idea of a grading system opposed to just a report card. I think that this will really be something I advocate for as a future teacher because it exemplifies the idea of UbD and DI.

Charli Sayward
Chapter 8: Grading and Reporting Achievement Grading should “accurately communicate achievement” not just compare a student to the rest of the class. This chapter disagrees with grading averages and grading curves. As a student in very challenging math courses I have usually benefited from a grading curve. As a teacher it will be hard to find a better way to grade. The main focus is on a student’s actual learning, not just the average of scores. Grades should be divided into achievement of goals, progress towards goals, and work habits. I am not sure I understand how these three factors will be scored or how they will translate into a GPA, but I am very interested in finding out. I do agree these grades should be separate, there needs to be a good way to acknowledge all three.

Darcie Simmons
This chapter discussed how to grade in a differentiated classroom, and the differences between grading and assessments. Grades “should represent a definable degree of proficiency related to important goals” (130). I found this statement to be very helpful when thinking about providing grades for my students in the future. It also helped me with thinking about the second E in the WHERETO model. Because, if the students know the goal at the beginning of the unit, then they know what it is that they need to achieve or acknowledge to be able to receive an acceptable grade at the end of the unit. From this chapter I found, that in order to grade your student’s you need to gather information about your student’s progress throughout the unit, so you have an idea of how they are doing, before you start grading them. One new thing I learned in this unit was that there’s a way of grading called Reporting, which supports standards based teaching, and differentiation. It grades for achievements and goals, it shows progress towards goals, and produces good work habits. When I am in the classroom, I will more likely resort to the reporting way of grading my students. That way they are always aware of what they are going to get for a grade, and they are never ambushed with the grade they received.

Matt Towle
This chapter was all about the grading and reporting systems that are compatible with responsive teaching and differentiation. This was a very interesting chapter because many of the techniques this book spoke against were techniques used by many of my high school teachers. Teachers shouldn't use weighted grades or overall averages with report cards because this leads to lower-end students not caring and upper-end students to not have to work hard for good grades. Instead the authors promoted grading based on the following criteria: achievement, progress and work habits. This will affect my in my classroom because I think it will be difficult to get out of the grading systems I am already used to. The way I was graded in high school is the way I am comfortable with so I will have to try to grade based on the above three criteria.

Erin
Chapter 8 of UbD/DI book discusses grading and reporting achievements. I learned that the main reason behind grading is “to communicate to important audiences, such as students and parents, high-quality feedback to support the learning process…” (p. 129). Like previously stated in other entries, students should know straightforward what they are going to be tested. Teachers should grade the main ideas, not little, unimportant details. Grading on a curve is preferred as well, so that students do not compete. Not only should students receive letter grades as a final analysis of what they learned, but design a portfolio, have parent teacher conferences, etc. This chapter impacted me because I thought that it was normal to grade by average, but it is better to grade on a curve. For my classroom, especially for math, I think it would be more beneficial to grade on a curve. This way, students would not compete with one another and I could base their grade on with the consideration of the other students in the class.

Bri Douglass
In this chapter it talks about effective grading and reporting. Principle 6 was especially interesting to me because it says, “When other ingredients beyond achievement are included in a grade (e.g. effort, completing work on time, class participation, progress, attendance, homework, attitude, behavior, etc), the problem becomes self-evident. Three students could earn the same grade for very different reasons” (133). Part of me is like of course effort and completing work is on time but then again the book makes a good point about the three students getting the same grade. As a future teacher I’m not sure if I believe that a finally grade should be based solely on achievement because I think effort is a huge part of school and life. Every one of my teachers has always based our grade on multiple factors and so therefore this is something completely new to me. I’m on the fence about this principle.

Kelly Steinhagen
This chapter narrows in on the effective ways to grade student work so that the student understands what he or she did best and what needs improvement. There are six important factors that a teacher needs to remember to do in order to have effective grades. Some of the key factors that I found particularly important include having the grades relate to the learning outcomes and goals, using valid sources of evidence for grades, and already having an established criteria that avoids "winners" and "losers". These principles also include one that states that not everything should be graded. This one struck me the most because I feel like most of my teachers were all about grades, but it would have been nice to have more teachers that included work that was not instantly going to be graded. It is more important that the students are learning the material rather than what grade they get on a worksheet while they are still in the process of learning. I now want to ensure that my classes will have a variety of work and will avoid grading work that is just to help students understand the material.

Lyzz Stevenson
Chapter 8: In this chapter grading accurately in a differentiated classroom is discussed. Students should be graded on their own achievements and learning and not to be compared with the rest of the class. The book mentions that students should e graded on achievement of goals, progression of goals and work habits. By grading progressively, a student can see their actual progress and know that they are learning the material correctly and in a timely fashion. I think this is important to let students know how they are doing as they work towards their final product so they are fully prepared and are not surprised. The book also advises teachers to stay away from grading averages and curves as this is not an accurate representation of how and what students have learned.

Jenn Baum
Chapter 8: Grading and Reporting Achievement I think this was a really important chapter in this book because it tied the concept of differentiated instruction and understanding by design into the context of teachers fairly assigning grades to their students. It stressed the main goal of grading, which is to accurately and successfully communicate and report to both students and parents the success of the student in learning. In that sense, it should not matter when a student learns, but rather what and how much they learned. There are several different tips and guidelines that teachers should consider when applying UbD and DI to grading in their classroom. For starters, grading should assess the stated goals and performance standards that were planned out ahead of time. Also, if you are trying to accurately communicate the level of success of a student, you want to make sure to eliminate any biases that would allow a student to be graded down based on a learning disability or anything else that would prevent them from showing their true understanding. As a student, I remember how intense the competition between classmates can get where one person does a better job than others and they all compare themselves in a way that makes some students feel like they failed completely just based on a letter or number grade. I think it will be kind of difficult at times to include this proposed grading strategy into classes especially when avoiding averages, but I think that in order to fairly assess students, it is important to communicate and reflect a students true understanding in a fair way as well.

Ryan Pelletier
This chapter focused on when grading and assessments are important. Grading should only be used to measure if you are trying to see if your students understood the main goals. Grading should not be used to compare students or your classes. Assessment and feedback are much more powerful tools towards benefiting your students. When I was in high school feedback was unheard of. I was taught so much to get a grade, that when a teacher did do the right thing and provided me with feedback I took it as an insult. In life, students will not get a grade; they will receive praised or negative feedback. Students need to be able to receive input that has a deeper meaning. I will try to prepare my students for the real world by providing plenty of feedback, and only grading what the main idea is.

Megan Wallace
In this chapter I learned about the role grading has in teaching. Our school systems have become so grade oriented that it is impossible to get away from them. It is important as a teacher to remember that these grades should reflect the achievements that the students accomplish. I will make sure that my students know exactly what will be expected of them on their assignments that way they aren't surprised by anything. I also plan on having assignments that won't be graded that way my students will learn to learn for learning's sake. I had never thought of grading based on the median or mode instead of the mean. This makes sense though. The mean is far more affected by extremes than either the median or the mode.

Justin Stewart
Chapter eight focused on grading and reporting grades in a differentiated classroom. I found that this chapter was really interesting because it reminded me of all my teachers going through school. I never thought about using a curve system or a weighted system of grading. This type of teaching can hurt some students on both ends of the spectrum. The use of a bell curve is not a good representation of how students should be achieving. My students will hopefully have a high end toward the A end and very few at the F side of the grading scale. Students should not get an A in a class where students normally get C’s or D’s and then get C’s or D’s in classes where students get A’s or B’s.

Alyssa Wadsworth
I have always thought of a grade as a number related to how well I had done on an assignment, but most of the time I thought of the teacher sitting comfortably and evaluating my assignment to decide a number and a letter grade; I did not think of grading as a process the way the book described it. “…a grade should represent a definable degree of proficiency related to important goals.” This impacts me because this clarifies for me my role because I have never been a good judge because I like to give people the benefit of the doubt most of the time. However, if I set standards for my students, like a huge general rubric, then we all know what they are measuring up to and my job is not to play judge but evaluator. This means for my students that they do not have to imagine me as the teacher sitting at home and setting different standards for each assignment based on its individuality; they will know the standards as well.

Kaitlyn Haase
In chapter 8 I learned about the six principles of grading. The principles that impact me most are “Grades and reports should be based on clearly specified learning goals and performance standards” and “Grades should be based on established criteria, not on arbitrary norms.” The first principle I stated impacts me, because as a teacher and a student I understand how important clarity in expectations and standards are to learning. Working on my rubrics, specifically has helped me understand this. The second principle I stated is so important! One of my professors here at UMF just went over his grading method for our test grades and he told us that he believes the standard 90-100 A grading scale is chosen arbitrarily. As a teacher I will have to follow a certain grading scale by policy, but personally I agree with my professor; students should be grading according to each task not by an arbitrarily chosen scale.

Taylor Kemp
This chapter talked all about grading. It talked specifically on how grading is to show students how they are doing as well as parents. It is to give feedback. Also what the criteria for grading is should be clear. There should be no surprises come grading time for the student. It should only be on what they actually learned. Also this chapter talked about grading on a curve. This is something that I will not do as a teacher. It does not show the student their true grade. Also it promotes competition with grading, where they should only be competing with themselves to get that higher grade. Both of these aspects will impact my classroom because I will know to only grade the solid parts of work, not trivial things.

Olivia Norris
In chapter 8 of UbD, I learned about grading. In this chapter, it said there are 6 principles of grading students work. I understand so much more now how grading is helpful for students to understand how well they understand the goal in mind but also to show them how to improve on their understanding of a specific goal. I hope that when I become a teacher I will use affective methods to grading my students so that everyone receives a fair and individualized grade. I need to know as a teacher that in a differentiated classroom I will have to grade according to the students best abilities.

Linda McLaughlin
//Chapter Eight: Grading and Reporting Achievement// In this chapter, I learned about the importance of grading. There are six principles of grading: 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. Grades shouldn't be used all the time within the classroom. Sometimes different assessments should just be used as benchmarks to see progress of learning. This impacted me because I recognize a lot of these principles in classes I've had in the past. A lot of my teachers didn't always use grades for everything, and they were always very clear as to how they were grading us. This will impact my classroom because I plan to use graded and non-graded assessments in my classroom. I want my grades to represent growth and learning.