FIAE 11, 12, 13, 14

Chapter 11 discussed some major grade issue that every teacher faces. It talked about giving a student a sixty versus giving them a zero because even though they’re both failings grades, but a zero is going to have the bigger impact on their overall grade. It also discussed grading for honors students, weight grades, late work, and students with special needs. These are a wide spectrum of concerns, but depending on how you choose to treat them can impact the accuracy of your grading. If you give a student with special needs an F because he did not exactly meet the standard for his grade level, that is not accurate. Giving a student at F makes it seem as though they made no progress at well when most likely that isn’t true. At this moment I’m leaning toward using a 4-point grading scale because there is less damage to the overall grade to give a student a lower grade using this scale.

Chapter 12 discussed grading scales, and it mostly focused on 100-point scales and 4-point scales. The good thing about 4-point scales is that they tend to be more consistent among multiple graders because they make “individual distortions less likely.” A couple of things that I really liked that were mentioned in this chapter were the “Logic Rule,” and the idea of not using the minus version of letter grades. I think that if you have seen a student get 4’s and 5’s consistently throughout the semester that it only makes sense to give that student an A. They clearly have done some outstanding work, and I think it makes more sense to look at the mode rather than the mean. I liked the idea of not using the minus version of letter grades because I think the author is right when he says that it’s not a motivator in anyway. Even if it’s an A- you know a kid is looking at that like they were not that far away from a B, and that is what they probably deserved. I will definitely try to look at the overall picture when deciding final grades instead of just taking the average.

Chapter 13 and 14 focused on gradebook formats, which I never saw as a huge concern until now. From chapter 13 I liked the idea of matching up the grades to the standard that students are trying to reach. If you do it this way you know exactly what students achieved and what they struggled with. From chapter 14 I was able to see the importance of letting the parents know what standards their children are trying to meet, and if their progressing as they should. Again, this is something I never thought about as a major concern, but I can definitely see how it is of importance. I think it is good that I was able to get some ideas of how I might set up my own gradebook someday.

FIAE 7, 8, 9, 10

    Chapter 7 of FIAE discusses the nature of grading and how to define it. In this chapter I agreed with the statement that teachers today are placing too much emphasis on grades today. So much so that students see getting a good grade as their only motivation to complete their school work. I also agreed that when it comes to grading each teacher brings their own life experiences into how they grade. One thing that I connected with in this chapter was when it talked about how in some classrooms meeting the standard is an A, but in others an A would be exceeding the standards. This is something that had really bugged me in school. I feel as though if a student knows the information, and shows that they know and understand it they should get an A. I will definitely encourage all my students to exceed the standards, but I’m not going to lower their grade if they don’t. 
    Chapter 8 of FIAE essentially questioned whether or not we should include criteria other than mastery in grading. The other criteria that was considered was behavior, effort, and attendances, and the general consensus was that it should not be included in grading, only in some circumstances. These circumstances only include when the said criteria applies to the standard that students are trying to achieve. In general, I really like this idea of only grading students based on mastery. I feel that it not only has opened up my imagination when it comes to grading and evaluation, but I feel that it will also make students feel incredibly comfortable in the classroom. 
    Chapter 9 of FIAE focused on things to avoid when differentiating assessment and grading. I have to admit that I find this book quite funny and amusing at times. Under the first two approaches it says teachers who deny their students the opportunity to redo or revise assignments should, essentially, reevaluate their purpose in the classroom. I think this is great, I don’t know why, but I feel that teachers often lose themselves, and their reasons for being a teacher after years of teaching. I also appreciated the statement made about feedback saying that if we want students to take our feedback seriously they need to know that they will actually have the opportunity to do something with it. How is that feedback useful to them if they can’t even do anything with it?
    Chapter 10 of FIAE talked about how you should handle letting students redo or revise work. I agreed with a lot of the idea in this chapter, but especially the idea that as long as students don’t make asking for extensions a habit, it should be an option. I also liked the idea of sitting down with a student to create a plan when they do ask for an extension, or a redo. I think it is important to develop those planning, and time management skills in students.