Chapter 14

Chapter 14: progress reports and report cards are big deals to some students and other couldn’t care less about them. I think that finding a balance for students in this is key. Progress reports are important as they let students and their parents know how they are mastering the material throughout the semester and year. I like the idea of keeping an online grading system so students can check their overall progress whenever they want or need. The chapter also discusses how it is important to have comments and suggestions on the report card and not just a letter grade. Receiving just a letter grade is not sufficient feedback.

Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Having and efficient and effective grade book is important as a teacher. In this chapter multiple options of organizations are suggested. I liked the idea of color coding in my grade book. It would help me be visually organized and to create a better grading system to use in my classroom. The chapter also mentions the grade book in a differentiated classroom. Obviously every teacher will have their own system and create their own form of organization. There is no right way to have a grade book as long as it works for you.

Chapter 12

Chapter 12: This chapter talks about the different ways of grading. It highlights on the use of grading rubrics. The use of rubrics are good as students are given the criteria on which they will be graded ahead of time and can continue to check their work as they go. The downside to using rubrics is that you have to create them very specifically. If there are any loopholes, students will find them and use them. I do like to use rubrics though because it tells the students exactly what you are looking for in their final product. This also builds the student-teacher relationship.

Chapter 11

Chapter 11: In this chapter, the grading of student work is discussed as a difficult topic. One of the biggest issue or topic of the chapter was how incomplete work or late work should be graded. Should students receive a zero or a sixty for the work that they did or did not do. Both would be a failing grade, but giving a zero would have less of an impact on students’ final grade. I think that this is an interesting issue. In my class I think that I will give sixties instead of zeros because I do not want the focus of my class to be on the homework. That way if students have a less supportive home life after school then they still have the chance to make up the ten points instead of seventy.

Fair Isn't Always Equal: Chapter 10

Chapter 10: This chapter discusses how students should be allowed a chance to redo their work. Some people learn best from their mistakes. Giving students a second chance to complete the assessment to their satisfaction and the teachers’ satisfaction will help the student learn the material and master it. I think it is important to allow students to redo their work as not all students learn at the same speed and this will allow for students who need extra time to have that time. The challenge will be to make sure that students who are not redoing an assignment become overwhelmed by other assignments.

Fair Isn't Always Equal: Chapter 9

Chapter 9: This chapter discusses ways to differentiate assessments. The chapter discussed ten major areas that students should be graded on. Surprisingly enough, homework is not one of them. I support this statement as I think that homework is another form of learning and teachers need to be grading their students on the mastery of the material not how they learn. I think that as a teacher I will not assign homework very often as it is just as important to give students a break from school as it is to learn and master the material.

Fair Isn't Always Equal: Chapter 8

Chapter 8: This chapter continues to talk about grading. Not necessarily the actually letter or number grade but what is being graded. In the book, grading a student’s participation, attendance and effort is not supported. Students should be grades should focus on the mastery of the subject. I think that this is important because mastery of the subject is the goal of teaching a student. If a student has mastered the material then they have put some effort into the subject.