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.