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.

Fair Isn't Always Equal: Chapter 7

Chapter 7: This chapter discussed assessments and how important it is to have consistent grading. When students are given a letter grade, it symbolizes how well they learned the material. If no feedback is given then this system of assessing is useless to the student. Students strive to have good grades and it is important that teachers support them and their work by giving feedback, whether it is through formative assessment or written feedback on a final product. I think that this is very important as students learn from their own mistakes. I will try to provide feedback early and often so my students will know how they are doing and any improvements that could be made.

Fair Isn't Always Equal: Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Creating good testing questions is key as a teacher. The questions should reflect a student’s readiness and mastery of the subject. The questions should be effective and efficient. The chapter also mentions that part of making a good test is the timing of feedback. There was a suggestion to have students’ record answers in two different places when taking the test. Once finished, the teacher collects the test and one copy while the students have another copy to read from as the teacher goes over the correct answers. I really liked this idea and I hope to use it in my classroom to give my students feedback as soon as possible.

Fair Isn't Always Equal: Chapter 5

Chapter 5: In this chapter we learned about tiering assessments to challenge students if need be. There were several examples of tiering given in the chapter that could make an assignment or assessment more complex or challenging. Tiering can also be referred to as scaffolding. This is important to do in a classroom as students will grow and use the skills and knowledge learned and apply it to other subject areas. I think that I will use a learning contract in my classroom to show students that we are on the same level of respect and learning. Another thing that I could use in my classroom is the tic-tac-toe activity square. This will help keep me teaching to all kinds of learners using the multiple intelligences.

Fair Isn't Always Equal: Chapter 4

Chapter 4: There are three important types of assessments that should be used in the classroom as they are beneficial to both teacher and student. Having students build a portfolio is a great way to engage them in their learning after products have been created. They can watch themselves grow as learners. Rubrics and self assessments were also suggested in this chapter. Rubrics are a good tool of communicating to students of what is expected of them and gives them a set of well thought out guidelines. Self assessments will help students establish goals and give feedback to educators. I plan to use all three of these assessments in my classroom as they seem to keep the teacher-student relationship close and in tune.

Fair Isn't Always Equal: Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Assessment is the most effective way to measure a students learning. Pre-assessing students is helpful as it gives you a sense of previous knowledge. From here teachers can give appropriate formative assessments and summative assessments. Pre assessments also allow teachers to modify their outline for a unit if need be. It is important when teaching not to assume students knowledge of anything. This way you can cover everything relevant and students will not fell overwhelmed. This is important to me as some science subjects over lap and some information could be skipped.

Fair Isn't Always Equal: Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Differentiated Instruction is a way of teaching by bringing struggling up to par with the rest of the class. This is done by providing support through scaffolding. Students who are at a slower learning level are given the tools necessary to learn at the same level as the average student. This is valuable information as a teacher. Instead of lowering the level of learning for everybody, struggling students can learn at the necessary level for success. This is important so as to build better students. Students who learn with this style will become more successful as they will be more willing to take risks.