FIAE+Chapter+8+Block+1



**Abstract and Synthesis** Chapter 8: Why Do We Grade and What About Effort, Attendance, and Behaviors?

__Abstract__ Chapter 8 analyzes the importance of grading effort, attendance, and behavior. Wormeli states that "a grade should be a clear and accurate indicator of what a student knows and is able to do - mastery." (103) Therefore, it is important to weigh the significance of effort, attendance, and behavior in relation to mastery of content. If participation or behavior is the actual skill being taught, then it should be graded. If these factors do not directly relate to the content, then they should not be included in the grade, as they distort the true meaning of the grade and lead to inaccurate reports of student mastery.

__Synthesis__ Overall, there seem to be varied opinions on how the factors of effort, attendance, and behavior should or shouldn't be factored into a student's grade. Some believe that these factors should not be included at all unless behavior, attendance, and effort are the skills that are being directly assessed for mastery. When we start grading students based on factors not directly applicable to content, we start "emphasizing compliance, not learning." (103) Others think that effort, attendance, and behavior should be a part of the grade, but only have a minimal impact on the overall grade. Still others think that while attendance and behavior should not be included in the grade, effort should. The argument here is that if a student has given their best effort on the material but still is not grasping the concept, it is a reflection on the teacher and their style of teaching, not the student. It is important for a teacher to develop [|grading practices] that work for them and their students. There are many [|different methods to grading and assessing], but keeping in mind the true goal of the grade will help create grades that truly reflect a student's level of mastery.

*Synthesized by Cidney Mayes

Sam Leal
toc Chapter 8: Why Do We Grade, and What About Effort, Attendance, and Behavior?

This chapter came at a perfect timing. Effort is something I’m very big on because I’m a believer in that effort and doing the right thing is as important as almost anything. But how do you grade it? Or should it be graded or just something that’s expected? Or something the teacher needs to motivate the student without grades? In chapter 8 of FIAE it points out how grades are meant to assist student learning be a positive thing. To help provide feedback to the student and hi/her learning process, to show the growth of knowledge. Not as a means to punish, sort or motivate students. Which is so true and in my opinion all teachers need to think that way. The goal as a teacher is seeing the best in every student and wanting them to succeed in learning.

The chapter covers how to grade participation and if it should be graded. The chapters tone seems pretty against it; which I agree with, but I also would never rule it out. I think it definitely can be a positive aspect of assisting a students learning. Also the chapter seems to emphasize that students need to learn to the standards quite a bit. I understand that, it just comes off in a way that doesn’t sound right to me. Also when it comes to grading effort and behavior, it’s really hard. And I understand that it’s not a good thing to show a student that they can just put a lot of effort in and make a poor product. But I also will always take it into consideration just naturally because I believe that it will help.

Ethan Guthrie Herrell
Fair Isn’t Always Equal: Chapter 8

Grading is boring. Someone had to say it. And as this chapter brings up, not only is it boring, (particularly because it is at the tail end of a process that was exciting and meaningful), but emotionally and mentally draining. Teachers feel it is the salt rubbed in the wound created by their insane work schedules. One excellent point I read about that was that grading behavior obscures the focus on mastery. Behavior should be taken care of BEFORE any sort of learning can begin. A kid can’t learn if she’s still throwing chairs around the room. Behavior and learning are different things, and so have to be handled in somewhat different ways.

The author agrees, though, that participation isn’t undeserving a feedback, especially if low attendance is hurting a child’s learning, it just shouldn’t be a grade, in a sense. Tell them how they are doing, but don’t say they have a “D” in attendance. Attendance itself isn’t an essential understanding.

But most troubling to me was the questioning of grading effort. Grading effort, too, obscures our focus on the essential understandings. And now that I think about, I can’t think of a situation where a student bleeding their hear out to get something done and still have it come out poorly-unless of course the student was assignment something unreasonable in the first place, and in that case the teacher needs to think about their curriculum.

Cidney
The big question of this chapter is about whether effort, attendance, and behavior should be accounted for in a student’s grade. A teacher’s bias, attitude, and mood should not affect how they grade, and grades should never be used to punish or sort students. So, how should these factors be accounted for, or ignored, in determining grades?

I agree with Wormeli in that unless effort, attendance, or behavior are the subjects being tested for mastery, then they should not be included in a grade. Whether a student shows up for class or not is their responsibility, and their ability to meet expectations and achieve mastery in my class will be reflective of whether they were there or not. Their attendance is sort of built into the grade already, it seems. Same thing applies to effort. If a student is giving a solid effort, then they will most likely achieve the expectations and level of mastery necessary for them to succeed.

Elizabeth Sargent
Grades have always been a sore subject if they turn out to be bad in my household, so I always strove to attain the highest grade possible, no matter what was required in classes. Did it matter if I understood? Not really. Did it matter if I did it good enough to receive a good grade? Yes. Unlike some students mentioned in this chapter, if I did achieve a bad grade I worked even harder to get that grade back up. I was often distraught and upset that I had received a low grade for all the work I had done, but I did what I had to do. Truthfully, a low grade does harm the mental capacity of students. I was never hurt through overall grades through attendance, participating, or behavioral grades though. I was always in class, I was always on time, I was always on good behavior. That is how I have been brought up and it disturbed me to see others behave in disrespectfully. But when my grade did drop it was usually through something I didn’t understand, and that was relevant to the content/curriculum of the chapter. I would find a way to talk the teacher into either letting me revise or to do a part of the project again. Participation points, effort, and attendance grades were a part of some of my classes that were not really content oriented as much as others. Classes like Spanish, Physical Education, and Wellness were mostly graded for participation and then mild test scores over the entire curriculum. While I believe that these should be a part of the class, they should not be a big part of a grade for the class.

Jordan Hale
When considering grading for participation behavior and effort, it is important to step back and think about what grades are for. Grades help evaluate teacher/student progress, provide feedback to the student and help aid the direction of the teacher’s instruction. Grades can also motivate, or unmotivated, punish or even sort students. Grades are supposed to assess how the student has reached a certain standard, yet grading for participation or effort or behavior does not do that, unless the unit is on participation, effort or behavior. One example the book uses where participation might help is when you have a student who doesn’t have a great home situation and, because of that, usually misses classes due to behind suspended or absent and rarely turns in work that is done outside of class. But, in class, the teacher has nothing but good things to say and describes the struggling student as “too much an active learner in my class [to fail him]” (106). This is where a fine line it drawn as to how to incorporate the intangibles into grading. I believe that evaluating based solely on effort is not fair, but depending on certain circumstances may help children go in the right direction. One thing that I still have a question over is at the end of the year, it a student is teetering on the line of failing or not, and the student has worked their butt off, done everything you have asked and worked over hurdles to learn, can you give them two ‘participation points’ to bump them over the failing line? I understand that this could be seen as selecting favorites or unfair, but I can also make a case for why it should happen. I guess it is a case by case basis but some more insight on this topic would really help me out!

Emily Haskell
Chapter 8: Why Do We Grade, and What About Effort, Attendance, and Behavior?

It is very true that many teachers feel as though they are drowning today. They are stuck grading all kinds of test, quizzes, papers and homework, and after a while teachers come to resent it. It gets to the point where teachers are looking for assignments just to fill the grade book. We have said before that because of the way the grading system is set up students can begin to forget about the purpose of education. They begin to do their work in order to obtain a good grade and many times do not even really teach the information.

So can’t the same be true for teachers? Has it gotten to a point where teachers have forgotten the purpose of education and are just doing the work to get the grades? We know that we need to teach meaningful content in a way that will stick with the students, but we must also be mindful of grading and assessment. So why do we grade the way we do. As I said in response to the previous chapter I think that as a teacher I find assessment very important, but think that things like specific written feedback is extremely important.

When grading, it is important to remember that students learn differently, so maybe their evaluations should be given differently. The ten approaches to avoid while grading and assessing differentially. They are on pages 112-129: 10.Avoid using norm-referenced terms to describe criterion-referenced attributes. These tips help center the grading process on what is being learned, not anything else. What I like about this list is the fact that they used the word //avoid//. They did not say you cannot every do these things, but avoid them as much as possible. Being a teacher, you will never know what is going to happen so it is good to be on your toes. For instance I will most likely record zeros in the grade book. I will not leave them their if the student chooses to do the work, but I will put the zero in the book if that is was the student has learned. I will use that grade as a motivation tool, not a bribe, to better their education. I will give them a chance to learn what they missed through that activity or worksheet. I will not give them the same work, depending on the situation, because I want them to learn, not just do the work to get the grade. Another one I disagree with extra credit. My plan, as of now, is to incorporate bonus material throughout the year. On certain projects, there will be some extra learning involved that will benefit the student. If they do the learning, I will give them what they earned.
 * Jordan Hale**
 * 1) Avoid incorporating nonacademic factors such as behavior, attendance and effort, into the final grade.
 * 2) Avoid penalizing students’ in multiple attempts at master.
 * 3) Avoid grading homework.
 * 4) Avoid withholding assistive with the learning when it’s needed.
 * 5) Avoid assessing students in ways that do no accurately indicate their mastery.
 * 6) Avoid allowing extra credit and bonus points.
 * 7) Avoid group grades.
 * 8) Avoid grading on a curve.
 * 9) Avoid recording zeros for work not done.

Colby Hill
FIAE Chapter 8 One of the strongest points of a chapter is the beginning, and this chapter opens up with a great quote. “We can teach and students can learn, even brilliantly, without any sort for grade being in the picture” (101). I’ve mentioned this in other responses, but this idea seems so right. So much is placed on the grade that it can actually seem to get in the way of learning itself. A lot of this chapter is the idea of grading attendance and other factors besides content. I tend to believe that a student should be graded on attendance, because how can they possible “get” the content if they are never here? Makes my job different if I always have to get the work to them and it feels somewhat unfair. But Wormeli makes valid points when he says “suddenly we’re emphasizing compliance, not learning, and we’re off course” (103). I do think high school, and school itself, is somewhat about getting the student ready for real life. In such cases, attendance should be taken into consideration even a little bit because you can’t just drop responsibilities. Grading to punish, sort, and motivate students should definitely be looked down upon. However, as soon as someone starts grading, those things may just happen without meaning. Sorting the kids based on their grades may just be something you do on accident, even if it isn’t really the right thing to do. The last think I’ll say is about the stress related to grading. I guess there isn’t much to say except “way to try and ruin it for me, Wormeli.”

Karina Sprague
FIAE: Chapter 8: Why Do We Grade and What About Effort, Attendance, and Behaviors?

This chapter talked about the meaning behind grading and what is important/unimportant to grade. I agreed with the majority of this chapter. The author relates the lack of meaning behind grading attendance by saying it is like giving everyone that shows up for a test a 100, even if they got every question wrong. This analogy is what really stood out to me and made me realize how stupid grading attendance can be. Grades should be based on mastery, and what students know, learn, and make progress on, not whether they are there are not. Also, a student can physically be in a room and not mentally be there. Likewise, a student can miss a couple classes but still understand the concepts and have a high mastery of the material. Grading based on attendance is useless and does not give a clear depiction of the students understanding or mastery at all.

Similarly, we should not grade behaviors. It is possible for a student to act up in class but still fully understand the material and have a high mastery. It is even possible that the lesson is too boring or repetitive, or easy, for the student so they are acting up to waste time. If a student’s mastery is affected by their behavior, they will in turn get lower grades, so there is not use giving them an additional low grade.

However, I think we should grade based on effort. If a student tries very hard on a test and always worked hard in class, but still does not fully understand the concept, I would see that as a failure on my part as the teacher. If a student tries really hard, they should be rewarded.

Spencer Hodge
Chapter 8 of Fair Isn’t Always Equal talks about grading yet again, but focuses on three different areas of grading, effort, attendance and behavior, and whether or not we as teachers should even consider these three to be a part of our final grade for students. Participation is a borderline area to grade in my opinion. Since everyone is different, one person’s participation might not be the same as another person’s participation, so having to always adjust based on that would cause nightmares for me as a teacher. Having just said that, I can see devoting a small percentage to a participation grade, that way there are minimal consequences to someone who doesn’t wish to participate often in class, or can drastically help a student’s grade. Attendance isn’t even something I would think of grading. Even though it is technically a student’s job to go to school and learn, their grade shouldn’t suffer just because they miss a day or two, it’s not fair to them as they probably had a good reason for not being in school that day. Behavior is another area where I will refuse to even devote a small percentage of the final grade to. If a student misbehaves in class, I’m not going to dock off points just for it. That’s not the type of teacher I want to be. Sure, I am going to get students in my classroom who constantly misbehave, but by constantly docking points off from their grade, I’m suddenly not grading them based off of their knowledge of social studies, but rather based on how well they know how to behave. Even if a student behaves well in my class, I’m not going to award them bonus points of some sort just for cooperating with me and their classmates. The end result is basically me grading them on how well they behaved, which is a heavily biased opinion. Grades in my classroom will be given out on their comprehension and demonstration in many ways of the content that I teach my students and nothing more.