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Ethan Guthrie Herrell
Fair Isn’t Always Equal: Chapter 11

This chapter is about grading (that word that is increasingly taking on a archaic and hated reputation as individual customization gains momentum in education). First on the docket is the issue of what happens when a student doesn’t do their project or turns in no work. The author strongly decides against putting in zeros in this event. Using a very grounded argument, he points out that while A’s, B’s, C’s and D’s usually have 10 or so points in their range, an F has a range of sixty points, even though it’s supposed to represent just one concept: not attaining mastery. If the 90s range and the 80s range stand for different levels of mastery, then why is it that 50 and 40 mean essentially the same thing. Putting in a 0 has a distorting effect on what we are trying know about the student.

On the issue of grading gifted students, the author devotes much time and offers no clear solutions. In general, he bemoans the problems created by letter grades. However, he recommends devoting the letter grade to the general work they do, but using the comments section to talk about the accelerated work they do. For students with special needs (those that are not gifted) it is recommended that the special needs teacher and the general education teacher agree on ahead of time of their roles.

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Sam Leal
Chapter 11: Six Burning Grading Issues

The first burning grading issue of recording a zero as a sixty is a topic that takes a little bit of a further look to make sense of. It makes sense to not want to award any points for not doing anything, but recording a 0 has a far too great impact on a grade than it should. A zero in the grade book for a students who has done well in a class and shown mastery of material will bring the student down very far and makes the final grade to low for what that student deserves.

Another topic brought up in the chapter is how to grade gifted students. There are many opinions on this and I feel that gifted students need to be graded on the regular education and curriculum that their peers are also being graded on, so it can show their mastery of that material. But situations also will be addressed with differentiated instruction and potentially being put into accelerated classrooms to fit their learning needs.

The other topics addressed in the chapter are: Weighting grades, Automaticity versus concept attainment, Grading late work, and grading special needs students in inclusion classes. Grading late work is definitely one that catches my attention. My policy I think I’ve learned is best that is if late work is occasionally then grade it for full credit on the mastery. However, if it’s a chronic problem then to meet and work things out. The idea is I want success and the student to learn and do well.

Colby Hill
FIAE Chapter 11 Finally! A chapter that is a little different. The chapter gives the reader six issues that are almost always present in any school. The zero versus sixty questions is very relatable for me. Just because a student did not turn in one assignment, should their grade suffer so much that three one hundreds turn into a seventy five? However, what about the student who turned in the assignment but did not complete it very well, earning a sixty, it’s not fair for them either. Looking at figure 11.1 really gives the reader an accurate representation. The student deserves the B+ with all the one hundreds, but the zero high effects the final grade. There are many answers to this, all trying to answer the question. I like the figure 11.4, using the mean on a 4-point scale. Grading gifted students is important for me to read because I have no idea where to begin. Big advice was similar to the book title “we choose to do what’s fair, not equal’ (142). I like the idea of an extended grading, looking at grades at the grade-level and then at the advanced section. Grading late work: this is a big one for me. Even if a student hands in the work late, but does a spectacular job, should the maximum they receive only be a seventy? It seems unfair to the student. There are other “Burning Issues” the chapter goes over, and they include grading special needs, grading automaticity versus concept, and weighting grades.

Karina Sprague
Chapter 11: Six Burning Grading Issues

The six burning grading issues are: -deciding whether to give a zero or a 60(failing grade) -how to grade gifted students -weighting Grades -efficiency versus Understanding -grading late work -how to grade special needs students in an inclusion class

I generally agreed with most of these practices and the suggestions that went along with them. I think the most important thing is to keep the grades fair, and I think the best way to do this is by differentiated instruction and grading. If you grade a student based on mastery, and only compare the student to their selves, then you will get a better idea of the student’s progression and understanding. This will also keep the grades fair because you are only grading mastery and growth.

I think that weighting grades when it comes to GPA is something that is often overlooked. Grading gifted students should also tie into weighted grades. For example, I was placed in higher level classes throughout high school because I was too advanced for the regular classes and I needed a challenge. Like most of my friends in the gifted classes, we struggled to keep our grades up because of the challenge that comes with advanced classes. Every assembly when the teachers would announce honor roll students, I was always so disappointed when other students got a higher GPA than I did. This bugged me because 99% of the time, the students with the higher GPA’s were taking gym, art, low level math classes, and easy electives. Since they were taking easy classes, they were receiving easy A’s and getting on the high honor roll while I was trying hard to get good grades, and I got on the regular honor roll. I think that electives should count as less towards a GPA, and advanced classes should count as more. In other words, the difficulty of the class should be taken into consideration when assessing final grades and GPA’s.

Cidney Mayes
Feedback is critical in the classroom, and also to parents. When parents or guardians receive their child’s report card, they want to know if their child is developing the way that they should be. There are several ways to communicate this information. Wormeli discusses adjusted curriculum where the student is graded within the context of their own progress, which allows the teacher to give the student the higher grade, while noting that the student receive adjusted curriculum. This is a good approach, because if the teacher records the grade that merely reflects where that students is in relation to the other students in the class, the value of their own personal growth and achievement is diminished. As the book puts it, that kind of grade “destroys hope” (175), and does not encourage that student who is making progress to continue to do so. Another format is the dual approach, which combines personal achievement and standard achievement. These types of grades combine letters and numbers to demonstrate their progress in class standards and numbers to represent their own personal growth.

I like both of these ideas, because they really focus on student growth and treat students as individuals. I think I favor the last method of using both standard achievement and personal growth, because it provides a big picture idea of where the students is as a whole. It is important to emphasize student growth, but also important to let parents and future teachers know where the student is in term of content and standard mastery. With the letter and number grade, both of these ends are met. Additionally, the comment section of the report card is incredibly useful for providing any additional information or feedback, and I plan on using it liberally when it comes report card time.

Elizabeth Sargent
At first glance, it may seem like the right choice to give a student a zero when they don’t do the work instead of a 60. On a 100-point sclae this will lower the students average tremendously. This chapter says that putting in a zero where an assignment was not done makes the overall grade inaccurate. But does this really seem fair? Other students may have actually done the project and still received a failing grade, and end up with the same grade as someone who didn’t do the project at all. Yet, this chapter says that giving a student a zero is not “ethically justifiable”(140). A zero will screw the grade more than intended and give the student a grade that doesn’t go with their average. Yet, how can this not be the true average if the students has not completed one assignment?

Being smart, and doing more homework than usual also has it’s downfalls. As teachers, gifted students tend to be given more work then they can keep up with in the classroom. Sometimes these students do not give as much effort when they know they are working on advanced material, but when the work is put on their report card. As teachers, we must grade those students with challenging standards all around, and give them challenging work and not just more work. This grade will give students a grade in both regular and advanced material, by making the title of the class specific to the material.

Emily Haskell
Chapter 11: Six Burning Grading Issues

In this chapter the author talks about some of the problems and questions that many teachers have with the grading process. The heading for the first section reads, “Record a Zero or a Sixty?” There are sometimes issues with what to give a student, a zero or a sixty. Some say that recording a zero is unfair to the student. If a student is a very intelligent student who does all of his or her work, but fails to turn in one assignment for whatever reason. Is it really fair and is it an accurate representation of the student’s achievements?

If you average a students grades, one zero can drastically change the grade that a student receives. However, a sixty will not drastically change a student’s final grade, but it will still be shown as an F for that assignment. Another thing that the author talked about was how to grade late work. One thing that was mentioned was that some teachers take a letter grade off for every day the assignment is late. I was victim to this type of grading and agree that this serves no one. I agree with the author when he says that teachers should alter the grade depending on the nature of the student (e.g. how late the paper is, how often the student misses work, etc).

Jordan Hale
This chapter, as the title states, talked about grades. The chapter covered grading gifted students, grading special needs students in an inclusion class and what to do about recording a zero versus a 60 when a student doesn’t do the work. Giving someone a 60 for something they didn’t do is cheating. How does that show that the student has mastered the content if they don’t have any proof? Teachers can give multiple opportunities for the student to prove their understanding of the material, but if the student consistently blows off the assignment, than they haven’t proved they can do it and it is a zero. It is the harsh reality that some people face. It is not fair for one student to but their butt and do the work on time and right and get the same grade as someone who half-assed it and just did all the parts of the work late before the end of the semester for the grade. Understanding the circumstance of the grade is very important.

One thing that I ddint even think of was grading special needs students in an inclusion class. The book offers some strategies to help deal with the moral issue of grading. First, the inclusion teacher and the special needs teacher need to be on the same page. Are you grading based on progress of mastery of the material? And how are you grading the special needs students vs the non special needs students? Both teachers must be open and on the same page when teaching and grading an inclusion class.

Spencer Hodge
Chapter 11 of Fair Isn’t Always Equal opens up with a very good question about turning a student’s grade of a zero into a sixty. I’m not entirely certain what I would do yet. I feel that if a student didn’t even make an attempt than they should not receive credit. I think I would rather allow them to do some sort of makeup, or replacement work for partial credit rather than give them something for nothing. However, if they did put a reasonable amount of effort into the assignment they would not receive anything lower than a 60. Although it is not intrinsic, perhaps this alone will motivate students to put a good amount of effort into anything they do.