FIAE+Chapter+9+Block+1


 * 1) Click on edit this page.
 * 2) Use the down arrow on your keyboard to get the cursor underneath the horizontal bar.
 * 3) Type your name, highlight your name and then select Heading 3 at the top.
 * 4) Copy and paste your reflection underneath your name.
 * 5) Insert a horizontal bar under your reflection.
 * 6) Click save

Sam Leal
Chapter 9: Ten Approaches to Avoid When Differentiating Assessment and Grading

Chapter 9 of FIAE discusses ways teachers often try differentiating assessment that often doesn’t always help the learning of the instruction. The first was discussed in the last chapter. To avoid incorporating nonacademic factors, such as behavior, attendance, and effort into the final grade. Here are the nine others:


 * 1) 1. Avoid penalizing students’ multiple attempts at mastery.
 * 2) 2. Avoid grading practice (homework).
 * 3) 3. Avoid withholding assistance with the learning when it’s needed.
 * 4) 4. Avoid assessing students in ways that do not accurately indicate their mastery.
 * 5) 5. Avoid allowing extra credit and bonus points.
 * 6) 6. Avoid group grades.
 * 7) 7. Avoid grading on a curve.
 * 8) 8. Avoid recording zeros for work not done.
 * 9) 9. Avoid using norm-referenced terms to describe criterion-referenced attributes.

I wanted to list these because so many of them are things we see in teaching everyday. The rationales are very important to read, and there are some that I may or may not follow when I’m teaching. But it’s important to learn their side. One thing I liked most and hadn’t often seen is recording a zero or a low degree of failure as a 60. It’s true that a zero curves a grade far too much. Failure is not learning the material very well, and there shouldn’t be varying degrees of that. I also really like the one that say’s to avoid not giving full credit on retakes. The rationale explains this perfectly to me and that it really does go against teaching development, which is what teachers should be striving for.

Ethan Guthrie Herrell
Fair Isn’t Always Equal: Chapter 9,

Right off the bat, I found this fascinating argument against many a teachers’ retry policy. If we do penalize a student for having to start over, then we’re sending a truly bizarre and hypocritical message: that how they will do has already been determined. They get only one shot up at bat, and that their little they can do to fix it. It’s practically an argument for nature’s conquest over nurture (albeit a distorted version of that debate). It also makes an arbitrary decision about what pace students are supposed to learn at based on the performance of other students: a comparison that is inappropriate to give weight to.

Another practice that the author argues against is the grading of homework. It is meant to be practice for a summative assessment, and in that sense is a formative assessment. It is midway through the learning process, and as such can’t be judged. Formative and summative would be mismatched. The chapter also recommends that the teacher never use extra credit. toc

Cidney
This chapter discusses ten practices to avoid when assessing and grading students. Teachers should, according to Wormeli, avoid grading nonacademic factors such as behavior and attendance, should not penalize students' multiple attempts at mastery, avoid grading practice homework, should give assistance for learning when needed, avoid extra credit or bonus points. They should also avoid group grades, not grade with a curve, avoid recording zeros for work not done, and avoid using norm-referenced term to describe criterion-referenced attributes. Most of the “don’ts” are accompanied by a short example from an actual teacher that demonstrates why these practices should be avoided.

A lot of these “don’ts” seem like common sense to me. For instance, I would never offer enough extra credit so that a students grade could be falsely inflated and not be an accurate measure of the students level of mastery. The concept of allowing a student to redo assessments or assignments for full credit is a little new to me, but makes sense when keeping in mind that not all students learn at the same rate. As the book puts it “‘We don’t want to admonish students for not learning at the same pace as their classmates’” (115). In my class I will allow students to make up work and redo assignments for higher grades, but will have requirements. One of these requirements would be a student-teacher conference where feedback is given and what needs to be improved is discussed. Both teacher and student would come up with a completion plan, and then the redo work would be turned in on an agreed date.

Elizabeth Sargent
In chapter nine of //Fair Isn’t Always Equal//, there was a list of ten approaches to avoid when differentiating instruction. When differentiating instruction it can be easy to focus solely on instruction and not on grading with differentiation. This chapter lets teachers know 10 things they should avoid doing when grading a differentiated assessment.

Of the ten things there were many that I agreed with, but there were a couple that I thought were only half true. For instance, the grading of practice or homework should be avoided. I don’t think this is true in its entirety because I have often been graded for homework assignments. They are a helpful critique to assess where a students is in their mastery. Homework also shows how much effort students are putting into the class and learning the topic. It is good to have checkpoints to show student understanding throughout the course, and giving students ample time to practice is not only helpful, but students should undertake that opportunity. While it is also good to give feedback on homework on what students get wrong, they should be able to do those problems again until they understand them. Then receive the full mark for the grade. I also didn’t believe in avoiding extra credit or bonus points. But after reading this chapter, I see now why teachers in the past refused to let me do extra credit. But I also now know what they should have done instead, given me the chance to do the assignment over. Most teachers didn’t let me do the assignment over, and I was left not knowing enough about the topic and a bad grade, it’s a lose, lose situation. =

=

Emily Haskell
Chapter 9: Ten Approaches to Avoid When Differentiating Assessment and Grading

I find it interesting that this chapter said that a teacher should almost never include such things as behavior, attendance and effort. For as long as I can remember my grades have always included these things. We have been told that all of these things can help us succeed in our academic endeavors. They include these types of things in our grades to show us that if we have good attendance and put in the right amount of effort we can do anything we set our minds to. While this is true, it sometimes makes the grade seem like a joke to students.

In high school I once had a class where half of our grade was solely participation and attendance. Students never paid attention to the work. They didn’t do their homework and they didn’t study. Instead students came into class and talked whenever they could. Most of the time they weren’t even on topic, but the teacher gave them full credit anyways.

It is also interesting to hear that a teacher should not grade homework. This is another practice that I have had to endure my entire academic career. Like the book said, homework is meant to be practice. But then there are other questions to ask. Is it reasonable to count homework in the grade if you are only looking at the completion rather than seeing if it is wrong or right?

Colby Hill
FIAE chap 9 Many of the different ideas and things to avoid on this chapter I would like to challenge. The whole list is from 113 – 129, but only a few I will have the space to talk about. The first one is avoiding the inclusion of behavior, attendance, and effort. Many of this I talked about in the previous reading, so I won’t get into it again, but I will say this: we are trying to prepare them to be adults! 2. Avoid penalizing students’ multiple attempts at mastery. I agree with this, but I wanted to challenge Wormeli right away with the idea “what if a student just blows it off to make it up later?” He talked about this in the segment though, with the solution being a clear indication to the student that you hold the idea. If you think a student isn’t taking an assignment seriously, you can reserve the right to deny them permission to make up that assignment. This works nicely because it allows student to still get their mastery and keep them from being lazy. 3. Avoid grading practice (homework) on page 116. I really do have an issue with this one. It is possible to give homework that can be completed without a tough time for the students. I realize that we shouldn’t have students learn new things from homework, which is very true and I believe it, but the students should definitely be graded somewhat on it because otherwise they may not do it. I probably wouldn’t have in high school.

Karina Sprague
Chapter 9: Ten Approaches to Avoid When Differentiating Assessment and Grading

As the title states, this chapter discusses ten things you should avoid when grading. Do Not: -grade attendance or behavior -penalize students for taking too long to master something -grade homework -deny any student learning assistance -assess in a way that does not rate mastery -give group grades -give extra credit -grade on a curve -give incomplete work zeros -use terms like average, above average, or below average

Each of these ten things to avoid came with an explanation of why to avoid them. For me, all of these were pretty much common sense things, and I would never do them in my class. While reading through them, I noticed that my teachers used to do a lot of these things. For example, each class had a participation/attendance grade. I am beginning to think it was a school wide policy because literally every class had it. Also, a lot of my teachers gave work a zero if it was past two days late, but they were flexible about due dates if you needed to have an extension. And my teachers always graded homework. However, some teachers graded the actual content, while some teachers just graded whether you did it or not. After reading this chapter and chapter 8, I think that the teacher grading the content had a better grading practice. Even though they were grading homework, they were grading the mastery, not the participation.

However, I do not think that extra credit or bonus points are bad. If a student wants to go above and beyond, they should be able to do so. Also, extra credit problems on tests or worksheets are typically beneficial to students who may have missed a problem in the main section of the assessment. The extra credit questions are like a safety net.

Spencer Hodge
This chapter of Fair Isn’t Always Equal talks about ten things to avoid when differentiating assessment and grading in the classroom. The first thing that stuck out at me was the second suggestion which said to avoid penalizing students’ multiple attempts at mastery. While I do like the idea of doing this, as a teacher I cannot allow this to become a crutch for my students. The message that students could get from this could be to say by doing this is that it’s okay to not be on time with assignments, which is not how it works in the real world. I like the alternative method of allowing students to retake the exam yes, but to give full credit is unreasonable in my opinion. Something though that I can agree with is not awarding extra credit assignments for students who want a better grade. Bonus points on homework assignments, quizzes, and tests are something I will actually consider. The reason for this is because these bonus points will be earned by demonstrating complete mastery and beyond of whatever the content we are covering in my social studies class. Of course, this would be optional and there would be no consequences for students who don’t wish to do this extra part of an assignment or assessment.