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Kelsea Trefethen
Chapter 7 of FIAE was focused on clarifying was to appropriately and fairly grade students. I really liked when the chapter stated that “we bring to our grading practices our life experiences and biases.” I can definitely see how this is true. I would hope that every educator sets out to grade fairly with all biases aside, but sometime it is inadvertent. The book talked about how definitions of an A or a B differs from teacher to teacher. Obviously, it is difficult for every teacher to have the exact same definition for every grade. I wonder how these differences affect students though. In my experience, I recall having classes where I got an A for a grade and another class where I got a C. I can hear myself saying “I’m happy with a C because it was Mr. So and So’s class.” Is that okay? Clearly I had teachers who graded more harshly than others. I really liked when the chapter talked about how it is hypocritical to use above average and below average in grading. I was always told a C was average, so as long as I got a C or better I felt good because I was “above average.” That really is not true though. Teachers should stick to defining grades by achievement and not by comparison of student grades. My jaw literally dropped when I read the part where the book suggested not drawing frowning faces on low grades. I could not believe that was even a thought. What teacher would put a frowning face on a students work no matter how bad it is? I see that as a personal attack and a really unprofessional tactic.

**Johnny Buys**
Chapter 7: The Relative Nature of Grades and Their Definitions Grading can often seem unessential for anything but the end of the semester. Grading, however, plays an important role particularly with summative assessments. Grading should reflect clear criteria, knowledge of content, trend to be subjective, and not the end all “indicators of mastery” (93). Grades also can have a reverse effect on students where “ they tend to display less interest in what they are doing, fare worse on meaningful measures of learning, and avoid more difficult tasks when given the opportunity” (94). Defining common standard understanding of grades is also difficult with changing cultural and societal understandings of grade’s nature and function. One such example has “Be as the new average. C now equates ‘less than preferred’” (96). Grades also lack the flexibility required for many classrooms as “what is normal for one child may be below or above normal for another” (96). Often grades can become more reflective of students’ “luck, charisma, maturity, and the ability to ‘read’ the teacher’s intent” rather than understanding (97). Finding an effective and common grading system can be difficult. One approach that Understanding by Design and Differentiated Instruction Theories would both promote is grade temporality. In such a system, grades are temporary benchmarks highlighting what necessary work is still needed to bring the product and assessment to a full representation of understanding. Teachers who utilize this technique and model guarantee that students achieve maximum potential for understanding. This is far more beneficial than a bell curve that has some students successful while others painfully unsuccessful at understanding.

Leanne Fasulo
The seventh chapter of //Fair Isn’t Always Equal// by Rick Womeli is about “the relative nature of grades and their definitions”. People are quickly starting to realize that summative grades are turning irrelevant. Looking at a report card and seeing a child got a letter grade can tell you literally nothing about what that student learned, “we’ve aggregated so much into one little symbol, it’s no longer useful” (90). It can be easy to put a letter on a test, but there is so much to think about. How developed is this student? Are they an ESL student? What criteria was used to grade this? Using a symbol for a grade can hardly answer these questions, grades do not give feedback. Seeing a letter grade on a paper will not tell the student what they need to improve upon. Instead a teacher needs to provide formative and specific feedback for a student to be successful. Another issue that was brought up is telling the students that they all start out with a 100 and their goal is to keep it that way. This gives the message to students that “you are all wonderful now, but I’m going to document your fall” (100). This will keep students from taking chances and make mistakes. Students should be able to make mistakes, because the real learning comes in when they are able to correct them. Keeping students from taking chances will only delay their growth.

Christina L Quach
Chapter 7 of FIAE discusses grades, and then grades were defined by teachers. In this chapter when someone would describe how to grade, the idea would be challenged. The good thing about this is that each side is being shown. There are good ideas and there could be bad ones. Wormeli says, “It may serve communities and states well to increase the expectations for A-level standards so students are striving for what we consider to be excellent learning, not just pretty good learning. If we raise standards, it’s critical to give students the specific tools to achieve those standards (97).” Personally I work very hard because I want A’s. I do not like seeing anything other than an A, and that is just how I am. I have learned in college, that sometimes to get an A rather than a B, I would have to do a lot of extra work. I am really glad that I am starting to believe I do not always need an A. The times that I do not need an A is when I have to force myself to do extra work that seems unnecessary. I think this is kind of what Wormeli mentions. At the end of the chapter Wormeli says, “Students need feedback, and lots of it, but grades are not the best forms of feedback (100).” The chapter also discussed negatives and positives about schools with no grades. Grades are a way for students to see where they are at and to have a goal. Sometimes I think that by taking away grades we are lowering standards for children. It reminds me of how many schools have not allowed score keeping at games. If the grading system is consistent, I think it can be very useful in the classroom.

Evgeni Bouzakine
Chapter seven really goes into the nature of grading and the difficulties with our current grading system most schools have. The number or letter grades schools use now are not the most effective way of telling your students how well they do in their classes. I find it hard to put everything into letter grade, because it does not show the proper range. How is a student supposed to know what they know if all they see is the grade level. Students do not know what improvements they need to make based on the letter grade they receive. I find it better to give immediate feedback to the students. Give them a chance to improve in the areas they struggle in. Another point the chapter brings up is the fact that teachers grade students differently. I think looking at their background and learning styles are all important when deciding a student’s grade. When I eventually become a teacher, I hope the current grading system will be completely removed. I find it hard to not give a second chance at re-teaching something to a student that did not understand it the first time. Most of the time, it is the teachers fault the student has not succeeded.

Brittany Blackman
Chapter seven discussed grading. Like the other books chapter on grading, this one talks about the importance of specific criteria, and consistency. If you have a rubric that clearly lays out each and every needed component, then other teachers should be able to read a students’ essay and come up with about the same grade that you did. That is how teachers should grade. Not randomly, not how they feel that day, or any other factors.

Next they talk about what a grade means. What does it mean for a student to receive a C or a check? Chances are different teachers will give you different answers. We need more consistency in how we define our grading system. They brought up an interesting point. They said that usually C means average, but lately it has been more conceived as less than average and a B is average. I thought this was interesting, because that is actually how I thought. An A was perfect, a B was good but average, a C was a little worse than normal, a D was awful and an F was didn’t try or didn’t know a single thing. The problem is, though, that that is because I was mostly a B student. I just didn’t look at it like that. So a B was normal for //me//, but that doesn’t mean it was normal in terms of the rest of the class or school or state. The book mentions that as well, that every student has different normals and above or below averages. I like that they mentioned that in order to get an A in some classes you have to “go above and beyond the directions”. They said that this is nice, but it’s kind of a “guess what the teacher wants” approach. I’m glad they mentioned this, because that is how I have always felt. I strived to get an A, but a lot of the times I wasn’t sure what that meant.

Tyler Oren
Chapter seven of //Fair isn’t Always Equal// discusses the relative nature of a traditional grading scale and its inability to effectively capture the understanding and growth of a particular student. Wormeli asserts that when grading a student it is highly important that the teacher puts greater consideration on the student rather than the work itself. Wormeli considers that one piece of work could and should get a drastically different grade depending on the student who completed it. If a student with a learning disability hands in a piece of work that is exceptionally well done relative to the student it deserves a higher grade. However if a student who is identified as gifted or beyond their grade level turns in the same assignment I should in most cases be deserving of a lower grade. Wormeli commits much of the chapter to giving consistent and clear definitions on what grades actually mean. Wormeli begins by describing his own definitions he has assigned to his grades, but soon after admits that as his chapter suggests are entirely relative. He begins by assigning a grade of C to an average score, by later admits to a grade creep that has begun to show up in recent years where a B is now beginning to constitute for an average score. However based on the region, socioeconomic, social, individual student, and other aspects an average, below average or score that exceeds while be markedly different.

Kyle Kuvaja
Chapter seven in //Fair Isn’t Always Equal// begins by discussing grading and then has definitions as given by teachers. Wormeli says that the current grading system of assessing student learning with a B, 4.0, or a 100 is not effective in helping them understand where they were proficient. To prove how ineffective this grading method can be a study was performed involving an essay about DNA. The conclusion was that the grades that were given all varied from As to Fs. There is no consistency in grading in the current system. In the United Kingdom, teachers are not using grades to evaluate their students. When an American teacher was asked about how effective it was she responded, “… I am doing more assessing and honest evaluating than I ever did in the States” (93). Wormeli brings up that too much weight is placed on grades in our society. When defining grades, it was brought up that “C” used to be the average, but it has since been replaced by “B”. The grade expectations in the country have increased. Grades are not effective on their own, but need to be guided with feedback. The last concern brought up in the chapter is that of assessing students on “deficits”. We have discussed much of what this chapter had to say in class. I can say that from our class discussions and after reading this chapter that I am excited for the future of education. I did not want to become a teacher to simply put grades at the top of a paper. I want to help students learn and I feel the current reassessment on teaching standards is going to be beneficial to future generations.

Richie Johnson
Ugh, grading! I remain unsure as to how I feel about grading, and so it proves to be useful to read different theories of such, I guess. I am able to recognize how grading is a form of feedback, of sorts, but I am not sold on the idea that it is effective. In this chapter Wormeli describes what he sees constitutes good or productive grading, and while many points that he makes are reasonable, I am still not sure about it all. To me, grading seems to act in way of labeling a student, which is obviously not effective. Feedback is terribly important, duh(!), but what does a number have to do with it? I suppose that the number may be an easy way for people outside of the classroom to make judgments on particular students, but is that a good thing? Wormeli seems to understand most of these thoughts- he actually blatantly says somewhere that grading ought not to be used as the final, total assessment or whatever. I guess that, on the whole, the UbDDI theory has a neat idea for grading (if we must do so)- I like the temporary grading bit and all of that- it makes way more sense.
 * //Fair Isn’t Always Equal//: Chapter 7**

Kalib Moore
Chapter 7 of //Fair Isn't Always Equal// discusses grades and what their purpose is. Womeli explains that, "we have to accept the fact that summative grades as we now use them have little pedagogical use." (Wormeli, 90) Essentially, grades whether they are a letter or number, are useless when measuring a student's knowledge. By placing this mark on a student's report, you are giving them no feedback or explanation, and they are stuck looking at a mark that they are unsure how they received it. It is important to look past grades and see students understand a subject. Once they have clearly demonstrated knowledge in that subject, they have earned a successful grade. As a future teacher I plan on helping my school, and others, reinvent the idea of grades. I want to help my students to think more on terms of how much they understand the subject instead of looking at a grade that I give them. I want them to know why they are passing or failing my class and I plan on never leaving them in the dark about how they are doing in my class. I think that it is important to give students as much feedback as possible during the grading session, so they have the opportunity to reflect on their work and make any necessary changes. In the past, and even currently in college, I have had teachers and professors alike give me a simple letter or number on the top of an essay or assignment that I put a lot of time into. Frankly, I feel that it is a sign of laziness that the teacher could not care about my work enough to explain to me the grade that I received. I hope to change that in my classroom.

Cyril Lunt
This chapter of Fair isn't Always Equal is about grading. I've always have had a love-hate relationship with grades. On the one hand, it's a nice way to see if you understand a topic, and it's convenient for the teacher to see where they need to pick up slack. But on the other hand, some people do assignments merely to get the grade, and care not about the actual content. I agree with Mr. Wormeli in the sense that it's important enough to keep around, but at the same time, I, myself, would put more stock into feedbacking, rather than hard grades. I mean, sure, students will get grades, but I'd want them to do my assignments because they see the value in them, and not just to get an +A on it.

However, I feel that we need to keep grades. I know that you keep saying that grades will be thrown out, and this, that, and the other. But honestly, we need to keep grades. We just need to supplement them, is all.