Chapters 7,8,9,10 FIAE

Over several chapters now the issue of how ineffective (yet required) grades are in the classroom.  However, chapter 7 discussed grades in a unique way that I have not thought about before.  How does a single grade letter tell a parent, student or teacher how well a student understands a wide variety of topics in one particular class?  Often times I have received a paper back from a professor and all the feedback is a simple letter B.  I have absolutely no idea what I did wrong.  The grade does not describe to me all the flaws of the paper or tell me what I did correctly.  Chapter 7 goes on to explain how grades are opinionated.  Teachers often grade very differently from each other and can often be influenced by the student writing it.  As a teacher we need to understand a student’s background when working on it.  The chapter says to adjust grades based on student backgrounds while maintaining the integrity of the grade.

Chapter 8 discusses the reasons for why we grade.  The chapter immediately divides grading into two groups.  We grade because we want to document student and teacher progress, provide feedback, and inform instructional decisions.  The other side of grading is to motivate, punish and sort students.  The book favors the first three because it is the positive aspects of grading.  As a future teacher I hope to work towards these goals to provide meaning to my grades rather than one more way of manhandling students to do their work.

Chapter 9 discusses the appropriate time to grade students.  The critical point made by the chapter is that not all students are ready for grading or assessing what they know at the same time.  This makes timing of tests and what we expect on tests critical.  One example used in the reading is retaking a test but without the ability to get a 100.  This is done so students who did master the material “on time” do not lose out.  However, this can be punishing to students who had not been able to master the material at the appointed time despite working hard to do so.  Homework is also important.  Trying to teach through homework will only hurt students in the long run and may cause them to learn the material incorrectly.

Chapter 10 discussed policies for retaking tests or assignments and how to grade them.  I thought this chapter was interesting because of all the good and bad policies mentioned I have had at least once.  I particularly like the reason for not averaging retaking of tests with the original test.  As a future teacher I do not yet know what I will have for a test retake policy.  However, I will always pick the larger of two grades for a student’s test redo.  Another policy I will adapt is not allowing redoing of work close to grade closing.  The chapter reasons that it is important for teachers to be focused on getting the big grades in and not getting distracted by student requests.  I see it as a way to get students prepared for the closing weeks early so they can focus on other issues like the final test or other classes where they are struggling.