Chapters 11, 12, 13, 14 FIAE

            Chapter 11 in FIAE focuses on the impact of the grading scale.  The initial discussion is how to handle 0s in the grade book.  I thought this was the most significant part of the chapter because it tackles a highly disputed issue.  The single benefit of using zeros is to punish students who do not turn in homework.  And anyone in the psychology field knows that punishments will only get you so far in removing a behavior.  Some teachers use 0s as a “motivator” to get students to complete the homework or assignment.  I think the book highlights a perfect strategy to use when dealing with 0s when grading time comes around.  0s or other missing work should be given a 60.  This means a student can receive a more accurate grade without getting credit for doing no work.  The teacher should then come up with other strategies to get students motivated to complete the assigned work.

            The grading scale is discussed in chapter 12.  Rick Wormeli compares and contrasts percentage based grading with small scale grading.  Percentage based learning is often more mathematical in finding a student’s grade and is more “accurate.”  Small scale grading can often better reflect student mastery of a subject.  Wormeli highlights the fact that teachers will guestimate what a student should receive as a grade based on information like a student having mostly 5s and a few 4s gets an A.  I like the idea Wormeli presents throughout the chapter which involves using a combination of both scales.  The important thing to remember is students are learning to master the subject and more often than not come to class without mastery.  When determining a student’s grade that fact should be taken into consideration.

            Chapter 13 presented multiple ways to set up a grade book.  I felt that the key point to this section is being flexible with how you set up a grade book.  It is important to remember that different situations in the classroom could call for a different method of recording information.  In addition it is important for a teacher to record as much information as he/she can on a grade.  A plain C would not tell how well a student mastered a topic.  If the teacher would instead say that the student does well on this topic but struggles on this topic, more understanding of the student’s mastery is revealed.  Chapter 14 follows with a description on handling report cards.  I thought the best strategy listed was including multiple categories in one subject.  There have been multiple times throughout this course and readings that indicate a simple letter grade does not accurately reflect all that a student does in the classroom.  It is critical that students, parents and administrators understand the multi-dimensional aspects of learning.  Last time I checked a letter does not tell a student what they excelled at, what they struggled with, or what they could improve on.