This will be a forum for the Brookland-Cayce High School SCRI Study Group members who are currently enrolled in Assessment and Literacy to thoughtfully consider our leaning. Study group members will be required to post at least 14 times over the duration of our class.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Where I'm From... What did you discover about yourself? What about your classmates? Can you think of ways you could use this in your class?
Although I thought the activity from class was very difficult, ( I am obviously not a writer! ) I actually somewhat enjoyed it. I especially enjoyed learning more about you, my classmates. Thank you for encouraging me. You are going out of your way to make me feel better than I deserve, and I appreciate it. I guess that is what makes you exemplary teachers and people.
Now about grading… I have never thought grading is fair. As hard as I try to match a grade to the learning met during the grading period, there are too many other factors involved. When I grade homework each night, the grade is based on whether the student completed the assignment and also on whether he followed the notes that showed him the proper process to follow. It is certainly not on whether his answers are all correct because the homework is just practice, their way of learning. Messing up is a part of the learning process. Students also take short quizzes and major tests. Sometimes we even do our quizzes together in class. In order to receive a good grade here, they must actually show the correct processes AND get the correct answer. I am a firm believer in partial credit so sometimes not much is deducted for a wrong answer, but unlike homework, there must be a deduction. I also build into their grade a chance to show responsibility which is so very important in the real world. I might ask students to bring into class their height and shoe size for a statistics assignment or simply ask them to have a test paper signed by a parent. All of their efforts gain them points toward their grade. But not all of their grades are actually a reflection of what they have learned in algebra. So is this a fair grade?
In algebra, we are constantly recycling prior objectives and I am looking carefully and keeping records of students who have improved their skills. Some of my students may pass algebra because they have indeed shown me that they do know the standards, even if their grade is not above that magical 70. If I feel the student knows the standards eventually and will be successful at the next level, who am I to hold him back? On the other side of the coin, I must make sure he repeats the class when he has not mastered the concepts. Passing him along will only mean that it will be impossible for him to pass at the next level. I take this on as an awesome responsibility, and hope and pray that the decisions I make are best for each individual student. Sometimes I do not feel quite up to the task, but isn’t that what individualized instruction is all about?
Wormeli states”Students thrive because teachers bend a little here and there”,etc. He also says “ Grades are not always accurate indicators of mastery.” I agree with his ideas in this chapter.
Creative writing is not my strength, but it is definitely a strength of some of our classmates. I was amazed at their writing! I enjoyed the activity because of its personal touch. An aspect of this class that I enjoy is the personal aspect to a lot of the activities that we do. As far as grading, that is a topic that can be over emphasized in relation to the student's success in the classroom. Wormeli says that we must be consistent, and that students need "feedback and lots of it, but grades are not the best forms of feedback." I agree with his statement. Grades are a numerical representation of achievement, but not the defining source. I try to give as many projects as tests, so that students can balance their strengths and weaknesses.
This was an interesting chapter with lots of questions and not as many answers as I might like. There seems to be so much grade inflation lately which helps students receive a life scholarship to college, that they then lose because they are in remedial classes or are not prepared for the rigor of college courses. Even in math courses there are grades that are very subjective or are not consistent with the grade that the student might make in another teachers class. Many years ago when I first heard of the idea of giving an A, B, C, I it did not make sense to me. I thought that we would not be holding the student accountable. I have since “come around” to that idea and think that it would help greatly with student accountability. I think that it would help students with low grades keep working on mastering a subject so that they don’t have to repeat it. Even though I tell students that I can change a D or an F from the first quarter later, to give them credit for learning the material. they don’t seem to remember or believe me.
The Relative Nature of Grades and Their Definitions BCSCRI Study Group Chapter 7
Oh yes, it is about time that we talk about grading, grades, report cards and let’s add GPA’s. We have students at BC with GPA’s above 5.0. How in the world does that happen? We have students with .7 GPA’s as well, really and truly how does that happen? We have students who want report cards to look good with all A’s and a few B’s so they take classes that are beneath their capabilities when they should be challenging themselves in order to prepare themselves for college. But who gets into the colleges of their choice? Is it the students with great grades in classes that were below their capability or the students who worked hard in Honors and AP courses but didn’t make all A’s and B’s? I really don’t have the answer. Scholarships are tied to grades; therefore many students opt for the easier courses to make the better grades. Who can blame them when the scholarships are given according to GPA. We can’t escape grades and grading. They are a necessary evil. We need them in order to get in to college, and we need them in order to get out of college. We need them to get into post graduate on to graduate school or law school or medical school. With so much emphasis being placed on grades, there is no way that we can just stop giving them. But we really should talk about them more especially when teachers have such different thoughts about grades and grading. Pondering, we really don’t want a doctor or nurse who does average work in school, or a pharmacist who doesn’t do well in chemistry! At my most recent curriculum meeting one teacher noted that the lowest grade she gives on a first nine weeks report card is a 50. This enables a student who just had a rough start or one who just didn’t apply themselves a chance to pull through with at least a passing grade. She also said something about going back and changing grades after a student made a turn around. I didn’t realize the teachers were allowed to do that! I remember the uproar at Benedict College when some instructors did not like the policy of forgiving freshmen of their F’s. I understood the concerns on both sides. But then I had a child to attend college. He made a D in anatomy and physiology. It pulled his GPA down, causing him to lose his $5,000 Life Scholarship. Just think if he were at Benedict he could have stopped going to class after he found that he had dug himself into a hole, taken the F and tried again in summer school, perhaps keeping his scholarship. So there you have it, grades determine a lot. They sometimes determine if students have the means to even continue their education. Do you think the professor would have changed my son’s grade to a C if he had told him that it determined whether he could continue with school? I know some really good students who lost their Life Scholarships due to a couple of C’s not D’s. Those students are not in school anymore. So when we pull out our rubrics, red pens, and calculators to figure out our curves, what really determines what a student has learned? Those with test anxiety always perform worse than they really should. Then there are those who continually cheat, but make fairly decent grades. Should we factor in attendance, attitude toward the subject, or behavior in class? Oh, I am getting ahead of myself, that is the next chapter.
I always enjoy the Where I'm From activity. Every time I do it, I am reminded of another thing from my childhood. I wonder what my children will say they are from? One day I am going to talk them into doing this activity.
I read chapter 7 concerning grading and although it didn't give all of the answers to Robin's concerns, the chapter did imply what we as teachers sometimes do wrong. One of the statements that stuck out to me was "what constitutes evidence for exceeding the standards, however must be made public and clear. Students should know exactly what's expected to achieve excellence." In an I told you so manner, this is exactly why teachers should have a well thought out rubric. The rubric is divided into sections. Each section contains criteria that demonstrates levels of mastery. A student can tell just by looking at the rubric what is expected for mastery of the material.
I also found that many people adjust grades depending on students' economic status. One person even commented that he was just tired of fighting the same battles every day and got where his expectations were lower for students of a low socio-economic background.
I believe that teachers should discuss grading within departments and work toward a common goal. I hope that our PLCs are working toward this. I also found it interesting that some teachers of charter schools and foreign schools don't use an A-F grading scale and found it to be liberating. I remember that Montessori used this type of grading when my daughter attended before kindergarten. She seemed to excel in that capacity.
I read chapter 7 concerning grading and although it didn't give all of the answers to Robin's concerns, the chapter did imply what we as teachers sometimes do wrong. One of the statements that stuck out to me was "what constitutes evidence for exceeding the standards, however must be made public and clear. Students should know exactly what's expected to achieve excellence." In an I told you so manner, this is exactly why teachers should have a well thought out rubric. The rubric is divided into sections. Each section contains criteria that demonstrates levels of mastery. A student can tell just by looking at the rubric what is expected for mastery of the material.
I also found that many people adjust grades depending on students' economic status. One person even commented that he was just tired of fighting the same battles every day and got where his expectations were lower for students of a low socio-economic background.
I believe that teachers should discuss grading within departments and work toward a common goal. I hope that our PLCs are working toward this. I also found it interesting that some teachers of charter schools and foreign schools don't use an A-F grading scale and found it to be liberating. I remember that Montessori used this type of grading when my daughter attended before kindergarten. She seemed to excel in that capacity.
I really enjoyed the activity from class, but it was very difficult for me. It reminds me of the struggles faced in the classroom by our students on a daily basis in their weaker subjects.
Grading is such a difficult topic to approach. Is any grade fair? Signed papers are returned for a grade. There are also notebook checks in my son's Algebra class. Does this grade reflect whether he knows Algebra or is he organized. He is penalized for not being organized the way the teacher would like. It is important to assess whether a student knows the material. This class will give them the foundation for classes to come. If a student is to be successful in the next class, they must have truly mastered the curriculum in their current class. If they did not and are passed along, they will continue to struggle. Feedback and continuous assessment can help a student success. If a student struggles at first and then shows progress, their grade should reflect it. Also if they are making careless errors, their grade should reflect the mastery of the new process, but also be reduced for the carelessness.
This chapter was difficult for me--particularly the blind assessment of the student's DNA essay on pages 90-92.
"Adjustments" to grades can be very dangerous territory--a thin line of consideration can be helpful or very detrimental. It is important to take in all factors when grading a student's work (not just work done in essay format). It is important to determine what I'm grading for:
For grammar? For structure? For knowledge of content? For effort? For a combination of all?
The idea is to get our students through high school with an adequeate ability to navigate the world they will be dumped into--a world that hardly makes "adjustments" to the types of assessments they will face.
I haven't gotten the grading thing down, but I can say this:
I do not want to see a child cross the stage at graduation without the ability to read and write. I don't want to give a student another pass because he/she has some limitations preventing their success. I don't want to be a crutch. I feel that's how a lot of students have gotten to 9th, 10th, 11th, or even 12th grade without the ability to read and comprehend simple texts--without the ability to express him/herself effectively. What a diservice it would be to rob a child of their ability to communicate with others!
8 comments:
Blog 6 Grading Jane Gregory
Although I thought the activity from class was very difficult, ( I am obviously not a writer! ) I actually somewhat enjoyed it. I especially enjoyed learning more about you, my classmates. Thank you for encouraging me. You are going out of your way to make me feel better than I deserve, and I appreciate it. I guess that is what makes you exemplary teachers and people.
Now about grading…
I have never thought grading is fair. As hard as I try to match a grade to the learning met during the grading period, there are too many other factors involved. When I grade homework each night, the grade is based on whether the student completed the assignment and also on whether he followed the notes that showed him the proper process to follow. It is certainly not on whether his answers are all correct because the homework is just practice, their way of learning. Messing up is a part of the learning process. Students also take short quizzes and major tests. Sometimes we even do our quizzes together in class. In order to receive a good grade here, they must actually show the correct processes AND get the correct answer. I am a firm believer in partial credit so sometimes not much is deducted for a wrong answer, but unlike homework, there must be a deduction. I also build into their grade a chance to show responsibility which is so very important in the real world. I might ask students to bring into class their height and shoe size for a statistics assignment or simply ask them to have a test paper signed by a parent. All of their efforts gain them points toward their grade. But not all of their grades are actually a reflection of what they have learned in algebra. So is this a fair grade?
In algebra, we are constantly recycling prior objectives and I am looking carefully and keeping records of students who have improved their skills. Some of my students may pass algebra because they have indeed shown me that they do know the standards, even if their grade is not above that magical 70. If I feel the student knows the standards eventually and will be successful at the next level, who am I to hold him back? On the other side of the coin, I must make sure he repeats the class when he has not mastered the concepts. Passing him along will only mean that it will be impossible for him to pass at the next level. I take this on as an awesome responsibility, and hope and pray that the decisions I make are best for each individual student. Sometimes I do not feel quite up to the task, but isn’t that what individualized instruction is all about?
Wormeli states”Students thrive because teachers bend a little here and there”,etc. He also says “ Grades are not always accurate indicators of mastery.” I agree with his ideas in this chapter.
Creative writing is not my strength, but it is definitely a strength of some of our classmates. I was amazed at their writing! I enjoyed the activity because of its personal touch. An aspect of this class that I enjoy is the personal aspect to a lot of the activities that we do.
As far as grading, that is a topic that can be over emphasized in relation to the student's success in the classroom. Wormeli says that we must be consistent, and that students need "feedback and lots of it, but grades are not the best forms of feedback." I agree with his statement. Grades are a numerical representation of achievement, but not the defining source. I try to give as many projects as tests, so that students can balance their strengths and weaknesses.
Blog 11/17/08
Ch. 7 –Relative Nature of Grades
This was an interesting chapter with lots of questions and not as many answers as I might like. There seems to be so much grade inflation lately which helps students receive a life scholarship to college, that they then lose because they are in remedial classes or are not prepared for the rigor of college courses. Even in math courses there are grades that are very subjective or are not consistent with the grade that the student might make in another teachers class.
Many years ago when I first heard of the idea of giving an A, B, C, I it did not make sense to me. I thought that we would not be holding the student accountable. I have since “come around” to that idea and think that it would help greatly with student accountability. I think that it would help students with low grades keep working on mastering a subject so that they don’t have to repeat it. Even though I tell students that I can change a D or an F from the first quarter later, to give them credit for learning the material. they don’t seem to remember or believe me.
The Relative Nature of Grades and Their Definitions
BCSCRI Study Group Chapter 7
Oh yes, it is about time that we talk about grading, grades, report cards and let’s add GPA’s. We have students at BC with GPA’s above 5.0. How in the world does that happen? We have students with .7 GPA’s as well, really and truly how does that happen? We have students who want report cards to look good with all A’s and a few B’s so they take classes that are beneath their capabilities when they should be challenging themselves in order to prepare themselves for college. But who gets into the colleges of their choice? Is it the students with great grades in classes that were below their capability or the students who worked hard in Honors and AP courses but didn’t make all A’s and B’s? I really don’t have the answer. Scholarships are tied to grades; therefore many students opt for the easier courses to make the better grades. Who can blame them when the scholarships are given according to GPA.
We can’t escape grades and grading. They are a necessary evil. We need them in order to get in to college, and we need them in order to get out of college. We need them to get into post graduate on to graduate school or law school or medical school. With so much emphasis being placed on grades, there is no way that we can just stop giving them. But we really should talk about them more especially when teachers have such different thoughts about grades and grading. Pondering, we really don’t want a doctor or nurse who does average work in school, or a pharmacist who doesn’t do well in chemistry!
At my most recent curriculum meeting one teacher noted that the lowest grade she gives on a first nine weeks report card is a 50. This enables a student who just had a rough start or one who just didn’t apply themselves a chance to pull through with at least a passing grade. She also said something about going back and changing grades after a student made a turn around. I didn’t realize the teachers were allowed to do that!
I remember the uproar at Benedict College when some instructors did not like the policy of forgiving freshmen of their F’s. I understood the concerns on both sides. But then I had a child to attend college. He made a D in anatomy and physiology. It pulled his GPA down, causing him to lose his $5,000 Life Scholarship. Just think if he were at Benedict he could have stopped going to class after he found that he had dug himself into a hole, taken the F and tried again in summer school, perhaps keeping his scholarship. So there you have it, grades determine a lot. They sometimes determine if students have the means to even continue their education. Do you think the professor would have changed my son’s grade to a C if he had told him that it determined whether he could continue with school? I know some really good students who lost their Life Scholarships due to a couple of C’s not D’s. Those students are not in school anymore.
So when we pull out our rubrics, red pens, and calculators to figure out our curves, what really determines what a student has learned? Those with test anxiety always perform worse than they really should. Then there are those who continually cheat, but make fairly decent grades. Should we factor in attendance, attitude toward the subject, or behavior in class? Oh, I am getting ahead of myself, that is the next chapter.
I always enjoy the Where I'm From activity. Every time I do it, I am reminded of another thing from my childhood. I wonder what my children will say they are from? One day I am going to talk them into doing this activity.
I read chapter 7 concerning grading and although it didn't give all of the answers to Robin's concerns, the chapter did imply what we as teachers sometimes do wrong. One of the statements that stuck out to me was "what constitutes evidence for exceeding the standards, however must be made public and clear. Students should know exactly what's expected to achieve excellence." In an I told you so manner, this is exactly why teachers should have a well thought out rubric. The rubric is divided into sections. Each section contains criteria that demonstrates levels of mastery. A student can tell just by looking at the rubric what is expected for mastery of the material.
I also found that many people adjust grades depending on students' economic status. One person even commented that he was just tired of fighting the same battles every day and got where his expectations were lower for students of a low socio-economic background.
I believe that teachers should discuss grading within departments and work toward a common goal. I hope that our PLCs are working toward this.
I also found it interesting that some teachers of charter schools and foreign schools don't use an A-F grading scale and found it to be liberating. I remember that Montessori used this type of grading when my daughter attended before kindergarten. She seemed to excel in that capacity.
I read chapter 7 concerning grading and although it didn't give all of the answers to Robin's concerns, the chapter did imply what we as teachers sometimes do wrong. One of the statements that stuck out to me was "what constitutes evidence for exceeding the standards, however must be made public and clear. Students should know exactly what's expected to achieve excellence." In an I told you so manner, this is exactly why teachers should have a well thought out rubric. The rubric is divided into sections. Each section contains criteria that demonstrates levels of mastery. A student can tell just by looking at the rubric what is expected for mastery of the material.
I also found that many people adjust grades depending on students' economic status. One person even commented that he was just tired of fighting the same battles every day and got where his expectations were lower for students of a low socio-economic background.
I believe that teachers should discuss grading within departments and work toward a common goal. I hope that our PLCs are working toward this.
I also found it interesting that some teachers of charter schools and foreign schools don't use an A-F grading scale and found it to be liberating. I remember that Montessori used this type of grading when my daughter attended before kindergarten. She seemed to excel in that capacity.
I really enjoyed the activity from class, but it was very difficult for me. It reminds me of the struggles faced in the classroom by our students on a daily basis in their weaker subjects.
Grading is such a difficult topic to approach. Is any grade fair? Signed papers are returned for a grade. There are also notebook checks in my son's Algebra class. Does this grade reflect whether he knows Algebra or is he organized. He is penalized for not being organized the way the teacher would like. It is important to assess whether a student knows the material. This class will give them the foundation for classes to come. If a student is to be successful in the next class, they must have truly mastered the curriculum in their current class. If they did not and are passed along, they will continue to struggle. Feedback and continuous assessment can help a student success. If a student struggles at first and then shows progress, their grade should reflect it. Also if they are making careless errors, their grade should reflect the mastery of the new process, but also be reduced for the carelessness.
This chapter was difficult for me--particularly the blind assessment of the student's DNA essay on pages 90-92.
"Adjustments" to grades can be very dangerous territory--a thin line of consideration can be helpful or very detrimental. It is important to take in all factors when grading a student's work (not just work done in essay format). It is important to determine what I'm grading for:
For grammar?
For structure?
For knowledge of content?
For effort?
For a combination of all?
The idea is to get our students through high school with an adequeate ability to navigate the world they will be dumped into--a world that hardly makes "adjustments" to the types of assessments they will face.
I haven't gotten the grading thing down, but I can say this:
I do not want to see a child cross the stage at graduation without the ability to read and write. I don't want to give a student another pass because he/she has some limitations preventing their success. I don't want to be a crutch. I feel that's how a lot of students have gotten to 9th, 10th, 11th, or even 12th grade without the ability to read and comprehend simple texts--without the ability to express him/herself effectively. What a diservice it would be to rob a child of their ability to communicate with others!
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