Chapter 14: Responsive Report Card Formats

If we differentiate in the way we teach and grade, we must also learn to differentiate in the way we present grades on report cards. Unfortunately most schools have report card programs that limit teachers’ abilities to show more than just the regular letter grade. When this is not the case, it is good to show that we grade students against their own progress as well as against the expected standards and the rest of the grade level. Signifying adjusted curriculum appropriately with an accompanying comment explaining how it was adjusted is one good idea. Another is to grade the student’s progress and the standards students their age are expected to meet. Teachers can also give separate grades for each standard, showing whether or not they met each particular standard. The continuous progress report can go over a period of two or more years to show how a student is progressing over time. While all these ideas are solid ones, I prefer the idea of students’ progress and students against expected standards. I feel like this most accurately depicts what a student has learned and mastered, and how well they are mastering what is expected of them. It also lets parents see both sides of the grades we must give.

Chapter 13: Gradebook Formats for the Differentiated Classroom

To truly be a differentiated teacher, one must embrace differentiation in all aspects of the classroom, learning, and grades and this includes gradebooks. There is no one right way to set up a gradebook, and it takes experimenting and thoughtful planning. One general rule of thumb is to categorize based on standards and benchmarks, not on homework, tests, and quizzes. This way, when you look at your grade book you will see what needs to be covered (or uncovered) still in the curriculum and how well students are meeting standards. The feedback you give students, parents, and other teachers will be so much stronger, because instead of saying “Jimmy failed his last test” you could explain that Jimmy just hasn’t grasped the concept of the standard or benchmark and therefore more easily help him work towards mastery. Since I’ve never used a gradebook before, none of these options in the chapter really jump out at me, nor can I think of the perfect way to set up my first gradebook. But I do know that it will be based in standards, not in categories of the type of work being done.

Chapter 11: Six Burning Grading Issues

When recording a grade for something that was not turned in, teachers often put down a zero, but the effects of a zero on an overall grade can be catastrophic, and there for not reflect a student’s true mastery, so a sixty should be recorded instead. Gifted students in advanced classes should be graded on the advanced scale, but gifted students in regular classes should be graded based on the scale of they class they are enrolled in. Students in differentiated classrooms always have as many tools as necessary to aid achievement, which results in weighted grades. When it comes to automaticity verses concept attainment, teachers need teach all students advanced concepts, even if they haven’t quite mastered the basics yet. Lower grades for late work do not reflect actual mastery, but if it is necessary to lower a grade, do so by a few points, not a whole letter grade. It is imperative that regular education and special education teachers work together to form a clear philosophy to help grade students in inclusion classes, or the students can get disheartened. I really feel like all of these issues are major problems out in the field, but I think the author’s solutions to all of them seem to be the best I’ve encountered yet. I will follow his advice in my practices as I grow to understand my own solutions to these “burning grading issues.”

Chapter 12: Grading Scales

The 4.0 scale is more accurate and helps to differentiate better than the 100-point scale because it makes distortion and errors less likely. The 100-point scale is an average based method to determine a grade, and therefore relies on calculating a grade to sometimes even tenths of a point, which doesn’t really reflect mastery at all. When using the 4.0 scale, a rubric is the guide in determining the grade, and while rubrics take a lot of time and effort to make, they become easier the more you do them. Rubric-based grading also forces students to focus more on the goals and the objectives of their learning rather than the difference between an A- and a B+. This also helps students to figure out what they still need to learn and how to improve. If they see their current level of mastery circled and explain in clear terms, they can begin to understand what to work on and what to work towards. I really feel that rubric-based grading on the 4.0 scale is much better than the 100-point scale, and I will implement in my classroom whenever I can. It is far more important for my students to see objectives and expectations clearly spelled out for them and be graded on those than to have their grades based on calculated averages that translate into an almost meaningless lettering system.

Chapter 10: Conditions for Redoing Work for Full Credit

In a differentiated classroom, it is appropriate to allow students to redo work for full credit. This allows the student another chance to display their mastery, and is only fair, because not everyone learns at the same rate, and therefore, not everyone is ready to demonstrate their mastery at the exact same time. The teacher gets the final say in if a student gets to redo their work or not. If it is apparent that the student waited until the last minute or put no effort into their work, then the teacher may not allow them to redo it. When students are allowed to redo their work, they need to sit down with the teacher and create a calendar that will help them get all their work done on time to better ensure success. The format of the redone work may not be the same as the first time around, so that way students don’t just memorize the test or the information- they have to learn it. I think this is a policy I will most certainly have in my classroom. In the real world, redoing work occurs all the time, and students should be allowed that same opportunity.

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

Chapter nine is a list of do-nots in differentiated instruction. The chapter covers many items on the list that were the focus of previous chapters. The main idea is avoiding the grading of anything that isn’t mastery. Homework shouldn’t greatly affect a student’s grade, and neither should extra credit. Students should be allowed to try to prove their mastery as many times as they need to. Scaffolding and differentiating are tools within the classroom; we should not withhold them. We should not assess students in ways that will not allow them to demonstrate their mastery, differentiation is all about making sure students have the opportunity to show how they know something, not show us in one specific way. Group grades are another thing to avoid, as they don’t represent what individuals know and feedback is more about group dynamics than student knowledge. Most of this list was already on my own, and now I have more to add and think about as I start teaching.

Chapter 7: The relative Nature of Grades and Their Definitions

The way teachers grade, and how they understand the grades they give, greatly affect how they differentiate instruction. In order to grade fairly, the criteria for grades needs to be the same across the board, and be clear to everyone. Unfortunately, grading usually ends up being subjective and does not accurately reflect student’s mastery. According to research on grading, students who are graded have less interest in learning, test worse, and avoid difficult tasks when presented with them than the students who are not graded in school. Grades are just the teacher’s interpretation of the student’s knowledge; they are not concrete representations of a student’s mastery. Grading scales have always been difficult to go by, because an A for one teacher may not be an A for another. Students should know and clearly understand what the criteria are for receiving an A, and work towards those outlined standards. While getting rid of grades one and for all doesn’t seem to be happening in the near future, working towards fair, clear, and better constructed grading scales, tactics, and practices seems to be the first step in the right direction when I begin teaching.

Chapter 8: Why Do We Grade? And What About Effort, Attendance, and Behavior?

The purpose of grading it to communicate to students, parents, and teachers the student’s level of mastery, and use this information to provide feedback and make informed decisions about what to do next. Grading is already so easily muddled by subjectivity that adding effort, attendance and behavior as factors in grades is too confusing and unnecessary. While participation is important in learning, a student’s grade shouldn’t hinge on how many times they speak up in class: if a student and produce good work and prove that they understand what is going on, they shouldn’t be punished for not raising their hand more. Nor should students who constantly participate in class discussion be given a higher grade when they never do their homework and don’t demonstrate full mastery. In order to grade effort, one would need to be able to define and put it into standards and criteria. While it may seem unfair that some students don’t need to put in a lot of effort to receive a good grade, it’s also unfair for students who tried hard and learned little to receive a good grade for just trying. Attendance is an important aspect of learning: if you don’t show up, you don’t receive an opportunity to learn. But a few missed classes shouldn’t lower a student’s grade if they can still prove mastery of the subject: you never know what is going on at home or outside of school. I firmly believe that effort, attendance, and behavior are all important in life and in school, but they can be communicated in ways other than grades, and that’s how it should be done.