FIAE Reflections: Chapter 14

This chapter dealt with report cards and how they can be used to accurately report student work. The problem that many teachers find in reporting grades is how to differentiate between student mastery of the curriculum and student growth. If you give an A to a student that has improved dramatically over the course of the year but is not reaching the established standards, then others might have unrealistic expectations for these students in future years. On the other hand if you give them a D for their mastery when they have made spectacular progress they can get discouraged and give up. I really liked the format that had the teacher give a letter grade for mastery, and a number grade after it for the progress made. Therefore the student referred to before would get a D3, meaning their mastery was at the D level, but their progress was a 3. This would also help to describe upper level students that weren’t being challenged enough by giving them an A1 which would mean that they already knew the material and this was basically a wasted year for them.

FIAE Reflections: Chapter 13

This chapter deals with choosing a gradebook that suits our needs and gives a good representation of student mastery as well as being a good instrument for informing lesson planning. There were several examples given and they all seemed to be very useful. I was especially struck by the concept that you can make a heading for the standard you want the student to reach instead of the instrument used to determine mastery of that standard. In this way you can change the instrument for individual students and still show a fair demonstration of the students’ mastery. I will have to experiment with all of the different ways of recording and find one that fits my needs.

FIAE Reflections: Chapter 12

This chapter talks about the various grading scales that could be used in the differentiated classroom. The authors seem to think that a 4 point scale is the most appropriate, sometimes mixing it with a 100 point scale when it makes sense to do so and then translating it to a 4 point scale for reporting purposes. They talk about the fact that grading is about showing mastery and not ranking and sorting students, therefore the minute differences will not matter. I agree that ranking and sorting students is unnecessary and often detrimental to developing mastery, but I think that the more detail in reporting the better. The more you average and estimate grades the less they mean. I never compare my grades with other people, but only with myself. I use the details of my grade to determine where I am in my mastery goals. If the grade is as arbitrary as they say, then why give a grade at all. There has to be some way to report what is actually learned and the level of mastery found in that learning. Perhaps rubrics hold the key but they need to be very specific and unambiguous. I was also a little confused because I don’t know how to calculate grades for a 4 point system. I don’t get what the classifications mean outside of the letter grade equivalent so perhaps I just don’t know enough.