Chapters 11, 12, 13, 14

The thing that these chapters had in common was that they talked about assessments and how to record assignments on report cards and in a grade book.  Chapter 11 introduced the concept of recording 60s in the grade book for missing work instead of zeros which is currently the norm. The reason that we should do this as teachers is because recording zeros make grades inaccurate. The zero also distorts the final  grade since a zero is so devastating. The book as that it isn't cheating since you are still recording an F. It is also better to change it to a 60 especially if it happens only once or in the beginning of the grading period since we should be grading on a trend. This chapter also talks about grading gifted students. In this chapter I learned that the higher grade should always be recorded. A high grade should mean that they mastered the regular level and the advanced level material. If the teacher records the higher grade there should be a comment saying if this grade is for the regular level or the advanced level. If it is for the regular level then a grade for the advanced level should be left in the comment section. If a student is in an honors class then it is best for a teacher to record the grade that goes against the higher standards even if it is not the higher grade. The last thing that I learned from this chapter is about recording grades for late work. What the teacher records as the grade should depend on whether it is occasional or chronic. If a student always hands in work on time then the teacher should work with the student and let the student turn in the work without deducting points. If it is always occurring then a late penalty may be needed. However, in this case the teacher should record one grade for the mastery and another grade with the late penalties. Chapter 12 talked about the difference between the 100 - point scale and the 4.0 - scale. I learned that the smaller the scale the more alike the grade is between teachers and schools. The point values on smaller grading scales are also more directly correlated to the defined criteria and they provide better feedback. Teacher are also less likely to fudge the numbers with small grading scales. I learned that larger scales are more subjective than smaller grading scales. Chapter 13 talked about different ways to organize a grade book. One of the ways was to group assignments by standards, objectives, or benchmarks which means the teacher would have to record the grade more than once if it covered more than one standard. Another way was to list the assignments by dates which I thought would be most useful. Chapter 14 talked about report card formats. The main thing that I got out of this chapter was that the report cards should be responsive to students' experiences and they should reflect the differentiated practices that were provided by the teacher.