Grading Philosophy
Grading is an essential part in education. Teachers use grading to gain information about their students and use that information to help their educative experience be the best it possibly can be. Grading, if teachers do it correctly, will not only help the student’s success, but help us understand how each student learns and where to modify parts of an assignment so the student can become successful in the classroom. While grading, there are many important questions that you must answer in order to be a successful grader and to use grading properly. A teacher must define the purpose of grading, what things should you keep grades on, how do you help the students start study habits, how to deal with late work, extra credit, and how incomplete work effects grades, and finally do you give students zero’s.
Grading is one of the hardest parts of teaching because you need to know exactly what you’re going to be grading on and what things are adequate to grade. The things that I would include grades on are things that go under our reporting topics and report cards, but things that also match a standard and go with those reporting topics. Since the Common Core State Standards have made the reporting topics fairly broad, matching the correct standards to these isn't as hard, because it gives you some free range on your lesson planning which in turn makes it easier to modify assessments for differentiated instruction. The purpose of grading is to allow the students to see their growth and open a portal of communication between the teacher and the student. Grades should not be a motivation tool. If the student is doing well in your class, they may be motivated. The students who get poor grades get frustrated and their individual learning goes out the door. Ranking students is another issue that every student and teacher faces. Ranking the students based on their grades is another thing that teachers do on a regular basis, but grading should not be used that way because it is trying to motivate the student. Grades should be based on the individual student and should not rank them with other students to show where their learning is in comparison to others. Grading must be based on the individual and I plan on enforcing that when I begin to grade my own students. As a teacher we must understand that each student learns differently, which means that ranking the students will never be successful because every student is learns at a different rate than others.
“But we are also familiar with grading practices designed to motivate students toward desirable learning habits and responsible behaviors and away from undesirable ones. While it is unarguable that many students need help with their habits and behaviors, it is arguable that factoring their presence or absence into the academic grade is a satisfactory remedy.” (Stiggins, 336)
The next questions that I am faces with is what do you keep or what should you take grades on? This is one thing that has been a challenge for me because at the beginning I thought you would take grades on everything that you give the students, but after being in a classroom, this does not work. What do you take grades on are the things that show and adequately assess the students on a certain topic or standard. I must be able to understand how to do this and why this is so important. I need to give the students practice pages, but given them enough practice to when I give a formative or summative assessment, the students will excel and show the knowledge that they have on the specific topic. I don’t take grades on the practice pages because I want the students to know that mistakes are okay because that is how they will learn and remember certain topics. The students will show me their practice pages so I always know if the students are on the right track and have an understanding of the practice page. This is a great informal assessment and helps me track the students progress throughout the week.
As the students continue to use these practice pages, they will have to start learning about study habits. I don’t like to send much homework home because I don’t know who is actually doing the work. I believe that this will change from grade level to grade level as study habits start to become more independent and have less help from parents and teachers. I would like to incorporate more technology in the homework process. I could then track who is getting online at home to practice and who is not, but this also will depend on if the students all have access to a computer at home. There are many sites that I could put on my teaching blog that they would have to use their student identification number and password, and then I could track them to see what they are doing and how they are doing on a given site. I want to give them more practice opportunities at home, but also they must get a certain amount of hours of practice that has to be signed by their parents so I know they are beginning to understand study habits and develop those skills. It will be a great start to beginning study habits. These students that don’t have access to a computer, I will print off practice pages and give them extra materials to practice on so they can continue to practice at home as well, that are fun and easy to do at home with support from their family.
Although study habits are important, what do you do with late work and incomplete work? This can be a little complicated, but once the students know what you expect, it will become easier. When students are gone, I will give them a chance to do the work from the previous day or the day they missed, during their free time, recess, and at home. They never have the opportunity to not do the work. If they get in the habit of not doing the work at a young age, their study habits will become nonexistent by the time they are in a high school setting. I will always give the students the opportunity to complete the work that they missed, and if they don’t want to, completing the work is their consequence. My philosophy is to make sure the students all have an equal chance of success, but also an equal chance to complete the work that they missed. I believe that a good consequence of not wanting to do the work is to actually do the work because that is something the students don't want to do and hopefully will help them understand the importance of being at school. Incomplete work is not an option for me because the work that I’m going to be giving out to the students is important for them to know and understand. This is imperative now because Common Core makes it where every level is building off of each grade level from the previous years. If the students fall behind in one level, then the next level is trying to catch them back up and trying to move into more specific detail. The student’s growth will fall and the student will fall behind slowly. The students must complete the tasks that are given to them every day so I can build a steady foundation for the future grades.
Extra credit is something that I think most teachers struggle with including me. At first I was ready to give out extra credit to students because if they need to earn a higher grade, then extra credit will do the trick. Now that I have taken a deeper look into the grading process, it doesn’t help the student. For example the student may have gotten a two out of four on an assessment. Then you give them a chance to do extra credit and the student still gets a two out of four. Each of the assignments the student got a fifty percent, but when you place extra credit on the assignment the student would have gotten a hundred percent. This doesn’t represent the student’s knowledge adequately because on both assignments they scored below average, but because we gave them extra credit, the student received a hundred percent. I believe that the students earn their grades by doing to practice worksheets in class, and continuing their practice at home. Extra credit doesn't reflect the true knowledge of the student, it’s like false advertising. I want the students to be successful and extra credit doesn't help them become successful, it enables them to struggle but pass at the same time.
Giving students zeros doesn't help the students. Just one zero can be devastating to the students grade. The lowest grade percentage given is a fifty percent, but a zero spans from zero percent to fifty percent while all the other grades are a span of ten percent differences. If you give a student a zero, it will take him or her a long time to recover and most of the time their grade never does recover. In the elementary setting, the students are never given a zero. They are based off of a system of 3 proficient, 2 on level, and 1 basic. This gives the students a number for a grade rather than a letter grade. The students are never given a zero because I will give the students the opportunity to do the assignment while the other kids are doing something with technology or something as practice. I do not believe in zeros even at a higher level. I believe the students need to be pushed to become successful and as a teacher this is our job to do so. If you give a zero to a student, the student may understand the concepts, but because of the zero they become a failing student.
“Averaging zeroes with other scores to calculate a midterm or quarter grade skews the grade in a way from which it can never recover, making the final grade a completely inaccurate picture of student achievement.” (Stiggins, 338)
There are a few challenges that I will face throughout my career. The main concern that I have is determining what assignments I should take grades on and what assignments I should assign as practice. I want to know the students' process and growth to see if they are growing from a certain subject or topic so we can continue on or go into more detailed on the given topic or subject. The next challenge that I face is determining the appropriate assessment for a given subject or topic. I have been having a having a hard time knowing which assessment is appropriate for not only my students but the subject area as well. Overtime, I will be able to master these concepts adequately. The last challenge that I will face is thinking about my students time management skills. How will I teach them to work on their time management if I don’t give out zero’s and want their grade to reflect the type of learner they are. Should I dock points or have them do extra work that the other students didn't have to do. Should I just take this idea and work this into a behavior management plan? These challenges will be hard, but the sooner I face them, the sooner my students will become able to start learning skills needed for further education and life-long skills..
Grading is a hard topic to not only think about, but to actually practice the right methods for it to be effective in the way that it was designed to do. Grades should be used to communicate to students and not to motivate them because failing grades will never motivate a failing student. Once the student reaches the frustration point, the student doesn’t care and loses interest in his or her education. As a teacher, grading shouldn’t do this to the students, so we must be able to grade in ways that will help the student. Overall, my grading philosophy is to allow students to be successful in many areas. They will start learning about study habits and I will be able to modify their assessments to the learning targets and goals set. I will also make sure that the grades that the students get show their exact knowledge on the subject matter and they are adequately assessed. I will be able to take my learning targets and place the proper assessment for the students so they will become successful. I will face many challenges, but it is the teachers who can accept those challenges that create a successful foundation for their students.
Bibliography
Stiggins, R. J., Arter, J. A., Chappuis, J., & Chappuis, S. (2007). Classroom assessment for student learning: doing it right -- using it well (Special ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education, Inc..