Vignette 6: Don't Borrow Trouble!

I think the most important, and hardest, thing that I will need to do in my classroom will be to give up rigid control when it comes to assignments.  I do believe that students want to learn, afterall, almost every child I know complains when they feel they aren't learning anything from one of their teachers, no matter how young.  Because students really do have this desire to learn, as a teacher I need to learn to trust that students want to do the work, and if they haven't completed an assignment that they will be motivated to do so.  I don't think I need to offer motivation to students, as long as they know that if they haven't handed the assignment in by the reporting period they will recieve a zero.  I considered for a long time using a system in which a student will be docked 10% if the assignment is late, then they will have until the reporting period to hand it in, but ultimately I have decided against this.  It is important that students are graded on the learning outcomes, and only the learning outcomes, so taking marks off because it's late does not represent fairly what the student has learned.  In my opinion, the best thing to do would be to give each student a completely separate grade for work habits, that includes docking marks due to lates, that all teachers the student has would compile together, and a completely separate section, apart from any subject, would be created to report work habits.  This way, the student would still be accurately graded on their learning of the POS, but would still be held accountable for things such as late assignments.

Vignette 11: Mean or Median

It is a tough issue to debate when it comes to using math techniques to give students a final grade.  On one hand, it is traditionally reliable, and parents and students are less likely to fight grades you give them using traditional calculations, but on the other hand, there likely does need to be a change in how grades are given to students in an ever-changing school system.  There may be factors in the student's life that are affecting how they are able to perform in school, and these need to be accounted for when grading them.  Although I've never considered it before, using median instead of mean would be a fair way to grade students, and it would still be defendable if a grade is contested.  I think that parents  and students would be unlikely to feel any more hostile toward being graded using the median than they would toward using the mean to grade them.

Vignette 10: Mme. Wagner's Dilemma

I think that it is very important to accommodate extenuating circumstances that students are facing when determining their grades.  There are some things that students will face in their lives that will make concentrating on school very difficult, which obviously will affect their grades.  I don't believe that extenuating circumstances can completely excuse them from their responsibilities as a student, but it is definitely something to take into consideration when giving a student a grade.  At this point, I am unsure of how to give a student a grade by any means of judgement, and not relying on numbers.  At least if I give a student a grade based on marks that they have been given all year I have something to defend myself with when a student's parent inquires about why they got that grade.  I feel that although it may be easy to tell students that they are given different grades or treated differently because "fair is not always equal" to try to explain this to a parent would be much more difficult.  I would like to be able to give students grades based on more that just the marks they get throughout the year, and hope to learn how to do this in the future, but am unsure of how to do so at this point in my career/education.

Vignette 9: Ryan's Impending Doom!

It is definitely important to make sure that the student's grade at the end of the year is reflective of their meeting the criteria of the Program of Studies, as well as their improvement throughout the year.  I think the best way to do this is definitely throught the use of formative assessment.  If the school has a policy that all grades given must be recorded for the student's final mark, but I am sure that a student will work hard to improve on their knowledge and skills, then I think the best way is to give them feed back mostly, with a few informal grades if needed.  This way, at the end of the year when the student has improved and met the learning outcomes their grade will actually reflect it. 

It does seem that grading practices will have to change based on the subject that is being taught, because most of the subjects are set up in different ways.  Math, for example, is set up in separate units, and what the student achieves at the beginning of the year is likely unrelated to what they are achieving at the end of the year.  Language arts on the other hand, is a subject in which knowledge and skills are built upon and improved throughout the year, and are all related to each other.  In this case, the subjects like math will not reflect improvement like LA will, because a student generally only improves in that specific unit, before moving onto a new one.  So to counter for this, formative assessment will have to be done throughout each unit in math, not throughout the entire year like in english, with a summative assessment given at the end of the unit that will reflect the student's learning and improvement.

Vignette 5: Getting What They Deserve?

I believe that it is very important to assess work habits in the classroom because they are not only part of the hidden curriculum that teachers are supposed to teach, but because they are vital to a positive classroom environment.  In my classroom, I expect students to be on-task, to listen when they’re supposed to, and to raise their hand if they have something to say.  They need to work well with others, this means simply that they should be able to function in a group, a student doesn’t need to be outgoing and a leader of their groups all of the time, though I would encourage it in students.  And lastly they need to follow the rules and routines of the classroom, whatever they may be.  Outside of the classroom, I expect students to complete homework on time and have it handed in on time.  Students also need to show up to class on time, though the odd late student isn’t a bother to me, as long as they don’t make a habit out if it.  I think that all of these should be graded in some form, though including it in their grade for a specific class may not be the best way to do so.

Vignette 4: What Counts?

When determining a grade I have always thought it to be very important to include something of a participation mark that reflects how hard a student worked in and out of class, and how they behaved during class.  Looking at this vignette they make a very convincing argument that non-achievement factors such as work habits should not be considered when determining a student’s grade, and I can understand why.  Like it says, students should really only be graded on what is in the Program of Studies, and classroom behaviour is not in the POS.  With this said however, I feel that it is still important to give students some sort of grade indicating their achievements in work habits, behaviour, and participation in the classroom.  As teachers, we are told that we are teaching students more than just the curriculum; we are teaching them the hidden curriculum as well.  Because we are supposed to be, and usually expected to be, teaching this hidden curriculum, I think it is important that students are aware of how they are doing in this area as well.  Perhaps it would be a good idea for each teacher the students have to have a standard participation and work effort checklist or rubric, and that all of these can be graded not within separate classes, but as a separate mark altogether.  That way it doesn’t skew the mark students should be receiving based on the Program of Studies, but it still shows their achievements in this area as well.

Vignette 8: Decisions, Decisions

When determining a grade I think it’s best to consider only summative assessment scores.  The whole idea behind summative assessment is to get a grade to give the student that evaluates their success in the course.  Formative assessment on the other hand, is meant to be used as a tool to help students come to the point where they can succeed in summative assessments.  Formative assessment does not even need to be scored, but just gives the students an idea of what they can do to improve so they can get a good score later on. 

Students can benefit greatly from formative assessment for a number of reasons.  It gives them an idea of what they can do to succeed in the classroom with no pressure of the formative assessment being linked to their grade.  It gives them the freedom to try things and see if it works, and to change their ideas and processes if they need to.  It lets the students learn from their mistakes with no penalties, which I think is the best way to learn.  Formative assessment should be communicated between the student it involves and the teacher, and depending on what the results are it can also be communicated to the class.  For example, if a student did something really great and the rest of the class would benefit from the knowledge, I would share the student’s idea and results with the class (with the student’s permission of course).  Formative assessment can also be shared with parents, to give them an idea of what their child needs to improve on, and what they are doing well on.

Vignette 7: The Mighty Bell Curve!

I think that all grades should be based on the Program of Studies, and on students’ participation and effort.  To me the bell curve is ineffective in a regular classroom, and the only place for it is on an extremely large scale, with hundreds to thousands of competitors involved.  My students will never be placed on a bell curve unless it is required that I do so, because students should be graded on meeting the objectives and outcomes that are listed in the Program of Studies.  Another reason students should be graded on the Program of Studies is because a bell curve doesn’t account for effort and improvement.  The teacher knows each student individually, and can see how much they have improved and tried over the term, and can grade accordingly if necessary.  A student obviously shouldn’t be given a good grade simply because they have improved, they still need to meet the curriculum requirements, but the teacher can account for the improvement in other ways, whereas a bell curve cannot.

By using the Program of Studies as a requirement to meet when grading it will be difficult to be completely reliable and valid, but I still have trouble seeing how the bell curve does this.  The teacher still needs to give students their marks, which has room for subjectivity, the students are still marked based on the Program of Studies, which has subjectivity, and the students still can only work to the very best of their ability, no matter how they are being graded and what criteria they are being held against.  I, as a teacher, don’t know how I will avoid errors in my grading, but I do know that it won’t be by using a bell curve.

Vignette 2: Let the kids know what's coming!

Reflecting on my IPT I’ve come to realize that I rarely ever told the students the learning objectives I wanted them to achieve.  I do very much believe that it’s important for students to know what the learning objectives are all of the time so they know what they are trying to achieve and can strive to do so.  If students are unaware of what they are supposed to achieve it will be incredibly difficult for them to be successful in class.  I think it’s necessary to tell students what the learning objectives are and how they are going to be evaluated at the very beginning of each unit.  This will give them an idea of how to succeed in the classroom.  In my next practicum and during my career I will be sure to make the learning objectives known to my students, as well as how they will be evaluated according to the learning objectives.

Vignette 1: What's the right mark?

I think it’s very important to use predetermined marks in order to give students a mark for their report card.  The marks I would use would come from in class assignments, out of class assignments, tests and quizzes, cumulative projects, and participation and effort.  As demonstrated in the vignette, it is important to always give students a participation and effort mark to reward them for improvement and for trying their best.  It would not be fair to mark students solely on this though, because they do still have to meet the learning outcomes of the class, which is where the rest of their marks would come from.  Generally, I would determine at the beginning of the year how I am going to distribute the marks based on my unit plans.  For example, if all my units contained a lot of assignments and projects, but few tests, I would likely place a high value on the assignments.  Assuming my units contained a relatively “normal” amount of assignments, tests, and projects, I would likely assign 30% of the overall marks to assignments, 40% to tests and quizzes, 20% to projects, and 10% to participation.