Chapters 11, 12, 13, and 14 in Fair Isn’t Always Equal
discuss the subject of grades.
Chapter 11 discussed whether it was better to give a student a 60 or a
zero when the student did not hand something in. I personally believe in a
grading system that expects that every student complete every assignment I give
him or her. This is a point system, so if a student did not complete the work
or fails to hand in the assignment, they wouldn’t necessarily get a zero, they
would simply not receive points for that assignment. Therefore, if the end of
the quarter rolls around and they have completed everything and gotten all points
for all the other assignments, but did not turn in a 40 point assignment but it
is a 450 point unit, they would receive a 410/450, which equals out to be a
91.1 average. This way, the student is penalized for the late assignment, but
their grade is not as severely devastated, as it would be with a zero for an
outlier to the average. Chapter 12
discussed scales that are used for grading. I really appreciated the part in
the chapter where it showed us how to covert a 4.0 scale to a 100 point
scale. This is useful to me
because I find the 4.0 scales to be confusing and inaccurate, especially when
using rubrics. On rubrics, a “4” is considered exceeds expectations, but there
is still a lot of range in the 4 category itself, why should it be up to the
teacher’s discretion whatever number in that category they feel like giving? I
feel like all the possible points should be present and accounted for. Chapter 13 delved into possible formats
for grade books that would be fair in making sure that all assignments were
accounted for and graded. I personally took a liking to listing the assignments
by order or date because it shows chronologically the assignments and the grade
they received for them. It is also easy to see what grades they got for what
and on which assignments they never completed. If a row of grades for a student
is completed in the beginning and the middle of the term, but many assignments
are blank at the end, you probably would be able to tell that something is
going on with that student, and that you would have to have a conversation with
that student to see why they are not turning things in all of a sudden. I have
also seen this strategy work because I have seen several of my teachers who
have been known to be very organized use this method and they have never lost
any grades or made any students do an assignment over. In chapter 14, the topic
of discussion was report cards. I have no problem having one single report card
for the entire quarter or term because I can easily communicate with students
and their parents during parent teacher conferences, and during that time I
would discuss areas the student is excelling in and areas of concern in need
for improvement.
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