Chapter 14: Responsive Report Card Formats

Chapter 14 of Fair Isn’t Always Equal looked at the differences between teachers’ and parents’ views on report cards. Parents focus on how their child is doing in comparison to the other students in the class, where a good teacher is concentrated on what the student is doing to accomplish the standards. The approach that the chapter listed that I found most helpful was called the dual approach. This involved grading both the student’s growth and achievement in relation to the expected standards. The growth element will indicate how much the student has progressed in the course of the year. I really liked the idea of presenting the grade in a format like “A3” or “B2.” I think this reaches a good balance between what the teacher thinks is important and the satisfaction of the parent worrying about his or her student’s abilities and performance.

Chapter 13: Gradebook Formats for the Differentiated Classroom

Chapter 13 focused on gradebook formats in a differentiated classroom. The system that the chapter proposed that I liked the most was categorizing graded activities by the standard that they were designed to meet. For me, this will help me stay on track – if I have to constantly list what standards were met by which of my assignments, then I will stay on track more than if I just put it on autopilot. This will keep me focused on meeting the standards I have set out. The other gradebook formats the chapter proposed, such as listing assignments by date or weight seem kind of arbitrary. The organization of the gradebooks by these systems seems to focus on the teacher more than the content or standards. The date format could help track student progress over time, however. It would be great if there were a type of gradebook that could list these grades in different systems. Can powerschool do this?

Chapter 12: Grading Scales

Chapter 12 is all about different grading scales. The bulk of the chapter focused on the pros and cons of the two most common grading scales, the 100-point scale and the 4-point scale (which also included other small-scales). The chapter discussed how things like minus grades are useless and harmful to student morale. I hadn’t heard of school districts that didn’t use minuses, and I think it’s a tiny little change in grading systems that could make an improvement on student morale. I thought that the chapter got really interesting, however, when it moved on to the section that listed more grading scales, such as “A, B, C and ‘not-yet-achieved’ or ‘you’re not done’,” or ones that listed how often students showed understanding (consistently, usually, sometimes, seldom). Also, there were scales that boiled the grade right down to the standard itself (exceeds the standard, meets the standard, making progress, getting started, or no attempt). This scale emphasizes that students can make up work and see assignments not as hills they have to get over but as roads that they can always keep going down.

Chapter 11: Six Burning Grading Issues

Chapter 11 deals with six grading issues that come up very often. The first one listed, the “Zero or Sixty” argument is one that I feel strongly about. I don’t think having a permanent zero in the gradebook is ever acceptable. On one hand, if the grade is intended to reflect understanding, it is irresponsible to assume that a student has a 60% understanding of the content. On the other hand, it’s irresponsible to assume that they know absolutely nothing about the content being graded. I also really liked the chapter’s suggestion for grading late work where you record two grades – one that reflects mastery and one that includes the late penalties. I also agreed with the suggestion that a full letter grade off is more punitive than instructive.

Chapter 10: Conditions for Redoing Work for Full Credit

Chapter 10 was about something that I feel very passionately about – full credit work redos. When the author said that in some situations, mostly when the issue is the student’s character, it is better for the student’s learning to rescind the option to redo work, I agreed – while redos are allowed in life, they’re generally not preferred. Also, bragging about knowing how to rip off the system is not a life skill. I agreed with most of the segments listed in the chapter. Not allowing redo work during the last week of the grading period sounds like it prevents many stressful situations for the teacher – as long as the students are well-aware of this policy. Of course, as mentioned before in Chapter 7, it is important for a teacher to be able to bend if it will facilitate learning in one or two individual cases.

Chapter 9: Ten Approaches to Avoid When Differentiating Assessment and Grading

Chapter 9 was a list of ten grading ideas we should avoid in our classrooms when grading. I agreed with many of these but disagreed with others. As I stated in the chapter 8 response, I think the important life skills of participation and behavior are important enough to merit grades in the classroom, as long as it is made clear to students. I agreed with most of the tenets though. I strongly agreed with the segment against grading multiple attempts at mastery. I think revising and rethinking work is very important in the classroom and in life. Students need to learn that it’s not only acceptable to make mistakes, but it is acceptable (and desirable) to try to correct them and deepen understanding of a topic. Grading students in ways that doesn’t reflect their mastery is also a bad idea. If you’ve only given verbal practice, asking them to draw a picture of what they learned just doesn’t make sense. My classroom will ensure that all students have a fair chance during assessment. I also agreed with the statement that we should avoid recording zeroes for incomplete work.

Chapter 8: Why Do We Grade, and What About Effort, Attendance, and Behavior?

Chapter 8 focuses more on the purpose of grading and the values of grading things besides content like effort, attendance, and behavior. A part of this chapter that stuck out for me was the six reasons for grading that the chapter offered. The dividing line between the top three, which were all valuable information for a teacher who’s interested in staying on top of his game, and the last three, which were not as good reasons for grading, was something I agreed with a lot. The chapter said that the bottom three reasons for grading diluted the value and accuracy of the grade. I agree with the chapter that teachers must always be focused on why they are grading. I’m not sure if I agree with the author’s sentiments about grading participation or behavior. In a discussion-based class like I want mine to be, participation is more important than he makes it seem.

Chapter 7: The Relative Nature of Grades and Their Definitions

Chapter 7 of Fair Isn’t Always Equal discusses grades themselves, and what exactly about grades makes them so feared in the classroom – what gives grades their power, and where do we make critical decisions about the weight of grades. The first main question that the chapter addresses is whether or not good teachers bend in grading decisions with individual students. The chapter makes the good point of stating that the teacher’s role is not to feed information and then simply grade how much was digested – the teacher’s role is to facilitate understanding. If bending in a grading decision will help a student to learn more, then it is the teacher’s responsibility to do so and understand why he is doing so. The second big debate in the chapter on grading is whether students should be graded at all. There is a substantial movement to eliminate grading altogether, as adding an extrinsic reward to student work eventually diminishes the quality of the work. The chapter includes these perspectives not because it agrees with them, but because they offer perspectives counter to grade-obsessed views that are more prevalent.

Chapter 6: Creating Good Test Questions

Chapter Six of Fair Isn’t Always Equal was about designing tests and test questions that will most reflect students’ learning. It’s very refreshing to read that teachers are now keeping an active eye out for confusing negatives or “trick” questions. If I had read that as a student, I wouldn’t have believed it – it seemed like those things were the only prerequisites for a test. Everything in this chapter sounded great for my class – I’m glad there’s so much innovation in crafting test questions. I’ve often found myself stuck coming up with ideas for what I will write for tests (when I have a class).
The section that I’ve seen the most in classes, and that I most anticipate, was putting fun into test questions. Especially painful puns are my specialty, and that’s going to make these tests easier for both me and the students (I hope!).

Chapter 5: Tiering Assessments

Chapter 5 of Fair Isn’t Always Equal was all about tiering, which is the technique of building platforms around the on-grade level to accommodate early readiness students and advanced readiness students. I feel like this is one of the parts of education that was either overlooked as a student, or went unused in my schools. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the students in our class said that they were bored in classes in high school to the point of hurting our learning.
I really appreciate the Tic-Tac-Toe boards, partially because of novelty (this is my first introduction to this assessment style), and partially because I love how much choice it endows students with. Students get to choose 3 ways to best express their knowledge and understanding, rather than force themselves into a hole through which they won’t fit.
The taxonomy of creativity also really connected with me – I can’t wait to incorporate those elements into my lessons. Like the chapter concluded, it seems like tiering needs practice, but I can’t wait until I am an expert at it.

Chapter 4: Three Important Types of Assessment

Chapter four of Fair Isn’t Always Equal looked at three assessment types. I’ve been in classrooms that used all of these types. My high school English classes in particular used all three types of assessment at the same time. Portfolios are a good type of assessment to look at the span of an entire year – I remember choosing documents in different learning areas of my English class and explaining why I chose those items for my portfolio. I remember picking out well-done items for my portfolio and feeling really proud of myself when I was finished – that is a feeling I’d like to be present in my classroom.
Rubrics were the most common assessment style used in my schooling. They’re good for traditional school products like essays or projects because they lay out the guidelines clearly, and the student can see exactly what needs to be done to demonstrate knowledge, skill, and understanding. I liked examples 4.2 and 4.3 because they spent the most time discussing what the standard of excellence looks like, making it easier to aim for excellence instead of shooting for mediocrity.
I really like the student self-assessment type. It’s good to get students thinking about their own work. All of the techniques the book proposed sound good to use in my own classroom.

Chapter 3: Principles of Successful Assessment in the Differentiated Classroom

This chapter repeated a lot of what we’ve already read in other books. I take this as emphasis of the chapter’s importance rather than needless repetition. Everything from avoiding fluff to furthering differentiated instruction to keeping one’s eye on the essential goals was reiterated in my mind as I read this chapter. The bulk of material in this chapter, which for the most part was reiterating differently things we’ve already read about, was summed up excellently toward the end. The “good assessment” bullet list would be a great thing to scan down when testing out an assessment strategy for the first time in a classroom, especially if I’m nervous about it.

Chapter 2: Mastery

Chapter Two and its focus on mastery of subject was immensely helpful to me. I have always thought about the ambiguity of exactly where a student was supposed to be in understanding of subjects by the time a unit was over. The definitions that the chapter compiled were helpful, but I can see this as something I need to define for myself in my school. My high school always had some infatuation with students reaching mastery, but I’m not certain the teachers ever discussed the definition of mastery in the teachers’ lounge. Again, the table on page 13 was invaluable for me to see examples of mastery.

Chapter 1: The Differentiated Instruction Mind-set: Rationale and Definition

Chapter one explained the differentiated instruction mindset, which focuses on fairness in instruction and assessment for students. The example of the two kids sitting at the back of a class, one with glasses and one without, was very well-crafted. I hadn’t heard it before. I like how the book, which I assume will focus on assessment, referred to Differentiated Instruction as a mindset, implying its value could exceed instruction. As we’ve pointed out in other readings, the Differentiated Instruction mindset is one that I wholeheartedly agree with and plan on using in my own classroom eventually.