Chapter 14: FIAE

Armstrong expresses the need for responsive report card formats. As in my high school, a lot of report cards just have the letter grade, and then generic responses from the teacher who used a number key to comment on my performance in the classroom, usually summed up in a sentence. The grades on my report card were never justified or explained. Responsive report cards will help parents understand why their child got the grade that they did. My mentor teacher uses powerschool to submit students grades so that they can see them and show their parents. Beside the grade for each assignment, she write comments about if they didn't try, or it was late, or any other reason why they got the grade they did. It lets the parents know how the student is doing academically as well as any problems with understanding or missing work.

Chapter 13: FIAE

Armstrong gives many examples of ways to format a grade book. Some different ways are to: Group assignments by category (ex. Analysis, Synthesis, Prediction), which measure students level of performance based on skills that they have acquired. Another way is longitudinally or by date, a topic based grade-book, which I liked because it allows the teacher to see which topic the students struggled with and might need to work some more on, I had never thought too much into different formats of grading, all I have been exposed to are the generic ones that have the assignment and the grade out of how many points. As a teacher I would like to get creative with my gradebook, and most likely use the topic based format.

Chapter 12: FIAE

This chapter is all about different types of grading scales. Grading scales are either used in a 4 point system or a 100 point system. This causes teachers to justify their grades mathematically. What the math comes out to is the fair grade for the student. However, this does not take mastery into account, and more justification for student's grade than just mathematical reasoning is called for. Armstrong suggests using rubrics for assignments, which help to justify a grade clearly to students, but is also mathematically correct and uses a point system. Armstrong offered many different point systems in the chapter, to stress that interpretation of grades is not always universal. I did not like the 100 point grading system that went 94-100 and so on. There should be one universal scale for schools so that there is no mathematical differences between schools which could result in a lower grade for transferring.

Chapter 11: FIAE

Armstrong discusses how to grade fairly in chapter 11. The chapter begins with a discussion on whether or not it is fair to give zero's. Armstrong claims that giving a student a zero for work that was not handed in is not fair, and that it distorts their final grade. If a child is given a zero, their average will lower dramatically, even if they had all A's before. This does not reveal the students true mastery of the subject. The suggestion is to give the child a 60 instead of a zero so that their average drops, but not past the point where it is unfair. While Armstrong does have some good points here, I don't know if i agree with giving a student an undeserved grade. If a student does not complete the work they should not get the same grade as a student who did, and who may have tried but still did not do well, and got a 60. That student will start to wonder why they pass things in if they can get the same grade without doing the work. Armstrong also discusses what to do with late work. A lot of teachers take off a whole letter grade for each day that the assignment is late. Armstrong disagrees with this, and says that it will eventually deter the student from completing the work. Instead, points off every day should be taken, unless the student habitually turns in late

Chapter 10

Wormeli advises that teachers allow students to re-do work and assignments for full credit. This allows students to build mastery on the content and skills, if they did not understand it the first time around. Wormeli stresses that teachers need to have compassion for the student and their circumstances, and that as adults in life we get extra times or re-do's as well. However, the offer to complete re-do's on assignments should not be granted if students don't try the first time or wait till the last minute and come out with a product that does not show their full capability. When a student does this with the mindset that they can blow it off because they can always re-do it when they feel like it, then a re-do should not be an option. If students or a particular student show effort but constantly need to utilize the opportunity for re-dos, it can be an indicator to the teacher that the method they are using needs to be modified. I fully believe that students should have the ability to re-do an assignment. First, because students can have bad days or bad weeks that affect the quality of their work, or they may not have learned the content or built the skills at the same rate as other students.

Chapter 9: FIAE

Wormeli lists ten different things to avoid when differentiating assessment and grading. Mainly these restate past chapters that discussed flaws and ways of grading that should be avoided, such as grading nonacademic factors like attendance. It even jumps ahead by advising teachers to stay away from giving zero's, as is the basis of chapter 10. One thing to avoid that I found interesting, and really does make perfect sense, is avoiding allowing students to do extra credit. Often the extra credit is busy work and does not use the same skills that were meant to be built in the original assignment. At first it seemed a little cruel, but it does make sense. The teacher can allow an alternative and allow students to receive a better grades by allowing re-do's on assignments.

Chapter 8: FIAE

Chapter eight discusses whether teachers should incorporate behavior, attendance, and effort into the students final grade. Overall, Wormeli was against using any of them as part of assessing a student. The argument was that often times these serve to discourage students when they are penalized, and often there are factors or reasons behind why they have not been in class, have behavioral problems, or are missing assignments. I like how Wormeli states that often students missing assignments aren't because they just decided not to do it, but teachers treat them as if that is the case. There have been past experiences in school were I had extenuating circumstances and could not complete an assignment on time, but teachers punished me as if I just decided I did not care or just blew it off. In the case of some teachers, it feels as though they do not treat students as human beings who have a life outside of school with other priorities and problems. Taking time to understand students instead of reducing there final grade for not being in class is important as a teacher.

Chapter 7: FIAE

In this chapter, Wormeli discusses how to give grades meaning. It is argued that letter and number grades in many systems do not accurately describe mastery, and that too much emphasis is put on grades. There were two major points in this chapter that I found particularly interesting. The first in the results of a test that Wormeli quoted, that was taken of A and B students at an impoverished school. It turns out that they tested the same as C and D students at an affluent school. These schools are help to the same state learning standards so why is this? Wormeli claims that it could be because the teachers of the impoverished school have lower expectations. This is unacceptable, it discriminates upon students based on their socioeconomic status. This is no basis for lowering the level of education that is available to students. Another problem described by Wormeli is the idea of a "passing grade". If a student gets by with a D, the lowest grade they need to move on the the next level, then the student does not have mastery of the content. That is the flaw with the system, when we allow students who have not built the skills set forth in the course, to leave without meeting the standards.

Chapter 6: Creating Good Test Questions

Tests should not be a list of tiring questions that may or may not judge a students comprehension. They should test a students mastery, and should keep the student engaged and give them freedom to answer questions with their own knowledge. It is a good idea to mix traditional and non traditional questions and writing essays. Mixing up questions with forced choice questions (questions that require students to choose from assessments from the teacher) and constructed response questions (questions that require the student to generate information themselves) are ways to effectively set up an assessment. "By using a variety of questions and prompts, we get a better picture of students' mastery"(FIAE page 75). Providing "T" and "F" rather than true or false make grading easier for the teacher because they get rid of interpretations of messy letters or words. Keeping matching questions on the same page and having fill in the blanks toward the end of the sentence are both things that help with comprehension issues. When giving a prompt, the teacher needs to create questions that do not give room to roam. Providing specific instructions on how a question should be answered keeps the responses concise and on target. A fun way to construct an exam is to include students name in questions. They will have more fun answering the questions and will look forward to seeing their name appear in print on the exam. The fashion in which a teacher gives feedback on an exam is equally important. Students spend a lot of time studying and taking the test, it is the teachers job to grade them promptly and provide feedback so the student can learn from mistakes before further learning is implemented.

Chapter 5: Tiering Assessments

The whole point of tiering is to adjust assignments and testing based on individual students' readiness, interest and way of learning best. This is not to make assessing easier for some, and harder for others, but to actually create the best way of learning for the individual. It is important to not tier every aspect of every lesson. "It's often okay for students to do what everyone else is doing..."(FIAE page 57). It is the teacher's job to change how they tier and to adjust the complexity of assignments more subtly each day. A learning contract is one method of tiering assessments. They give each student the ability to work at their own level in each lesson at their highest level of performance. They help the teacher assess progress and keep the student dedicated to their work. Learning menus can be used to give your student a choice of assignments to complete from a list of options. "Through tiering, we teach more effectively"(FIAE page 73). The object is to push students. They will be comfortable being pushed and will succeed as long as the bar is not set too high.

Chapter 4: Three Important Types of Assessment

When assessing students learning, there are three very helpful methods that FIAE recommends. First, portfolios. "Portfolios are an excellent way to determine accurate grades for students in differentiated classes"(FIAE page 43). This is helpful for teachers, because they do not need to make any guesses as to how the student is mastering a subject. Many student samples of work give a teacher a broad range of work and gives the teacher a better idea of how learning is progressing. Portfolios are helpful to students because they help to set goals for the next thing a teacher will grade. It can be a good reflection period for both the teacher and the student. Rubrics are another popular tool used by teachers. They help focus learning and give a clear report of student comprehension. Student self assessment "is an important aspect of successful differentiation"(FIAE page 51). It give invaluable results and helps to set goals for both teacher and student. A recommendation is to make the first and last assessment of a unit the same. That will really give the teacher an understanding of how the students have grown.

Chapter 3: Principles of Successful Assessment in the Differentiated Classroom

Assessment is a very important aspect in a differentiated classroom. It guides practice. Giving students information up front that they will need to know at the end of a unit is a positive thing a teacher can do because it gives students an idea of what is to come, and maybe what they can do to prepare. Students are likely to be more involved and actually do the work if they have a clear idea of what the finished product will look like. A stratedy to teach understanding can be done by offering essential questions; larger questions that are interesting to ponder and have more than one answer. I feel that students like to have discussions more than they would like to be lectured to. A teacher that assesses their own work benefits them because they can alter lessons as they go along. A teacher should be able to have a curriculum that can be changed, as through assessing students one will know what things need to be fixed.

Chapter 2: Mastery

The concept of teaching mastery to students was the main focus of chapter two. "Mastery is more than knowing information, of course, but it can even go beyond manipulating and applying that information successfully in other situations"(FIAE page 11). Mastery of something can be difficult to accomplish, but methods for teaching are improving to give students the knowledge needed to complete tasks. If a student can be proficient with each aspect discussed in a subject, mastery has been achieved. I feel that having every student being able to demonstrate a thorough understanding of a subject is a definite struggle, but that's what keeps teachers teaching. Things such as tests, quizzes models, demonstrations, videos, cds, and rubrics, are all things that puts students on the right track to achieving mastery of a subject. To have students be able to tell you how they got to the point where they have mastered something is key to understanding if they have really reached that level.

Chapter 1: The Differentiated Instrution Mind-set

I like how this book started with discussing what differentiated instruction is. In our UbD book, it defines the term but I feel that this book explains what it is a lot easier. The book describes differentiated instruction as "doing what's fair for students"(FIAE page 3). It is giving students all the tools necessary for them to succeed. What is important to remember is that it is not individual instruction. It is a highly developed method of teaching and research shows that teachers that use the method have students who succeed at higher levels. Using differentiated instruction will help students use the method in future classes, regardless of whether they're differentiated or not, because they have acquired the tools necessary to handle whatever comes their way.