These
chapters all discuss issues pertaining to grading. I found these chapters to
challenge what I had previously thought about grading and made me realize the
intricacies that go into deciding grading criteria and the role grading plays
in the classroom.
Chapter
7 introduces grading and discusses the concept of a classroom without grades.
Before reading this chapter, I thought that grading was a necessary part of the
classroom to show who was doing well and who was not. In high school, I thought
grades were necessary to assess how intelligent and hardworking students are
and to determine important things such as class rank and GPA. After reading
this chapter, I realize that grades should not be used for this purpose. Grades
should be used to determine the mastery of students and to provide feedback to
them, but students and teachers often focus on them in a negative way.
Classrooms without grades allow students to focus on the feedback and their
level of understanding rather than the implications of their grades. However,
grades can be used in a way that is largely positive, which is discussed in
chapters 8, 9, and 10.
Chapter
8 discussed elements such as attendance and behavior and if they should be
factored into grading. What I took away from this chapter is that grades should
not be used as a way to discipline students or manage classroom behavior;
rather, they should purely represent the understanding of the material. One
aspect that I agreed that I agreed with was the discussion of giving students
an automatic F based on unexcused absences. The book suggests that rather than
giving a failing grade to students who skip class, teachers and administration
should consider why these students are skipping class and attempt to address
these problems and find solutions that will engage these students. This method
will actually help students, rather than for them to attend by threatening them
with failure.
Chapter
9 gave many grading policies to make a grading system that will best benefit
the students. I enjoyed the book’s take on revisions and extra credit. The text
said that revisions should be graded for full credit, acknowledging the hard
work that students have put into fixing their assignment and learning the
material. It suggests that instead of allowing students to do extra credit
work, which is typically just busy work with no meaning, students should be
encouraged to revise assignments.
Chapter
10 delves deeper into the policy of allowing revision for full credit. It
encourages teachers to be careful about these policies, mentioning that in some
cases it might be best not to allow students to retake a test or revise a
paper. It says that these policies may best be handled on a case by case basis.
However, one of the parts that I enjoyed is the one that said that we should
treat students how we want to be treated as adults. For me, this is an
important issue. I find that many classrooms policies and procedures can be
de-humanizing for students. It is important to think of how you would want to
be treated and treat students with that same respect.
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