FIAE Chapter 14: Responsive Report Card Formats

This chapter of FIAE is about report cards. If we are using a grade book system that looks for mastery of many different benchmarks then it only makes sense that the report card reflects this. The chapter suggests many ways to sow how a student has progressed in a class on a report card and a few examples of how to reformat a report card to show how a student met each benchmark. This will affect me as a teacher because the grade on the report card will be questioned by parents. They will want to know why their child got a C and what that means for how well they are doing in the class. It affects my class because it means I can give the students, heir future teachers and their parents more productive feedback on their learning. That will help them in years ahead as well.

FIAE Chapter 13: Gradebook Formats for the Differentiated Classroom

Chapter 13 of FIAE is about finding a grading system that works for you. The chapter gives a few examples but stresses the fact that you need to find one that works well for you. This is important and affects my classroom because I will need to find a way to keep track of my student’s leaning in a way that is easy, efficient and tells me a lot about their mastery of the material. This can be hard to do and will probably take a lot of trial and error. It affects my classroom because as a teacher I will need to be able to tell students exactly what they need to work on and explain to parents what their children are doing in my class.

FIAE Chapter 12: Grading Scales

Chapter twelve of FIAE is about grading scales. The chapter describes two kinds the 100 point scale and the 4 point scale. The chapter mostly argues that a 4 point scale is better because it is more difficult to fudge grades, it is easy to link to a rubric so that a student can see where the grade comes from and it more accurately shows mastery than a 100 point scale. These are all good points but a 100 point scale is still the easiest way to grade a quiz or test. However, it is easy to turn one of those grades into a 4 point scale. This affects me because as a teacher I will have to decide what grading scale works best for me and shows the students mastery of the subject in the most accurate and fair way.

FIAE Chapter 11: Six Burning Grading Issues

Chapter eleven of FIAE is about six issues when it comes to grading that teachers struggle with. Obviously there are more than just six but the chapter chooses to only address six of them. The six things include recording a zero or a sixty, grading gifted students, weighting grades, automaticity versus concept attainment, grading students with special needs, and grading late work. The chapter describes all of them and gives a few helpful ideas on how to handle them. This chapter affects me because as a teacher I will also have to be thinking about them when grading my students. Having this chapter is helpful. It affects my classroom a lot as well because grades are the final summary of the work the student has done in my classroom. It is important that they are accurate.

FIAE Chapter 10: Conditions for Redoing Work for Full Credit

This chapter discusses the conditions for redoing assignments that students didn’t do well on the first time. Most of the conditions are for teacher sanity but a few of them are also to keep the student honest. For example, making parents a part of the process and reserving the right to change the format of the redo. This chapter affects me because it gives me some ideas on how to go about giving my students second opportunities to prove that they know the material without being duped or overrun with work. It affects my class because if my students have the chance to redo an assignment that they had trouble getting done due to outside circumstances they can without having to beg and plead and explain the situation they may not want me to be aware of. It would be unfair to not allow a student a redo because they were embarrassed to tell me they were at the hospital or a relative died.

FIAE Chapter 9: Ten Approaches to AVoid When Differentiating Assessment and Grading

This chapter is a list of 10 different things that teachers should avoid when differentiating grading and assessment. The chapter thoroughly explains all of the reasons why these things should be avoided. The list includes avoiding grading on a curve, avoiding recording zeros, avoiding extra credit, avoiding scaffolding and avoiding grading homework, to name a few. The list is a good way for me to look at things that teachers often do that don’t work in the classroom. It is kind of like getting experience with using these practices without actually having to try them out myself. It affects my class because now that I understand a few things to avoid and why I don’t have to spend time trying them out for myself. I can work at avoiding them and know that it is what is best for my students.

FIAE Chapter 8: Why do we Grade, and What About Effort, Attendance, and Behavior?

Chapter 8 of FIAE is about including effort, attendance and behavior in the grade. Many teachers disagree about whether or not these should be included in the grade. The chapter gives many arguments for both sides. This means that as a teacher I will have to decide whether or not to include this, decide how to grade it and how much of the grade it will be worth. I’m not sure that I would include effort or behavior in my grades but I probably would include participation because it is difficult in an English class to teach students how to analyze without allowing them to pick each other’s brains.

FIAE Chapter 7: The Relative Definitions of Grades and Their Definitions

Chapter 7 of FIAE is about grading. Grading is arbitrary because the meaning of the grades A, B, C, D and F are not agreed upon among all educators. This chapter affects me because despite how arbitrary grades can seem at times I will have to come up with some kind of system for giving my students a grade. This grade will have to mean something and I will have to know what it means. I will have to decide what constitutes an A or an F and everything I between. Not only that, but my class will have a right to know these things so that they will know what they are striving for.

FIAE Chapter 6: Creating Good Test Questions

In chapter 6 I learned how to create test questions that are fair and tiered towards my students’ levels of learning. This means asking questions in the same manner that the material was taught, trying to keep questions easy to understand, being to the point and making tests easy to respond to. It also means grading and getting students feedback on how they did on the test or quiz in a timely manner so that they can improve for the next one. This affects my classroom because if I do ever decide to use a test to assess my students’ learning than I need to know how to write one that will probably assess what has been taught. It also gave good ideas on how to tier the test which means that I’ll have a few to consider if I should need to adjust the test for different learners.

FIAE Chapter 5: Tiering Assignments

This chapter is about tiering assessments successfully so that they are neither too hard nor too easy. The trick is to develop an assessment that pushes students but at the same time meets their readiness levels. I learned that there are a number of different ways to tier an assessment or assignment. One such way is to create different menus with different options for students to pick from. This way means the teacher has some say in determining what the students do while giving them some options. This idea was very appealing to me for use in my classroom because it meant that I could excite the students to do their work by interesting them in the project while having some control on the conditions.

FIAE Chapter 4: Three Important Types of Assessment

Chapter 4 of FIAE continues to discuss how best to assess students in a differentiated classroom except this chapter focuses more on designing fair standards and laying them out in a way that easy for students to read. The chapter suggests using portfolios, rubrics or self-assessment as ways to assess student learning and growth in a unit. I learned that portfolios can be a great way to look at all of a student’s work over an extended period of time. I also learned a few tips on designing rubrics that work. This will be very helpful in my classroom when it comes to outline for my students what they must accomplish in order to show me they understand the material. It also helps me figure out a fair and easy way to grade my students.

FIAE Chapter 3: Principles of Successful Assessment in the Differentiated Classroom

Chapter 3 of FIAE is about assessment. I learned that it does my students no good to only be assessed once. After all there could be a number of factors that could be influencing their performance that day. It is more helpful to assess my students many times over the course of the entire unit. This way I can know what they are really learning and give them feedback. This allows them to make adjustments and improve. But it is not enough to just assess my students. The assessments must also be fair judges of what has been taught. This affects me in that it means I have to send a lot of time making up different appropriate assessments and giving good feedback. It affects my classroom because it means more chances for my students to show me what they know.

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

Chapter 1 of FIAE discusses why differentiation works and why it is a good idea. I learned that differentiation doesn’t make students dependent on teachers to adjust the curriculum for them but rather make them tolerant individuals or are intrinsically motivated. These students are creative, hey take risks, they are competent and independent. This affects me because that is exactly how I want my students to be when they leave my classroom. I want them to know themselves, be creative, be smart, be compassionate and take risks. I think that differentiation can help me accomplish this. This affects my classroom because it will be easier to manage a classroom of students who are intrinsically motivated.

FIAE Chapter 2: Mastery

Chapter 2 of FIAE is about mastery and what constitutes mastery of a subject. I learned that mastery can be defined many different ways by many different teachers. It seems the best way to decide if a student has mastered the material is to look at the standards or goals that the teacher set at the beginning of the lesson or unit. It is also good to match the assessment to the goal. This affects me in that this means I will have to constantly redefine what I think it means for a student to master my subject. It affects my classroom because I need to be clear with my students about what is expected of them. If I am expecting them to master a subject they and I, should know what that looks like. That way they will know what they are working for and where their grade comes from.