FIAE+Chapter+13+Block+1

Synthesis FIAE C13 B1


 * **Names** || **Abstract** || **Reflection** ||
 * Archambault Michael || Chapter 13 of FIAE tackled the designing of gradebooks. It pointed out pros and cons of different styles of setting up your gradebook, and gave visuals of what each style looks like. You can group assignments by weight, date, topic, or objective. Listing grades by date has the benefit of showing progress throughout the semester and seeing trends that can chart more than a students knowledge. The bottom line is that each format needs to benefit the teacher's organization, and aid in the assessing of the students. || I'm not sure which gradebook format I like the best. I think I will default to date, just so I can keep myself organized, but I may find myself switching halfway through a semester. I kind of worry about my gradebook, because that relies on pure organization, and I have as much of that as Mr. Clean has hair. I like a flexibility, so that if something changes or I have an epiphany, I can change in the middle of the year. ||
 * Audy Melissa || The 13th chapter of Fair Isn’t Always Equal discusses the formatting of gradebooks. It discusses various ways of organizing a gradebook, such as by date, standard, weight, or topic. Each method is described in depth with charts provided to visualize the way it would look in an actual gradebook. In the standard based gradebook, the grades are organized in a manner that easily displays how well a student has met each specific standard. The book points out this can be very convenient when meeting with parents, administrators, or colleagues. Listing grades by date has the benefit of being able to note a student’s progress throughout the semester. Each format has certain benefits, and determining which one works best depends on the teacher’s preference. || The format of my gradebook is something I had never really considered before. This chapter gave me some useful insight. I had always assumed that I would simply use PowerSchool, or whatever grading software was provided, as well as a paper gradebook as a method of backup. I had never considered all of the details that should be recorded, such as a list of standards that each assignment meets. By organizing a gradebook in an efficient manner, a teacher can avoid creating more work for themselves later on, when a meeting comes up unexpectedly. The monitoring of progress is also a great thing that can be done with the proper organization of a gradebook. By using bits and pieces of each of the formats described, I feel I will find an effective way to organize my own gradebook. ||
 * Boulter Elizabeth || This chapter touches on gradebook formats and how these books should reflect our differentiated teaching style. They offer plenty of advice and many examples to illustrate good and bad practices. They show gradebooks categorized by objectives and benchmarks, ones by date, ones by assignment name, others by topics. Some are better because they help visually assess learning and not just a bunch of numbers. Others seem complicated but keep a great record of student progress in different areas. || I really like the topic based format. Yes, it seems complicated and tedious...but I think once I got used to the system I would get the hang of it. I like it because it allows you to see student progress in different areas. That way you can see where students are lacking, not just on one assignment...but by topic and help them grow in that certain area. ||
 * Brown Ryanne || Chapter 13 was analyzing the different ways to organize gradebooks in a differentiated classroom. As the chapter explains, the organization of the gradebook will depend on teacher preference. However, the chapter relays some positive ideas to keep things organized. The first suggestion is to organize the gradebook by grouping assignments by standard, benchmark, or objective. This choice may leave assignments out of order, so if a teacher preferred a sequential order, it may not be the most. However, this form is really nice for focusing on the main goals of the units and lessons and keeping students’ understanding of the bigger picture in line. Some of the other suggestions the chapter gives are grouping assignments by weight or category, listing assignments by date, and topic based gradebooking. Each format will have benefits for the teacher and the students, but the format will always be dependent on the needs of each. || My ideal gradebook would be one that was in order by date of assignments, but was also color-coded by standards or benchmark. This way I could organize by dates, but still have a very clear presentation of the overall student understanding of the most important elements of the units. There were many suggestions that were helpful in this chapter for separating importance and necessity, along with teacher needs. There are so many smaller elements to teaching that I have yet to think about, and this particular subject was one of them. I do think it is very important to set an organization standard for students by being on track with my own personal organization of their grades and progress. ||
 * DePue Margaux || Chapter 13 discusses different gradebook formats for the differentiated classroom and which formats work best. Gradebooks should record acheivements, not the strategy or just the assignment that was done by the students. Teachers should categorize grades by the standards and when an assignment exhibits more than one benchmark or standard, a teacher should give more than one grade. Weighting certain categories in the book is fine as long as there are other weighting options for students with disabilities. Marking the dates of each assignment can be beneficial if you wish to view the growth of each student over time, though this may not always be consistent and comparisons between certain assignments may not always be valid, so teachers should color code assignments by their category. A topics-based gradebook is also a great way to check for mastery of each topic, though the final topic score does not necessarily have to be an average of all of the scores. || I like the idea of a topics-based gradebook, though it seems a bit time-consuming. I do agree with the fact that teachers should not categorize grades by the assignment, though the assignment should be marked in the book. Of course, the individual grade sheet was another good idea on how to allow students to check their grades and know where they stand in terms of mastery without the worry of having their grades viewed by others. I like the format that my mentor teacher uses, by putting different assignments in designated categories such as "Vocabulary" and "Writing," some of which are weighted higher than others. ||
 * Dunne Kaisha || This chapter is trying to help us figure out what kind of gradebook format we wish you use. They help us do this by laying a few different kinds and explaining them all to us. The first idea given is to set it up by standard or objective so you can see which standards students are doing well on. This way may help us record more than just one grade for an assignment; yes it may be more work for us recording more but in the long run. This would also be good to show your knowledge of the standards and you applications of them in the classroom The next way to set up our gradebook is by assignments by weight or category. The third gradebook was listing assignments by date; you can color code the quizzes, tests, and homework using this format. The last gradebook format was topic based; this is a very specific format. They tell us these are just some of the ways to set up a gradebook, so to keep our eyes open and maybe we will find a way that is perfect for us. These are all things that can help us as teachers stay focused and have an understanding of where our class is. The main of goal of grades is that they are clear and accurately reflect where the student is and that is the most important thing! || I think that in the first few years, and in student teaching, we will go through and pick and choose parts of different styles and eventually find the one that works. You never know because twenty years down the road one may change their grading again. It depends on the class and you as the teacher. ||
 * Hudson Kimberly || There are several different grade books that can be used in a differentiated classroom. The first is to group assignments by standard, objective, or benchmark. This also allows the teacher to tell if the assessment was formative or summative. The problem with this system is that most of the assessments that are done, fall under more than one standard. The second is to group assignments by weight. With this, the weight is determined by the importance and complexity of the assignment. Thirdly, a teacher can list the assignments by date. This gives the teacher the advantage of looking at a student’s progression over time. Lastly, is the topic based gradebooks. All the assignments are recorded for every student in the form of a short hand letter key that can be referenced at the top of the page. This allows the grades to be very specific. It allows the teacher to focus on the students’ mastery with individual standards. || This chapter scared me a little bit. I am not really sure which kind of grading system I should use. I will probably come up with my own using one of these as my base. However, I am not really which one I should try first. It makes me nervous that I don’t know because I feel like if I don’t have a good way to keep track of my grades, then the grades won’t have the meaning that they should. ||
 * Korn Shauna || This chapter covered the different ways to grade using your gradebook. There are a few examples in this book that explain some great ways to grade students. The first example is to break up the grading into the standards that the teacher is walking the students through and expect them to know. Once the standards have been established it is then that the teacher would put the assignment he/she would be giving out under the standard that was listed. This way the teacher knows what standard the student is doing well in and where they may need some help or guidance. Another gradebook method would be to create a sheet for each student with all the assignments on it. This report card style allows a teacher to look at each student as an individual. Another way to do a gradebook is by the type of assessment that is being graded or by listing just the assignment by itself (normal/usual way). The last gradebook method was a little confusing and used a key to do assignments. || I really liked this chapter because I love organization and this gave tons of ways that I could organize my gradebook. I think that this is really important because it keeps students work easy to get to and completely organized. The individual student gradecard was really neat because I feel that students could ask to see there grade and not have to go online or see other students grades while looking at their own. Plus I feel that this could be a resource for students to check and see if they have missing work and perhaps they could pencil in a date when they would pass in late work in the slot that it was due. I think that really all expect for the last one are ones that I would use. The last one really confused me and I think that I wouldn’t’ want to get too complicated with it. ||
 * LaRose Rebecca || This chapter discussed many of the different ways to set up a gradebook.The first way that the grade book can be broken up is by standard, objective, or bechmark. This helps the teacher know exactly where a student needs help. The second way that the book gives is to break up the grade book by how much each assignment is worth, and a teacher can easily show student what grade carry more weight. The next, a date-based system allows for the teacher to keep track of due dates and how a student does across a certain period of time. Finally, a teacher can use a code or key to differentiate between assignments. This is the most complicated, and hard to understand. || I liked this chapter, even though it was a little confusing. I always wonder how teachers know exactly how to do this. It is still a little hard to understand, and I don't know how I would like to go about this in my classroom. ||
 * Murphy Amber || Chapter thirteen discusses the different formats which are used by teachers to set up their grade books. This chapter discusses four different ways to format your grade book. The four different ways are grouping assignments by standards, or grouping assignments objective, or benchmarking. When teachers are setting up their grade book it is essential for them to be flexible because there is no such thing as the perfect grade book and there is always room for improvement. Weight assignments are when teachers group quizzes, test and homework. This is one such way of organizing the grade book and another way is by putting them in the grade book as things are due. These formats are useful and help to demonstrate how different teachers set up their grade books. || I believe that this topic was very important and I think that it is something that no one has really been thinking about. I have extremely bad organization skills and believe that this will be one of my main struggles as a teacher. The format which I enjoy the most is the putting things in the grade book as they are due. I think that it helps to keep things more organized and it helps for one to remain flexible when using your grade book because you can always add and subtract things and edit your grade book. I agree that it is essential to remain flexible ||
 * Nieuwkerk Hannah || Chapter 13 is about grade book formatting- there are so many different ways that support differentiation. For a standards-based classroom, teachers can categorize the standards, such as: Analysis, synthesis, and prediction. The teacher can go into more detail in each category. This neatly puts all the assignments in its own section, and the teacher can even go so far as to mark each grade with an ‘f’ or an ‘s’ (formative or summative). It is difficult with certain formats to include more than one grade for just one assignment; but it does make sense if that assignment covers more than one standard or benchmark. It is also a little more time-consuming for the teacher to record more than one grade. Grouping assignments by weight or category can be a good format if used correctly: if students are doing much better on certain assignments and understand the information so much better, why not weight those grades more? It makes sense, why punish the students for not understanding earlier in the semester? And finally, students should not be punished for displaying mastery of the subject a little differently than asked on the assessment; if the student understands and shows it in a different way, why should the format in which the information be given matter? It shouldn’t. || I liked the quote in the last paragraph of the chapter: “Teachers looking for one true grade book format that best supports differentiated practice will be frustrated. There isn’t one” (171). This is very true, and a grade book for each teacher is different, because we all have different ways of teaching. A healthy mix, I feel, is the best route to go on this one. I also liked the idea of having an ‘f’ and an ‘s’ for formative and summative assessments, I might even go so far as to color code them. It would be easier for me to see how well each student did with each kind of assessment; what worked and what didn’t. This was a good chapter to read, but I wish that it came later than Practicum, because we won’t be using grade books for a while. ||
 * Scheffler Erich || This chapter talked about how to set up a grade book in a differentiated classroom. One way to do this is to group assignments by what kind of assignment it is. Also, teachers can group assignments by weight or by category, such as grouping tests together, or essays together. Another way it to groups assignments by the date they were assigned. The final way the book gave to group assignments is to group them by topic. || There are several ways to set up a grade book. I kind of feel like this chapter was not as important as some of the other chapters in the book, because I feel like no matter what way you set up your grade book, the students are still going to have the same grades no matter if you group assignments by date, category, etc. ||
 * Simoneau Andrea ||  ||   ||
 * Stevens Newcomb || This chapter dealt with the grade book dilemma. There are actually several ways to make a grade book in the differentiated classroom. Often enough, most grades are often weighted. When grading, it is important to keep track of percentages in order to ensure a fair grade. Fortunately, there are quite a few right ways to make up a successful grade book.  ||  I think that the grade book should be flexible, but one thing is for sure: the teacher must weigh things out properly. The grade book is actually a great measurement of progress if set up correctly. If done like a timeline, a teacher can actually get a really good picture of the student’s progress. I think I shall set up my own grade book in this manner.  ||