Posts Tagged 'Grading'

Final Grades = Above Proficiency with many As

Published April 8, 2008 Academic , Accountability , Achievement , Assess , Assessment , assessment for learning , Bell curve , Final , Formative , Formative assessment , formative feedback , Grade 4 Comments
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I’m going to be in trouble again with final grades and the school. Since my students can redo any assignment and even re-do the final, almost all my students end up with As. My students usually earn As or Fs (little or no work and little or no attendance). However, often administration thinks a teacher is an easy grader when almost all students in the class get As. In one class, students revised over 32 pieces of business writing. In another class, almost all students revised over 8 pieces of writing and their final research paper. I see the As as proof of students changing from being unproficient to being above proficient in their work. Even though students take the time to do the rewrites, they know what and how they have to improve their work; they based their improvement on formative feedback. I am more concerned about them learning to well than on the actual grade.

Do your grades resemble the traditional bell curve? Or do they show a proficiency/above proficiency curve with most grades in the Bs & As? Do your grades really reflect specific standards learning?

Gradebook Grades or Standards-Based Grading

Published February 13, 2008 Accountability , Achievement , Assess , Assessment , assessment for learning , Grade , Gradebook , Grading , Homework , Marks , Quiz , Standard 1 Comment
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A teacher was showing me how well her students were doing. She showed me from her electronic gradebook their high grades in homework, class participation, and quizzes. However, when I asked her how well they were doing in the standards for her course, she gave me a puzzled look. She repeated that her students did well on homework and quizzes. I rephrased my question and asked her which particular standards did each homework and each quiz focus on. She said they assessed the book’s chapters.

I showed her how she could change her grading to reflect the standards. She could create new categories such as S1 (standard 1), S2 (standard 2), etc. Instead of focusing on all the homework, she could select which part of the homework focused on Standard 1 and then record that grade under Standard 1. Likewise, she could modify her quizzes so that each quiz focuses on one standard so instead of a quiz grade she could give a standard grade. Now her students could see how well they were progressing in the standard instead of how well they did on quizzes, participation, and homework. She could know how well they were progressing in the important standards rather than the textbook chapters.

Do you give grades or do you give standards-based grades through your electronic gradebook?

Free or Inexpensive Grading Books

Published January 9, 2008 Grade , Grading , technology , Web Leave a Comment
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I’m looking for a free or inexpensive online grading book since my institution does not have any class management system.

Engrade is a free online grade book (gradebook and notifies parents/students). Likewise, HotChalk is also free; it is a grade book and notifies parents/students.

There are a few inexpensive  grading book programs such as Class Builder $39.99 (grade book, quiz maker, and class web page) and Quia $49.00 (has grade book, quizzes, and learning activities like cloze activity).  Even if  I were to pay $49.00 a year, it is a cheap price to pay to have quizzes  graded, have grades calculated, and give students access to their grades.

What free or inexpensive grade book type program do you use?

Grades: Inflated or Just Successful Students

Published December 11, 2007 Academic , Accountability , Achievement , Assess , Assessment , assessment for learning , Education , Formative , Formative assessment , Grade , Learn , learning , Student 5 Comments
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normal curve vs standards success curve

I shared with a colleague that most of the students in my writing class were getting an A. He commented that I must be an easy grader or that I just believed in giving As. He was half right. I do believe in giving As when students have demonstrated success in the course outcomes. If the goal for the course is for students to be successful in learning the outcomes and we provide them with feedback and with opportunities to revise previous non-proficient work than most (hopefully all) students will earn As. More important, they will know that learning is to be valued over grading. They will know that they can keep on improving until they become proficient. I believe that their final revision grade on a project should count as their grade on the project.

Do your grades reflect your success model or a failure model? How do you structure your class and your technology use so that students constantly improve in the standard until they become proficient?

Alternative Grading To Reflect Student Growth (Formative View)

Published November 18, 2007 Achievement , Assess , Assessment , assessment for learning , Grade , Grading , Growth , Standard Leave a Comment
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I mentioned in a previous blog how I felt that my grading did not represent the true height of student learning but it did penalize the students for their early low scores.

Here are two possibilities:

1. Assign different grades different weight. Grades from the beginning of the project get 10% weight, middle get 30% and the ending ones get 60%. That way a grade of 60 (beginning), 70 (middle), and 100 (ending) results in a 90, rather than the average of 76. This can also work for lower-level thinking getting 10%, Application-Analysis getting 30%,and Synthesis-Evaluation getting 60%

2. Do not assign grades until the ending of the learning. Only give comments. If you use the same checklist/rubric, scale to assess the students, they can see their progress from time to time.

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