Chapter 7 Assess

Abstract:
Chapter seven centers on grades, and all the meanings and ideas that grades incorporate. They start by providing a short blurb from an essay response and asking how we would grade it. Some feel that all students, regardless of their situations, should be judged by the same standards as everyone else. Others, including this text, feel that teachers should adjust grades according to the students' backgrounds. The text acknowledges that if we change grades due to personal issues that they become increasingly relative and subjective. They also state that judging what is normal from one student against another does not accurately report the student's learning. To solve many of the problems, schools are switching to an A,B,C,I scales so that they don't accept failure, but give an incomplete to be made up later. The chapter concludes that grades are usually given at the end, and thus are not conducive to providing students with timely feedback to encourage growth.

Reflection:
The part that stuck out to us the most in this chapter was the quote at the beginning. We really liked the fact that this teacher took the time to make up a whole new system of grading just so that it would relate the grades to the students' abilities better. Even though it was more work for him and took up more time, he was still willing to do it. We also think it's cool that he did this because he probably got a lot of crap from parents and the school, at least at first.