FIAE- Chapter 8

This chapter allowed me to think a lot about what kind of teacher my students will believe me to be as well as what kind of teacher I will grow to be. This chapter also discussed grading and included the idea that effort, attendance and behavior should be measured or considered in the grading. Since grading serves so many purposes such as to document students’ progress, provide feedback to all as well as help in future decisions made in the class it is hard to include so many different aspects when creating rubrics or guidelines for grading. Being able to understand a student, as we have seen before, is crucial in order to understand how they learn and what is affecting their learning outside of the classroom. Grading attendance is important and relates to participation. How can one be actively involved in the class if they are unprofessional and always late or even worse not there?

Grading participation is crucial for a student to become involved not just in the class but to become engrossed in the material. Many times students are too shy to answer questions, therefore participation being graded will help them step out of their comfort zone and work on public speaking. The effort put forth on any project, assignment or group work is hard to grade due to the fact that one may see his part as a crucial part to the whole while another may view it as insignificant. This is when communication between not just student and student but teacher and student can help when grading. Peer feedback can give the teach insights into why each person felt the way they did about another individual’s work. The behavior of a student is important and grading effort allows the student to step up to the plate and control themselves in a professional manner for the sake of others in the group and for the sake of the overall effectiveness of their work.

I think that although the purpose of grading is to measure student’s understanding of the material, there are so many things that impact their learning that those should be considered and accounted for. If a teacher can get every student involved and interested in the topic then the shy or behavioral students may be more apt to speak up or control themselves in order to help and work with others in the class. I do not think that it is enough to just give peer feedback on different aspects such as effort, participation, behavior or even attendance. Just because a student receives a different view point of something does not mean that they will change their ways or “bad habits”. If they are given consequences they might be more likely to see what their true potential is and might be able to help other students along the way, earning a better grade and better yet, a real understanding of the material.