FIAE Chapter 14

This chapter was not any better than chapter 13. I feel that these report cards would simply confuse students and parents when they received them. If I were using a differentiated curriculum with a student, I would sit down before hand and discuss with the student and the parents what the report card grade would be reflecting. I feel this would eliminate the need for special report cards because the student and parents would understand what the grade meant.

FIAE Chapter 13

The ways that this chapter says to manage your grade book seem a little ridiculous to me. The only one that made any sense to me was the one that listed assignments by the date with color-coding. I feel like this would be the most effective way for me to keep my book. The other ways don’t make any sense at all. They all feel like they would take more work than their value at the end. Reading about it, let alone keeping my grade book that way, confused me.

Chapter 12

I cannot imagine making a rubric for every single assignment that I give my students. No matter how many times I make a rubric, it is going to be time consuming and pointless for some tasks. I don’t even see how I can use a rubric to grade a math test. On a math test, a student can get an answer wrong or right, but there is nothing in between. I feel that a 100-point scale is better for math because I can give partial credit for steps that they get right. I do not think that a rubric can obtain this same effect.

FIAE Chapter 11

The whole dilemma with putting a zero in the grade book for not turning in an assignment is difficult to decide on. I see why a zero should not be put in; it drastically drops a student’s grade. However, I do not completely agree with giving a student who doesn’t do any part of the assignment a 60. What if a student completes the project, but doesn’t do well, like they earn a 60? I don’t think it is fair that a student who does nothing on the project gets the same grade. It’s not fair to the student who actually did the work. However, I do not want to put a zero in the book because mathematically it is awful. I just don’t know what the best way to do this is.

Team 2- Chapter 7 MI

Abstract

How a classroom is arranged can aid or hinder the many different learners that are in there. Chapter seven of the Multiple Intelligences talks about one of the simplest ways to organize a class in order reach all of your students with the different intelligences; activity centers. Armstrong talks about the four different activity centers that a teacher could implement in his or her classroom; the permanent open-ended activity center, the temporary open-ended activity center, the permanent topic-specific activity center, and the temporary topic-specific activity center. The permanent open-ended center is a center that is in the classroom all year long, like a reading nook or art area. The temporary open-ended center is something resembling the permanent open-ended center but can be taken down and setup quickly. Games involving the multiple intelligences are the best ways to accomplish this activity. The most practical of the four centers is the temporary topic-specific centers. These centers change frequently as the unit or lessons change. These centers tend to be activities dealing with the eight intelligences that focus on a certain topic. The final center is the permanent topic-specific center. These centers are typically used in a classroom setting where there is a yearlong theme and the activities can change with the different lessons pertaining to the theme.

Synthesis

This chapter presented some ideas that most of us have never even thought of. The idea of the classroom arrangement had never occurred to many of us as an important aspect to teaching effectively. The activity centers were mentioned seem like excellent ways to use the environment of a class to encourage learning. Coming up with centers for a lesson could be difficult, but coming up with these centers is as easy as searching on the Internet for starter ideas.

FIAE Chapter 10

I am slightly confused about how to grade work that students redo. Wormeli says that averaging two test scores or giving back half credit for every question is not right. Students should be able to receive full credit for everything that they redo. I feel two totally different emotions with this; the teacher emotion and the student emotion. As a student who studied and received an A the first time I took a test, I feel as though students who get to redo a test and receive full credit is a little wrong. I don’t get anything for getting an A the first time, but those who didn’t get to catch up. However, as a teacher I want all my students to learn and do the best that they can do. How can I make sure my students get to learn the information for mastery, but still not slight those students who do well the first time?

FIAE Chapter 9

After reading this chapter, I realize I am not ready to grade in a differentiated classroom. Out of the ten approaches to avoid, I was either thinking about using them or I had never even thought about them. There were a couple in particular that stood out to me. The first was avoiding bonus points and extra credit. I agree with the last half of this sentence, however, I have always thought bonus points on tests and/or quizzes were like presents. I was never planning on using pointless or irrelevant bonus questions, but the idea of giving a couple of deeper thinking problems that they can attempt to solve for some extra points was an idea I had. I do agree that extra credit is not needed. I feel this instills the idea into students that they can slack off on an assignment and then get extra credit to make up the difference. The other approach that stood out to me was “avoid recording zeros for work not done.” Again I can see both sides to this. Sometimes there is a very reasonable and acceptable reason to not get an assignment done, but what should be done if a student just refuses to do that work? I feel as though something has to be done so that the students who do complete the work don’t feel as though they did it for no reason.