Chapter 12 Grading and Student Evaluation

"Your school may have done away with winners & losers, but life has not.  In some schools they have abolished failing grades; they will give you as many chances as you want to get the right answer.  That does not bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life."  -Bill Gates

I chose this quote today because it relates to the portion of the chapter about grade inflation and how grades can be rendered meaningless if they reflect student effort, behavior, improvement and participation above actual achievement.  

This week's topic of grading and student evaluation was very interesting to me because it forced me to take a hard look at grading.  In teaching preparation courses this is not a topic that is reviewed in-depth and I think that many teachers are left confused about the proper way to evaluate students.  On one hand teachers are told to "focus on the whole child" and schools put a great deal of pressure on students to see that students pass rather than fail.  Too many students produce average work, but receive "A"s.  At Okkodo, where I have been interning this semester, one of the concerns of the accreditation team and a problem that the school administrators and teacher-leaders are tackling, is exactly that:  What are the meaning of grades?  Do they actually reflect student learning and achievement?  How is it possible that we have honors students who are scoring so far below average on the SAT-10?  There is a disconnect and they are working to find answers.  

On the other hand, institutional and societal expectations are such that being a tough grader can cause a teacher trouble: pressure from the principal, pressure from parents, and an understanding that if all schools & teachers are inflating grades and you are not, you are putting students at a competitive disadvantage.  I consider my classes challenging and I am not afraid to give students the grades they earn even if they may be failing grades - or Bs to students who claim that they "always get As".  Most of the time the results resemble a bell curve, but occasionally I will have a class that is very top-heavy or very bottom-heavy.  I do not give extra credit- except a few bonus points here and there for extra effort on projects- and I have very high expectations for my students.  The keys to being a tough teacher without being a hated teacher, I believe, are support and communication.  I give my students review sessions.  I give them my home email address.  If the entire class does poorly on a test, I will re-teach and re-test on the material.  I am available during lunch and try to make myself available after school.  For the most part, my students seem to rise to the challenge of high expectations, and surprise themselves with what they can learn.  I am still figuring out how best to motivate those who give up easily and quit early on. I feel that is an area I could improve upon.  

Grading fairly is a challenge that will be around for a long time.  Culturally, our society needs to change its attitude about educational entitlement and the belief that all students are equally brilliant.  Hard work is an enormous factor in how much a student will learn and achieve in a course.  Hard work, however, is not the same as achievement.  It helps achievement, but achievement must be assessed on its own merits.  Teachers need to be better educated on how to do that well.  

Chapter 12- Grading and Student Evaluation

I could have been a Rhodes Scholar, except for my grades.

Duffy Daugherty

This week we discussed about grading and student evaluation. I enjoyed reading the first part of the chapter that explained how ironic it was to spend long hours reading, listening to lectures, notetaking, writing paper, and attending classes are invariable reduced to one of the five letters of the alphabet- A, B, C, D, and F. The first part of the chapter also mentions about different grading systems in schools and institution and especially among teachers. One institution will be generous with A's and others are quite stingy with A's so B's are the next highest.

The chapter also mentions that are educational lives are greatly governed by the grades that are greatly determined by tests reasons why I chose the quote above. A student can be the most brightest and most intelligent student. However, when it comes to tests, the student struggles taking the assessments, they just don't care, or they move to fast and make careless mistakes which affects their test grade. I know a student who is extremely smart in math and can calculate problems quickly, however, on his math tests he scored below an A due to careless mistakes and not wanting to double check work.

The chapter also explains about alternatives to letter grading. I am new to the school system, but according to the book teachers are able to determine what the letter means and how much percentage is labeled in that letter group such as 90-100 is A. Alternative grading may be useful for many of the different types of learners, especially ELLs. The alternative grading may take some time, but when it all comes down we teachers always give a letter grade at the end.

Thirteenth Week Reflection

I was told that I had to give grades to the students, which I wasn't particularly interested in doing.
Merce Cunningham

This week we learned about grading and student evaluations. The first part of the chapter talked about how we can come up with a letter grade system. Most American schools have the standard A-F system, but often these letter grades are based on various percentiles. The teachers are the ones who decide if an A is a 90-100, a 94-100, etc. It was pointed out in the chapter that often teachers working at the same school often do not use the same grading system. I think that it is important for teachers at the same institution to be on the same page when it comes to grading. This will help the students better understand what constitutes an A, B, etc.

The second part of the chapter talked about different alternatives to letter grades. This is why I chose the above quote. Though most teachers can give various other types of feedback to students, in the end we still have to assign letter grades to all of our students. A lot of teachers find it hard to assign grades to ELLs and SPED students. A lot of the regular teachers just do not find it fair to assign an A to a student who is not performing at grade level even though the student is trying hard and doing the best he or she can with limited English or some sort of a disability. When dealing with ELLs and SPED students, I often tend to grade based more on effort and motivation than on the correct answers.

There are cultural issues also involved in assigning letter grades. A lot of cultures do not see the value of a letter grade. It is also hard for a student to care about their grades if their parents do not even care. We only had three of our sheltered students' parents show up during our last parent-teacher conference. Transportation and work issues can be part of the reasons why so few parents showed up. One year when I was teaching, one of the parents wanted to see me because I mildly scolded her daughter but she did not care to see me about the fact that her daughter was failing my class every quarter. There are also some ELLs and SPED students who do not put forth any effort but believe that they should pass just because of their special population status.

"One forgets words as one forgets names.  One's vocabulary needs constant fertilizing or it will die."         -Evelyn Waugh


This week we read about grammar and vocabulary assessment.  This quote, while probably meant for native speakers, applies well to the second language classroom.  Just providing students with terms and definitions or grammatical structures and not giving them time to be practiced and absorbed is like introducing someone to thirty people all at once.  A couple of names will stick with the person, but mostly the faces will blur and the names will all run together.  People's names don't matter to a person until those people matter.  The same is true for words.  A teacher has to help the words and structures matter so that they can be remembered.  The "fertilizing" mentioned in the quote can be interpreted to mean practice and formative assessment. 


English is a particularly challenging language for several reasons.  Among these is the greed of the language.  English is constantly stealing and borrowing vocabulary terms and phrases from other languages.  This makes the language rich and interesting, but also complex and confusing- especially for the second language student.  Grammar and vocabulary assessment, also called form-focused assessment is necessary particularly in the beginning of language learning- or at the introduction of specific concepts in language.  Grammar and vocabulary are central to effective communication, but teachers of language must not forget that they are a means not an ends.  Communication and understanding are the goals.  We want students to be able to read, write, listen, and speak effectively.  Proper grammar and a wide vocabulary will help, but there is much more to language than memorizing words and structures.  

Chapter 11- Assessing Grammar and Vocabulary Reflection

"Grammar is a piano I play by ear. All I know about grammar is its power."

- Joan Didion

Grammar and Vocabulary are the key components of communication. The quote above relates to the chapter that was read for the class this week. I believe that the quote explains how students learn grammar is how they are taught at home and at school. ESL students have their own main language and learning a whole new language is like a piano where they would have to concentrate and listen to the right notes, in this case the proper way of speaking. The most meaningful part of the quote is the part about grammar being power. Again, grammar and vocabulary are the main components to communication. If one does not know how to put sentences in complete order or use the right words, there will be a lost of communication between two parties.

This week we learned about assessing grammar and vocabulary and how it could be assessed like the four skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Grammar is the center of language use. The chapter basically discusses about the different methods of assessing grammar and vocabulary as individual tasks. One part of the chapter I learned the most about is the assessment of vocabulary. I learned that when designing vocabulary assessments we as teachers need to clarify our purpose, define the ability we are going to measure, selection of target words, and determining the mode of performance such as vocabulary recognition and comprehension or vocabulary recall.

Twelfth Week Reflection

“So what's the point of using words nobody else knows or can say comfortably? I just don't understand that.”
― Stephen Chbosky

This week we learned about assessing grammar and vocabulary. Grammar and vocabulary are the basic building blocks of any language. We have to learn these before we can properly communicate with other people. Most foreign language courses start out teaching the alphabet, pronunciation, common vocabulary, and basic grammar patterns. As students advance, they learn more vocabulary and more advanced grammar patterns. I think that learning grammar is a lot harder than learning vocabulary. A lot of languages have totally different grammar patterns. Depending on the language, the parts of speech follow a particular order. Some languages have masculine and feminine words along with masculine and feminine particles. Some languages use different counters depending on what is being counted. And some languages have several different verb endings.

This can be very confusing to students especially if they are learning a language that is completely different than their native language. English is actually a very difficult language to learn for a lot of people. It is very complex and native English speakers do not seem to realize this. Growing up speaking English, I just learned the common grammar patterns as I progressed through school. I understand the grammar patterns but when it comes to teaching them it is often hard to explain to my students why there are so many irregularities in English.

I chose the above quote because it reminds me of the fact that no matter how old or educated you are, you will never know many of the vocabulary words used in your native language. I am a native English speaker and I think that I am pretty educated, but I still did not know the majority of the words in the English section of the GRE. There is also the fact that words can become obsolete and new words are being added to the English language everyday. We also need to take into consideration the use of slang and instant messaging acronyms.

Chapter 10 Reflection- Assessing Writing

There is creative reading as well as creative writing.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

The author who wrote this quote is quite brilliant. I understand that we expect our students to read properly and write properly, however, I believe that the best time to see their true abilities is to give them a chance to write whatever they feel or write about whatever they choose to write about. It is amazing to read and see the stories children come up with and gives a source of direction of what areas needs work. In my classroom, I observed my students picking up big books and reading it to their classmates. However, they are not reading the words from the book, but making up the story from what they remember what was being read to them. Children's minds are filled with great ideas and creativity and we need to give them a chance to put that in writing or drawing to help them build their schemata and improve in their reading and writing skills.

In class, we discussed ways to assess writing. Writing is a skill and process that I believe is difficult to achieve to perfection. Being a fluent English speaker, I would have to say that my writing can be a bit imperfect. As the chapter explains, every educated child in developed countries learns the rudiments of writing in his or her native language, but very few learn to express themselves clearly with logical, well developed organization to the purpose of writing. Yet, we expect our English language learners to write coherent essays. I believe that we should not put such high expectations on our students if we ourselves are unable to deliver the same expectation. Before we can teach our students how to write we must teach them proper grammar.

Teaching kindergarten and beginning English language learners, I started off with them writing their name. I believe that once they can write their name they will be able to learn how to write more and are off to good start. Being that this is my first year teaching, I am more focused on my students writing legibly and improving their skills in copying words and sentences on the board. Recently, I have been putting sentences that they have read in their storybooks and have them copy the sentences in order on their paper and most importantly in the lines provided because this is one of the skills that most 1st graders now are struggling with. I am seeing great improvement with them writing legibly and putting the words in the proper place of the sentence instead of all over the paper. The last few weeks of the quarter, I would like to try a new task called ordering tasks where my students would be given words and they would have to put the words in order to make a grammatical sentence.

Now, there are many types of written language such as academic writing, job related writing, and personal writing. In today's society, we are practicing writing through facebook, texting, emails, messaging, journals, etc. However, I believe writing in properly is becoming less and less proper with short terms such as "lol" for laugh out loud, "omg" for oh my gosh, or "ttyl" for talk to you later. My instructor use to say "the way a person practices is how they are going to perform" although this may be towards dancing, but this can also be towards all four skills of reading, speaking, writing, and listening. How we practice these skills in our everyday lives shows on our personal or academic work.