Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Grading with Accuracy, Fairness, and Specificity

Is my grading accurate, fair and specific? Yes. Is my grading accurate, fair and specific for the nearly 100 diverse students that I serve? Ummmm, define accurate, fair and specific. So that is what I was supposed to get out of the three chapters dedicated to this discussion. The part I am still questioning is how the specific examples that they illustrated fit the majority of my students. I felt the Sean, Sam and Maryellen vignettes were entirely too contrived to be anything like what I experience with my students. I am still feeling like this book is taking isolated incidents of poor grading practices and projecting it onto the larger population of teaching professionals. Are there really a large number of teachers out there typing random numbers into the gradebook to come up with grades to make a student pay for their surly attitude? I don’t see how behavior is really figured into grades. I know these books say that homework grades are behavior grades, but I really do NEED my kids to practice the material before they take the test. And I really do need them to do some of it at home, or in environments other than my classroom. I want my kids to do a little start up in class so they can ask me some suggestions or clarify something said in notes. But, where they get into the true learning of the material is in the time that they develop their style on how to problem solve. So, if you feel homework is a behavior grade, then I guess I am grading behavior every day that I ask my kids to practice the material that we have talked about. Whether a daily paper, quiz or test, my grades are truly a representation of what portion of the problem that a student was able to complete. A  7 out of 10 means that they completed 70% of the tasks requested. So in my experience, I think accuracy should be easy. Maybe more so for those of us with concrete structures like math, but anytime you have a set of criteria; it should be able to be measured.

Fairness is tougher if you want to try and assume the responsibility of analyzing student’s home lives as part of your criteria judgement. I have a reverse thinking sometimes on knowing every detail of a student’s past performance and home life. I actually prefer to get to know students myself rather than let something external to school define them. I like my kids to learn to talk to me if they need extended time or come in and talk to me about retaking a quiz. I know that is really hard for some kids and even more so if they like they are exposing themselves to scrutiny. Still, I consider that skill of becoming an advocate for yourself and your needs to be imperative for future career and consumer success.  I know that some students are never going to share their needs, but I try to get as many kids as I can to understand how to seek help. I preach “know thyself”, come see me when you don’t get something, because I can’t always tell if you just keep nodding.

 I think it is sad that music teachers should feel guilty about noticing the success that Music Academy kids show. I think it is silly to not have any on those family/home projects for anyone just because two in class will not do it. It almost like we are supposed to make our involved parents feel as guilty for putting opportunities in front of their kids just like we have made our less involved parents feel guilty for not doing it. It shouldn’t be about guilt. It should be about, “all right, this is what we have to work with” and lets go on from here. To me, that is fair – begin where you are, but begin.

The specificity chapter was the one that interested me. I want my kids to see what is going wrong. I want to give them specific comments or helping steps to push them in the right direction. I like the “rough draft” approach for homework that encouraged good quality over quantity. I need to make that happen more often.  I can see how doing this could improve the student’s use of my feedback.

I don’t think the books are bringing me great clarity, but at least I am taking the time to really think about why I do something. I can see the ideological theory behind some of what they are saying, but still feel that the application of it doesn’t always match my experience. The books and more importantly my teaching peers are giving me cause for reflection so with that in mind, I will carry on.