MI Chapter 12 Synthesis

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Jen- Abstract

This chapter mostly focused on student learning and how they learn. This is important because how students are "learning" may mean that in fact they aren't actually learning anything at all but their just retaining the information. Memory is what it comes down to, are students capable of memorizing it. This is why it is so hard for teachers to understand why they thought they taught something one day and the students didn't actually get it, because it wasn't being taught to the students, they were just retaining what was said. Bloom's Taxonomy has said that one can understand a students mindset by evaluating the multiple intelligence criteria.

Most of us discussed how teachers are focused on what the student is thinking instead of spending their time trying to determine how they are thinking. As any of us pointed out this all goes back to Multiple Intelligences and the way a student thinks is crucial to their learning style and most students are unable do think about how they think because they are too preoccupied with trying to memorize the content. Many people also discussed Bloom's Taxonomy which is seems to be helpful especially when working in other content. Basically it all refers back to the students Multiple Intelligence and how that works in with their learning and how they learn, etc.

additional webpage-http://www.odu.edu/educ/roverbau/Bloom/blooms_taxonomy.htm

FIAE Chapter 14

I have always wondered why report cards just had simply a letter grade and did not have the format they did when we were younger, say in middle school where there was a specific area for comments from each teacher. That I think would be helpful to students because they would see along with their parents what they need to improve on. To parents, it's been awhile since they were in school. Trying to evaluate exactly how their child is doing in school based off of seeing a letter in school is difficult. Especially, because what was considered a C to them has completely changed it's meaning now in today's education system. I feel like comments would provide the parents an understanding of their child's mastery of the topic and what they need to  work on, especially if it's that the child knows the content but does not hand in the assignments than that is essential that the parent knows that it's not that the student needs additional help on the content but that their attention needs to be focused more on getting things in on time.

FIAE Chapter 13

   In this chapter Wormelli seems to focus on having the gradebook illustrate mastery and differentiated instruction. In terms of my own personal formatting of a grade book I like when all the assignments are listed in boxes at the top and the number or the grade goes in the single box below. A major thing that I don't seem to agree with is when Wormelli says that it is ok to change the weight of indidivdal students assignments for the quarter. I understand the title of this book is Fair isn't always equal, but in schools giving certain students different weights because of their individual learning styles is not fair to all the other students. Maybe I just misunderstand what he is saying, but in this chapter as well as chapter 11 I feel like he focuses too much on helping the students on the one end of the spectrum and not the other. I don't think it's fair to all the other kids just as I didn't think it was fair to give a student who did absolutely nothing a 60. I am focused on the students who are engaged who it seems that teachers don't need to focus on because they have the concept of school down.

FIAE Chapter 12

Wormelli discusses using a 4.0 scale vs. a 100 scale gradng system. As much as I really like the 100 grading scale because that's what I am used to doesn't mean it is necessarily the best way. I do see how in ways a 4.0 scale can be more beneficial over a 100 scale because when assessing a student based off a rubric it is easy to determine which catergory they fit into rather than trying to assess whether the student is deserving of an 80 vs. an 85. See but what I don't agree with is that on page 157 when they say that if a "student makes one careless mistake they may receive a 3.5 or a 3.0" That is where I don't agree. If a student makes one mistake their grade shouldn't be penalized so much that on the 100 scale a 3.0 is equivalent to 84-89 or a 3.5 which equals 90-93. I feel like in that case it's not fair because a student is being penalized a significant amount for one mistake.

FIAE Chapter 11

This Chapter set me off on such a tangent and a rant it was ridiculous! I feel very strongly about this chapter more specifically changing the 0 to a 60. I know that most people, if not all of them student in block one agree that it should be the way their preparing us.

You didn’t do it and you got a 0 that’s it!

But those who got a 60, yeah its failing but they failed and tried not not those who didn’t do it and got a 0. They don’t deserve it. 

I believe that when you sign up for classes and on the first day you are given the expectations of the teacher and on the syllabus it will say if you don’t do the assignment u get a zero. So they KNOW what to expect!!!

 Well I say they made the choice to go into all AP classes. There was a time senior year that I said no to AP class because I didn’t think I could handle it. I made that choice because I knew my abilities.

I have my night class and practicum and at the end of the night my choice is sleep or hw and I CHOOSE sleep because I chose to go into these classes. AND yes I didn't understand HOW hard it would be but I got myself into this position so I have to deal with it and get through. I feel like those students who do actually care and do the work but just get a poor grade are suffering now.

Yes it might discourage them, but don’t they know the expectations ahead of time?

I would have late points for a week and then it would  be a zero.

Yea it doesn’t show every other time but UGGHH they would have known that ahead of time. They would know the affect it has. Now yea there will be certain exceptions but the general rule would be that they know the expectations from Day one when they walk in and they can choose to do it or not but everything has consequences. In life every action has a consequence, whether good or bad it has a consequence. School should help you with preparing for life as well as giving you the knowledge you need.

I understand that life will have consequences because of the ways I was taught in school. I understand life is hard and that people aren’t going to say oh well you tried, no there are deadlines, etc. and some things you can't turn in late in life. If you don’t pay car payments or mortgage or whatever oh well. If you don’t have money for tolls- its life your EXPCETED to know there are tolls, the guy or girl at the booth wont say oh its ok I know you are having a bad day. They won’t care

But why do we NEED to hold their hands? and I don't emphasize WE because that is the job you sign up for when you want to be a teacher. But why cant students and people just be responsible and understand that’s life. Why? Why do we need to hold their hand? See I feel like that is unfair to the students who just do what is expected because they know it’s expected. They do it because its what is expected- and yet they don’t require us to hold their hand? I understand people are different. But why should the others need more of our help?

FIAE Chapter 10

   The idea of redoing work to me seems like it would only occur in my classroom if the student had an extenuating circumstance, if the grade was really bad and I saw legitimate reasoning or concern from the student, and or the fact that the whole entire class did poorly. Redoing assignments shouldn't become a frequent thing because it's not only good work habit but there's not enough time in the schedule to have students be wasting time redoing assignments when its important to start moving on to other things. As far as helping prepare students for tests or retakes is not a big concern for me and I don't quite understand why teachers feel they need to hide the information from their students or keep it secret. I feel they need to be open and honest with them and tell them exactly what to expect from the test. School shouldn't be a test as to how well they can recall everything discussed throughout the whole unit but rather that they have an understanding of the concepts from that unit. I also agree that allowing students to be redoing work during the last week of the grading period is not only add more stress for the teacher but it also seems really frustrating because it's like the student didn't care about the work until they realized it would impact their grade significantly.

FIAE Chapter 9

  Grades are expected to emphasize a students mastery so it's hard to think about the concept of full credit versus half credit in terms of mastery. Does the student only understand half of the content so they only get half the credit? No, in our education system it's whether or not they do it fully correctly the first time is what gets them the full credit. Even if the student does it perfectly the second time around because of their flaws the first time they won't receive full credit it. Is that fair? Well before reading all of this and being in practicum I would have had a different opinion and would have said they should've known the answer but that's unfair to expect that from them because they are humans to and it's completely unfair to expect that from them. If school is about the learning process then how correct is it for us to expect students to get it right the first time? If they did they wouldn't need to be at school and our profession would die.

    The idea of avoiding grading practice work such as homework seems like a ridiculous concept, because why would we have students do something were not going to grade but at the same time if it's practice and students need clarification on the assignment it's unfair to grade them over their uncertainty. Another idea of teachers saying that students should just be able to look at the assignment and the students will understand after they look at it. As a student that was always really frustrating because it distracted me the whole rest of class worrying whether or not I would understand the assignment. I never understood why the teachers just couldn't explain the directions because it is their job.

    The idea if teachers don't grade the students homework they are more likely not to do it seems like a double sided issue. I kind of agree that if they don't grade it the students are going to say it's not worth their time but my other opinion is let the student not do the work and if they do poorly on a test then its their own fault for not doing the homework. However, the down fall to that is if there are students who know the material well enough to not have to do the homework than they will do just fine on the test and it is unfair to the other students who do do the homework.