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.