Vignette 8: Decisions, Decisions

Mr. Brit completed his marking and was very proud of the growth he saw in his students throughout the year.  Mr. Brit used many formative strategies to assess his students and as he began to calculate the achievement grades for the year, he needed to decide what fairly represented his students' learning.  Formative and summative assessment each play a significant role in determining achievement.  Formative assessment allows students to take risks and make mistakes.  It provides evidence of a student's growth and provides "on-going feedback, coaching, motivation and encouragement."


Self Reflection
I feel there is both merit and value in using formative assessment as a guide to summative grading.  If formative assessment is used successfully throughout the unit, term, or year the summative assessment should be fairly accurate.  It is the goal of formative assessment to guide student learning.  If the students use the feedback given to them by their teacher during formative assessment wisely it should reflect constant growth.  As a teacher, I think I would use my discretion as to what I would use for grading.  If I encouraged my students to take risks when doing an assignment I would not want to discourage them by taking it in for marks.  For grading purposes, I would use a combination of both formative and summative scores.  I hope I am not wrong in saying that I think both are valuable resources to use when showing a student's true achievement.  I would be sure to showcase both the formative and summative testing to the parents as I way of showing growth throughout the year, much like a learning portfolio.  I think achievement comes from growth and without the formative assessment, growth could be discouraged or misguided.  Students learning from mistakes is a more valuable lesson than being discouraged by the lack of coaching, feedback or motivation.

Vignette 7: The Mighty Bell Curve!

Mrs. Vandekamp uses a norm-referenced approach to grading, otherwise know as the bell curve.  With Mrs. Vandekamp’s decision to use this approach she creates a highly competitive learning environment within her classroom.  Her decision to grade this way has denied Dakota the 80% or better she deserves and has worked hard to accomplish.  This, in turn, took Dakota out of the running for the Rutherford Scholarship.  The scholarship was of great importance to Dakota financially.Dakota’s actual achievement is not truly represented by her final mark.  She worked hard, throughout her course, on all of her assignments and was attaining grades higher then 80%.  Dakota’s final mark shows where she sits in comparison to her peers and does not represent her true learning accomplishments.

Self Reflection

I think criterion-referenced grading is a better grading practice because it is a true representation of the student’s learning.  I don’t feel it is fair to grade students based on where they fit academically amongst their peers. 
Each student is an individual and deserves to be treated as such.  There is always going to be diversity within a classroom, and I think it is my responsibility as a teacher to make sure I am testing to the student’s ability.  This means making accommodations for lower level learners (scribing, dictating, modifying the number of questions on an exam, etc) and possibly challenging my higher-level learners.  I think it is up to the teacher to promote success and downplay competition. 
Student achievement and grades should represent the learner outcomes as prescribed by the Program of Study.  I think if the students are reaching the learner outcomes and are successful in assessment they deserve the marks they earn.  As a teacher, I will strive to make my assessment tools relate directly back to the learner outcomes and the POS.  This will involve a great deal of planning but with the planning comes the confidence that my assessments will be reliable and valid.

Vignette 3: Get with the Program!

What are the grading issues for Mr. Fisher?
Mr. Fisher did not take the time, at the beginning of the year, to research and plan for his Social Studies class.  Mr. Fisher did not understand the Program of Studies and instead of seeking advice he went ahead and planned activities he felt his students would enjoy.  These activities didn't necessarily relate directly back to the learner outcomes in the Program of Study.  Mr. Fisher graded his assignments, as he should have, which gave the students marks they were pleased with but again the instruction and the assessment he was using didn't support the learner outcomes.  At the end of the year, Mr. Fisher used the final exam supplied by the teacher from the previous year.  Unfortunately Mr. Fisher's students were unsuccessful on the final exam and their final marks reflected that.  Mr. Fisher's grading issues are from his lack of planning.  He should have taken the time to familiarize himself with the course content and learner outcomes.  Mr. Fisher needs to understand that connecting instruction, assessment and grading to learner outcomes is of the upmost importance.
How might he resolve them?
Mr. Fisher can easily resolve his issues by seeking out guidance and advice.  It sounds like he is an excellent teacher who likes to provide engaging instructional activities, Mr. Fisher just needs to take the time to tweak those activities so that they relate back to the learner outcomes.  That way, when it comes time for the final exam, Mr. Fisher will have taught to the required curriculum and his students' marks on the final will be a true reflection of the intended learning.

Vignette 2: Let the Kids Know What’s Coming!

“…good design and good teaching are dependent on clear purposes.”

–Wiggins and McTighe, 1998, 159

I appreciate this quote for the simplistic way it is presented. When the learning outcomes are specific, relevant and clear in purpose, the designing, teaching and assessing should come easily having both direction and focus.  When the teacher keeps the learning outcomes in mind, the teacher is better able to design lessons with appropriate content that relates directly back to the objectives and learning outcomes.  The teacher can then use creative instructional strategies to engage the students while promoting participation, learning and productivity within the classroom.  These strategies should fit well with the learning outcomes and design of the lesson. 
As Julia described in class, there needs to be a marriage of instruction and assessment.  To take this a bit further, I feel that with this marriage, there must be a commitment to the learning outcomes.  When the teacher considers all three of these elements together (instruction, assessment, and learning outcomes), success in designing and teaching will occur with purpose.