Vignette 5: Getting What They Deserve?

Helene, a teacher, is looking for consistency amongst teachers.  She wants all teachers to be on the same page when dealing with lates, homework completion, attitude, etc.  Her ideas for marking in these areas include:

• "10% off per day for lates up to 3 days"
• "zeros for kids who are suspended or have unexcused absences"
• "5% bonus for participation and effort"
• "giving a short quiz at the beginning of class to prevent later, if you miss it's a zero"

Joan is a new member to the staff and speaks up to Helene expressing that she feels doing such things doesn't give a true reflection of the student's academic achievement.  Joan would rather see the academic and non-academic factors separated.

Self Reflection

I agree with Joan on this and would probably have taken the same opinion.  I don't think it is fair to be so harsh in marking students and I can easily see many ways Helene's strategies could backfire.  I don't see how Helene is setting her students up for success in the statements she made.  In our text Marzano would like work habits categorized into three domains: effort (participation and work completion), behaviour (following rules and teamwork) and attendance (absenteeism and tardiness).  These are skills that the students will use later in life and are valued in the career world.  I feel these skills are relevant and important as well.  I feel these attributes could be reported as "soft skills" on a report card and should not necessarily be included in the academic portion of the report.  I also liked the idea of keeping track of these skills throughout the year and reporting these skills informally.  The skills mentioned by Marzano are the skills I would like to see in my classroom.  I feel it is important to have a positive attitude, be a team player, and avoid missing or being late for class.  I do, however, understand that "life" happens and at times it may not be possible to give 100%.  If I noticed my students starting to miss the mark on the above mentioned skills, I would take the opportunity to touch base with them in hopes of helping my students improve their behaviour and get back on track.

Vignette 4: What Counts?

In this vignette we are introduced to Mr. Sanchez, a parent, who is upset with his son's mark in LA.  His son usually does well and has been coming home with outstanding work yet his mark on his report card doesn't reflect that.  After talking with the teacher and hearing that the student was marked down due to his behaviour the parent went to the principal to clarify the school's grading policies.


Self Refection
As a parent I would have been equally upset with the mark on the report card.  I don't feel a mark should be changed or altered because of behaviour issues.  I feel it is important for the teacher to keep the behaviours out of the mark.  There could be a number of reasons why the behaviour was occurring in class but to punish by taking marks away is unacceptable.
As a teacher I would not evaluate a student's academic achievement with anything else but academics.  I'm not saying that behaviour, effort and motivation don't matter but I feel there are better ways to address those issues.  I think communication with parents is important and if issues are arising during instruction it would be my responsibility to communicate that to the parents on an ongoing basis.  There are so many factors that can influence behaviour and I don't think its fair to take marks away.  I, myself would rather have a one on one conversation with the student to see what the possible reason behind the behaviour could be and how I could help the student be more successful.  I think that would be a more beneficial way of looking at things in the end.