Grading Philosophy & Policies:

Compliance:​ I believe in grading the ​mastery of course material rather than compliance
such as: showing up on time or every-day participation. I think that the scores in a
gradebook should reflect grades that are marked in relation to the standards. Looking
back at the Duluth Public School Report Card I do enjoy that they measured grade
specific characteristics of successful learners, but these need to be used carefully. They
must come from multiple teachers, they should not be in conjunction with academic
marks, and they often require conferencing to explain the marks.

Performance:​ Students grades will come from the marks that they receive on their
assessments. This does not mean that this is their final score, for I believe in retrying,
retesting, and resubmitting. It does not matter to me ​when​ my students hit the
standards, but ​if ​their performance demonstrates this understanding and ability.
Formative Assessments: These will be smaller assessments such as appropriate
and supportive worksheets, class discussions, conferences, and other forms that
make students more prepared for summative assessments and are FOR
learning. For assessments that require participation or completion, these will be
explicitly stated because sometimes it is necessary to do some ground work in
order to move on to summative assessments.
Summative Assessments: These are the assessments that prove the students
progress based off language used in Bloom’s Taxonomy words (remember,
understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create). Using this language helps
both the students, parents, and teachers to see what level of learning is taking
place and which objectives are/aren’t being met. These are measures OF
learning.
If any student chooses to refuse to partake in the tools I am using to measure their
learning, I will be forced to mark them at a 50%. Some teachers might give 0, but this
does more harm that help. It is mathematically more difficult to makeup a 0 and it
creates negative relationships with grades/school. A 50% is failing, why do I need to
assign an even larger F? Their gradebook will still read as whatever they received, but
the percentage will come out to 50%

Comparative Evaluative Weight:​ I plan to grade my students using a scale 1-4. I will
do this by starting with a checklist and moving to a rubric that is organized with criteria
that is standard based. I will create my criteria around the standards. This will ensure
that I am clearly assessing the students on specific learning targets. Some formative
work will be entered into the gradebook based off completion, but it will mostly consist of
summative assessments. I may even create two gradebooks, one for the formative and
one for the summative, if this is possible. I will record manually into a paper gradebook
and then move their scores into our online program. This way there will be a minimum
of 2 copies of a grade (my gradebook, online, and possibly on the students work).
These records will be accompanied by feedback. I will allow corrections to be made on
most assignments and students will understand their progress through feedback,
checklist, and conferencing.
Philosophy Compared to Observed Practices:​ The largest take-away I got from this
Block’s practicum was seeing the revision process in person. My CT required all
students who scored a 50% or lower to revise and resubmit their essays. This reminded
me of our Assessment course and of the “Toxic Grading Practices” video of the man
saying that his students bellyached their way to the honor roll. Students will not simply
skate by. If you “fail” something, that does not mean that’s where the learning, or lack
thereof, ends. These are the students that need to keep working! If they did not meet
the standards for Unit 4, what will make Unit 5 any easier? My CT did an amazing job at
this. Although it requires a lot of “plate spinning” it seems to really be worth it.

Late Work:​ As I stated, I do not believe in giving zeros, so late work will not be
penalized. My current philosophy will be that students have until the end of a unit to
submit their work. I give this deadline because some schools require that all grades as
finalized at a certain point. They will get reminders verbally, written, and in a conference
if this becomes a habit.
Assignment 1:​ As I handback scored assignments I will return slips to students
who did not submit. It will be a check-in with a few options for why the
assignment was not turned in and an ETA.
Assignment 2:​ As I handback scored assignments I will return slips to students
who did not submit. It will be a check-in with a few options for why the
assignment was not turned in and an ETA. This time there will be a pass
attached to the slip for them to visit my classroom before they leave for lunch.
Assignment 3: ​As I handback scored assignments I will return slips to students
who did not submit. It will be a check-in with a few options for why the
assignment was not turned in and an ETA. This time there will be a pass
attached to the slip for them to visit my classroom during lunch. During their
lunch period we will sit together and work on the assignments that they have
missing.
This should not be an issue because this will be clearly stated and avoided by only
assigning relevant assignments. Although I do not encourage late work, I do understand
it. We are working with humans and life gets in the way of school sometimes.

Extra Credit:​ ​Extra credit will not be found in my classroom. This often does not
measure learning, but access to resources. I will not allow students to grapple for extra
points. If they would like to raise their grade, they will be able to revise and resubmit any
past work (as long as it is within the same unit).
Academic Integrity:​ In reference to academic integrity, I hope to work with younger
students, so if I notice that this is an issue I will hold a conference. In a Middle School, I
feel that the stakes are lower than a college. I feel it could be a little harsh to fail a
student off a mistake. I also will allow students to work together. In the real world
collaboration is common, so I want to promote this! There is no need to condemn this
skill. It needs to be used strategically through and I am not sure what this would
specifically look like.

Differentiation:​ In terms of ​what and how ​students turn into me for assignments, it will
differ for each assignment. Obviously the content will change, but I hope to keep the
form as flexible as possible. Differentiation in form always excited me as a student.
Although I could write a 5-paragraph paper on symbolism that is turned in electronically,
I loved the idea of making a poster where I could use pictures and drawings with
explanations to show my understanding. Yet, this means a lot of “plate spinning” for the
teacher. They should not use the same rubric for each form, nor is it always easy to give
feedback/keep track of 50 different projects. Also, if I am assessing my students
understanding of something more concrete, such as vocabulary, this could be more
difficult. I will try to include differentiation into my form when possible and appropriate.

Policies Proven within my Unit Assessment Plan:

Final Draft Unit Calendar
Personal Comm. Skills Assessment
Selected Response Assessment
Performance Assess. & Rubric
Rationale/Justification for Formative & Summative Assessments:​ ​All of the formative
assessments that I assign are measures for learning. They are used as check-ins for
me and for my students to see if they are progressing towards the skills and
understandings that are required of them during their summative assessments. This is
specifically shown during week one. They will have quizzes on the new concepts that
they learn from that day. There is also a variety of forms of formative assessments. I will
determine if we will review or move on for the next day. The summative assessments
are strong assessments that are created to measure their learning. I leave multiple days
for time to conferencing and peer editing. I also leave two days to watch the movie of
the book we read so students have 100 more class hours to meet the standards before
final grades need to be entered.

Align with Identified Targets:​ When creating each assessment I had the standards in
mind or listed at the top. My goal is to always have the standards of the unit on a poster
board in the front of the room. My CT did this and made them as “I Can” statements and
I think this was helpful for everyone involved to keep the objectives in the spotlight.

Student Self-Assessment: This will take place during formative assessments such as
conferencing and peer editing. These two activities leave room for students to see how
their learning is coming along. I’m not sure if this is totally considered self-assessment
though.