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Module 6 Assignment 1

The document is a reflection from a teacher on chapter 9 of the textbook "Classroom Assessment for Student Learning". The chapter challenged the teacher's current grading and assessment policies. Specifically, the teacher was interested in ideas about categorizing homework, extra credit influencing grades, and weighting rubrics. The teacher plans to change their homework policy to focus on practice rather than grades. They also want to stop using zeros for missing work and extra credit. Finally, the teacher will weight rubrics to better reflect student mastery of learning outcomes.

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112 views

Module 6 Assignment 1

The document is a reflection from a teacher on chapter 9 of the textbook "Classroom Assessment for Student Learning". The chapter challenged the teacher's current grading and assessment policies. Specifically, the teacher was interested in ideas about categorizing homework, extra credit influencing grades, and weighting rubrics. The teacher plans to change their homework policy to focus on practice rather than grades. They also want to stop using zeros for missing work and extra credit. Finally, the teacher will weight rubrics to better reflect student mastery of learning outcomes.

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© © All Rights Reserved
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Ashleigh Shields

Dr. Limpert

ED887OA

20 June 2020

Chapter 9 Reflection

After reading Chapter 9 in the text Classroom Assessment for Student Learning, I had

many ideas challenge my current grading and assessment policies. I feel as though I had so little

time to prepare for the classes I taught my first year of teaching, and I just cobbled together

something that would work, and since there was no questioning or complaining about it, I

continued to use the same policies in future years. That is, until taking this course and realizing

that I needed to make changes on how assessments and grading are handled in my classroom.

The ideas presented in the text that were the most interesting to me were categorizing homework,

extra credit and missing work influencing grades, and weighting rubrics to better reflect student

understanding.

I have always considered homework to be practice for the lessons that are taught in my

classroom. With teaching Chemistry and Physics, there are many math-heavy concepts that need

to be practiced to achieve mastery. I also find math to be something that is universally

challenging for my students (and myself when I was in their shoes) so I want them to have

enough practice to ensure success in the concept. That said I have given completion grades on

homework for the last few years because I felt students would not complete the practice if they

did not get a score for it. In the text, the authors discuss how homework should not be graded

because this type of work is a formative assessment, thus would unfairly alter student grades. I
still worry about students not completing the practice if they do not get a score, but I understand

that by grading the homework it will not be a true test of their mastery of the learning target. In

the future in my classroom, I need to change my policy on homework and stress the importance

of ungraded practice for a learning outcome to ensure mastery for the summative assessment that

will test it later.

Extra credit and putting in zeros for missing work is also something I have been guilty of

in the past. I do not accept extra credit often, but I do have many students who will have missing

lab reports and other assignments that I will give a temporary zero for until they are turned in. I

find it very difficult to get some students to turn in their reports unless they see it influences their

score. If I do not put in a zero, I usually will not see the assignment turned in by the student until

I go ahead and mark it as missing (automatic zero in Infinite Campus), and suddenly the student

wants to get the assignment completed. I understand why putting in a zero does not accurately

reflect a student’s understanding of the concept, same as extra credit inflates the score, zeros

deflate the score. I like the solution presented in the text for dealing with this issue, by having

students be responsible for filling out a form and stapling it to their late work, it makes it

inconvenient for the student to have missing work. I just wonder if this would not also deter

students from turning in work that is late if they were struggling already and have to take an

extra step.

The final idea that I found interesting from the text, was how to score rubrics so that they

more accurately reflect student mastery of a learning outcome. I had not considered this

previously, but after reading I better understand that breaking down the points to even

percentages is not accurate. I like the idea of weighting the points on a rubric so that they are

better representing what is expected at each learning level. I also think that by looking closely at
the learning target and the rubric to determine how it will be weighted, it will make the teacher

and student understand what is truly mastered for that outcome and how they can work toward a

better score and higher mastery.

One takeaway from this chapter that I would like to implement in the future is the form in

the text for students to fill out if they have missing or late work. I truly think that this will help

students to realize the importance of getting their work turned in on time. I do think that it will

not be fully effective for all students, but nothing will be, and I think that by implementing this

idea I will have less missing work turned in.

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