Grading

By: Mackay Staples

Grades worry some students, and give some students confidence. Here are some points to consider when you are deciding how to grade your students work.

Learning Targets:

Describe the key points of the FAST grading method.
Compare and contrast the different ways of grading student work.
List factors that can potentially affect grades that are not work based. Form their own opinion on what factor(s) they would focus more on in their classrooms.

What is the FAST method?

Students should be graded using the entire FAST method, which is fairly, accurately, specifically, and timely (Reeves 2016 p.67-68). Students whose performance is the same, should be graded the same. Whereas those who perform differently should be graded differently. To do this teachers must identify and make the standards for grading in their classroom known to students. All teachers grade differently and have different standards. The grades must be accurate, using consistency across the board for all students. For grading to be specific, feedback must be given in order to allow the students to understand what was not correct and how to fix the issue before the next assignment. When more feedback is given there is a clear view of what the students understand and what they do not, this helps the teacher know what they need to go more in depth with, and which students may need extra help.

Different Ways to Grade.

Peer Review?

Luaces, Diez, and Bahamonde (2018) state in their study that using a peer-review grading method using rubrics will lessen the student workload, but I think oppositely. There are benefits of peer grading, however there are more inconsistencies, and the potential for mistakes. Not all students are at the same level in the class, so how is a student at a lower level expected to grade the work of an upper level student?

Rubrics?

Another study done by Marshman, Sayer, Henderson, Yerushalmi, and Singh (2018) does not use peer grading with rubrics, but teaching assistants. This study focused on one subject, physics, because the students must show an understanding of the knowledge in their answers, rather than just the answers. The study encouraged the TAs to use rubrics when grading student work because when they were previously grading they were not grading the students based on their understanding of the knowledge. The rubrics were consistently used, but in conclusion to this study they were not being effective in grading understanding of knowledge. This could be largely due to the TAs past experiences in the education system. I believe that rubrics are beneficial to the student and the teacher. It allows the teacher to give feedback, set the standard, and they are time efficient.

Portfolio?

Kathleen Jones takes a different approach to grading her students' writing, using a portfolio method (Tchudi 1997 p.255). This is a compilation of the final papers, but also includes drafts, revisions, and peer-reviews. Portfolios allow the student to show growth through their writing, where they started versus where they are now. I believe that this is an effective grading tactic because it shows improvement, an understanding of their mistakes. Jones wants them to recognize where their strengths are and where they need to make improvements.

What influences grades, other than actual student work?

Grading work is one thing for a teacher, but what about student behavior. Attendance is counted towards many classrooms' final grades, simply whether students show up to class or not. Reeves (2016) mentions school districts associate being in class with understanding the knowledge given. A point mentioned is the standardized tests are given at the same time no matter how much school is missed, referencing when schools close due to weather, or another cause. One may think that if school is closed for a greater number of days, and is not made up, the test scores would drop. This is not true. Reeves (2016) looked at Massachusetts which has a very hard winter, thus missing school frequently, but is one of the highest performing states in the country. Many school districts will automatically fail a student for missing more than a certain number of days.

Reflection

Grades are not the most important thing in school, however they do hold a great weight for the future. Colleges, moving grade levels, or class levels all depend on grades and how well a student does in school. As I have stated other factors go into grades and there are many different ways to grade. Regardless of the way we choose to grade our students, effective feedback is necessary. This allows students to grow and understand why the got the grade we teachers gave. It leaves more room for improvement, and lets us know where we need to go back on and review, which students need more help, and adapt the lessons to them, instead of a strict schedule. I have personally always taken grades to heart. Truth be told I did not start striving for "good" grades until my senior year of high school, not that I ever failed a class. I only did this because I felt like grades were the only way I could get into college, this was not true, but that is why it clicked on my try-hardness towards the end of high school. The grades are not the point, the understanding of content is much more important, though the two go hand in hand most times. I do not remember much of what i learned, but I got a good grade and that is all that mattered to me. We as teachers should teach memorable content, so it sticks with our students overtime and helps them through their life.

Quiz Time!

What are the four points of the FAST method?

A. Fast, Adequately, Simple, Timely

B. Fast, Accurately, Simple, Timely

C. Fairly, Abundantly, Steady, Late

D. Fairly, Accurately, Specifically, Timely

What was one of the ways, listed above, that students are graded not based on grades?

A. Extrovert

B. Attendance

C. Time spent on homework

D. Test performance

References

Luaces, O., Díez, J., & Bahamonde, A. (2018). A peer assessment method to provide feedback, consistent grading and reduce students' burden in

massive teaching settings. Computers and Education, 126, 283-295

Marshman, E., Sayer, R., Henderson, C., Yerushalmi, E., & Singh, C. (2018).

The challenges of changing teaching assistants’ grading practices: Requiring students to show evidence of understanding. Canadian Journal of Physics, 96(4), 420-437.

Reeves, D. (2016). FAST Grading [e-book] a Guide to Implementing Best

Practices (Common Mistakes Educators Make with Grading Policies).

Student evaluation and grading/class rank 6-72.1. Student Evaluation and Grading/Class Rank 6-72.1 - Virginia Beach City Public Schools. (n.d.). Retrieved October 21, 2021, from https://www.vbschools.com/cms/one.aspx? pageId=298715.

Tchudi, Tchudi, Stephen, NCTE Committee on Alternatives to Grading Student

Writing, & WAC Clearinghouse. (1997). Alternatives to grading student writing (NCTE on WAC). Urbana, Ill: National Council of Teachers of English.

Answers:

Page updated

Report abuse