FIAE: Chapter 7

This chapter discussed the controversies dealing with grades. Too much information is squeezed into one little letter grade. A grade is supposed to tell a student how they are doing, and give the feedback as what needs to be improved and what they are doing well on. But one little symbol doesn't really include all of that. I completely agree with this, as a student I had teachers that graded in very different ways, so I always had to know what was expected from each teacher. It would be great if all teachers thought alike in terms of grading but that's impossible. As a teacher I would like to try and shy away from grades as much as I can, at least not base by feedback and progress for a student on a letter. What is most important is getting each student to understand the material. Grades can vary so much that I don't think they are very reliable in deciding how well a student is doing in any given subject. It's not fair that different teachers grade differently and different students get graded differently, but what is fair is that the teacher can tailor each assignment to fit each student so they can reach a better understanding of the assignment. When using grades, I need to make sure it is very clear to all students what these letters mean and provide feedback along with them. Grades aren't what is important, feedback and understanding are.