UbD/DI Chapter 8

The beginning of this chapter brings to light a very good point about grading in a differentiated instruction classroom. How can we assess students using a differentiated method when report cards and other similar tools are mostly standardized? While teaching using differentiation might show that a student has remarkable strengths in one area, the evidence as reported at the end of a term might suggest otherwise and is therefore inaccurate. The authors go on to explain the two types of grading, the first using the letter or number system that many of us are familiar with, and the second being sharing evaluations with students and parents. I like that they believe the “primary goal of grading and reporting is to communicate to important audiences, such as students and parents, high-quality feedback to support the learning process and encourage learner success,” (129). I wish that more schools could follow similar beliefs and forget about the letter/number grade system. Certainly there might be instances where using number or letter grades might be necessary, but I think it is more important to give high-quality feedback to students. Giving a student feedback on how he or she could improve his or her work would realistically be more effective than telling him or her that the grade earned was a 47. Where in the real world will your final product earn you a 47? Where in the real world will you receive feedback on your performance or your final product? A number grade might come as a secondary form of evaluation, but the feedback is something that can be used to improve on. While I don’t know what my school’s policy will be on grading, I hope that I will be able to incorporate a lot of feedback into my grading system so that students have a better idea of where they stand in my classroom.