Part One: Grading Philosophy

My current grading philosophy is one that is guided by many principles and standards. I believe

that grades are used to measure and communicate student achievement; I apply myself to follow

Stiggins Three Principles of Grading; their purpose is to communicate to students their

achievement, about their achievement, and their current achievement level. Grades, then, should

be used as a means to communicate achievement to students, parents, and the school, but they

also need to be effective; one principle that I think I prescribe myself to follow is O’Connor’s

Four Criteria for Grades; they must be Consistent, Accurate, Meaningful, and Supportive of

learning. If grades are unable to follow this criteria, then they become ineffective. In evaluating

my whole feelings and thoughts on grading, I find myself following many guiding principles of

standards based, criterion referenced teaching. I think the combination of data, standards, and

learning targets while also focusing more on the student individually is great for academics and

learning. However, I do find myself leaning towards measuring students on the basis of both

performance and compliance grading. I believe that standards and benchmarks are essential in

measuring student understanding and knowledge, but there should be established in the

classroom some other criteria; I think that at least some amount of class assignments,

participation, and homework should be included in my grading. Thus, I find my current grading

philosophy to be guided by established principles and standards that best reflect student learning.
Part Two: Grading Policies

1. Compliance Versus Achievement

In regard to compliance versus achievement, I think I will develop my grading policies around a

combination of both. I find that there are many strengths and benefits to establishing

performance and achievement standards based grading in the classroom; specifically, assessing

students on the basis of their understanding and hitting of benchmarks and that the final grade

criteria is determined by their learning only. These clearly support student learning and

communicate effectively the means of student success in a classroom setting to the students and

parents; simply, if they get the benchmark, they get a grade, then that is seemingly enough.

However, I also imagine my classroom including homework, class assignments, extra credit

opportunities, and participation assessments. To a certain extent, an English classroom requires a

portion of learning to be dedicated to participating in classroom discussions on texts. Students

also need to be tested on their knowledge of and understanding of a text; as such, daily or weekly

class assignments communicate to me whether or not they are participating in the active reading

of texts. Thus, I conclude on this item to pick and grab from both types of grading styles. I

exclude from this selection compliance grading elements like attendance, behavior, and effort

because these are not essential to earning a grade, can invite bias, and are items which can be

influenced by external factors. Two separate grades would be reported through this system. I

maintain, then, that the standards based grading style and parts of compliance grading are

important to properly measuring student learning.

 2. What Will Be Factored Into Student Grades?

Concerning what will be factored into a student’s grade and what will not, I have determined that

I want to establish two assessment categories with the following items; tests, quizzes, essays, and

presentations are some examples that represent the summative assessments for my classroom,

while daily work, homework, exit slips, reading assignments, and small group work and

discussion participation would be examples of my formative assessments. This is a broad

representation of the kinds of assessments which could be employed in my English classroom.

Summative assessments would hold more importance in the gradebook in comparison to

formative assessments; specifically, I imagine a percentage split like 80% for summative and

20% for formative assessments in assigning the total grade. Specific summative assessments

could hold more weight in the gradebook as well, although perhaps I could also just simply make

certain assessments worth more points compared to others in the same category. The same thing

in regards to formative assessments; I also consider including in the gradebook ungraded

formative work; informal assessments of this kind, or perhaps work that is designed for feedback

only, would be included in this category. As a whole, I want to design the gradebook and the

reporting of grades in a way that is transparent for the student and family and communicates

information well to them. It should be obvious to them what they need to do in order to see

success, growth, and achievement in the gradebook.

Assessments like homework, daily work, participation, and the likes, would appear in class

throughout units. Some more examples could be discussions, group work, informal assessments,

exit slips, literature circle roles participation, journal prompts, and grammar or vocabulary

homework. I believe they would represent most of the formative assessments given in the class
and would also make up a majority of the assessments taken in the class. I would design these

assessments in lessons that would be used to report feedback to me and the student. I imagine

that, for example, a unit on a particular novel would include work that involves short answer

responses to the text; a prompt which assesses their understanding of the text, maybe a key

theme. A formative assessment of this type allows students to show their understanding and

participation in reading the text for the class, and communicates to me their level of

understanding. I would use the feedback then to determine where students need to go next in

their learning. I picture these assessments entering the gradebook as low stakes assignments

mostly used for feedback; grades on these would reflect a small percentage of their whole grade.

Major assessments would make up the largest portion of the grade; they would hold the most

importance in this sense, yet would also represent a small portion of the assessments actually

given in the class. Assessments such as quizzes, tests, essays, and presentations would be given

at specific times within a unit and assessed as summative assessments for the most part; a quiz

could be administered after a certain page number is reached in the text in order to evaluate their

understanding of the book, or a test could be an assignment given at the end of a particular unit,

like after a unit on grammar or essential English concepts. The popular English essay could also

represent a major assessment, giving students freedom to write about a particular topic or thesis

related to the unit, and display their understanding of that idea and their grasp of MLA essay

writing conventions and so on. Again, these would hold more importance in the gradebook in

terms of points given, and represent summative assessments for the most part in regard to the

curriculum.
 3. Grading Scale

I believe that the grading/scoring scale I would use in my classroom would be the 100 point

scale. I choose this scale because of its popularity and wide use within schools and because it

still could reflect standards based grading practices. I also appreciate the levels on the scale in

regards to assigning letter grades; however, I feel that a specific lowest score in the gradebook

would have to be put in place in order to properly assign grades and maintain a certain level of

accuracy and fairness. To start though, I feel that I would establish the cutoffs for each letter

grade as 100-90 for an A, 89-80 for B, 79-70 for C, 69-65 for D, and 64 to 50 for F. I believe that

to receive an A would represent to a student that they meet or exceed the standards; reporting a B

would represent meeting the standard for a student, while a C would be developing concepts.

Finally, a D would report that they are beginning to understand concepts, and F would report that

they do not meet anything for the requirements. To refer to my previous remark, I do not think I

would give out a zero on my 100 point scale; I think it is too detrimental to a student's grade to

have them overcome the points required to receive barely a passing grade. Thus, the lowest score

possible a student could receive in the gradebook is a 50. Student assessments could still report a

score lower than 50, yet the score in the gradebook would be marked at 50 as appropriate.

Overall, grades would be aligned with standards and benchmarks; I would try through rubrics to

communicate clearly what is required and what the grades mean for the students and parents. It is

essential that grades matter, reflect learning and achievement, and are based on their current level

of achievement. I want to support a culture of learning through reporting fair and meaningful

grades to students and developing accurate representation of learning in regard to points given.

Overall, I want the grades and points to matter and make sense.
 4. Late and Incomplete Work

Concerning late work, I believe that I would accept it in my classroom. I think that I would

accept all late work that was originally assigned within a unit. Students would have till the end of

the unit to turn in their late work; all late work would be evaluated for full points, considering

that they did complete the work required of them, technically. I think that a simple procedure for

completing late work is that they should complete it on their own time unless there is a specific

issue preventing their completion of the work; thus, time before, during, or after class could be

used as a way to make up for late work. I do not think I would impose any restrictions on who

can submit late work, but again, the only thing I would require is that they are at least completed

before the end of the unit,unless there is a serious reason for why work isn’t being completed and

turned in on time. As a whole, I find that teachers should be reasonable in their policy for

accepting late work.

5. Retakes and Revisions

Similar to my standing on late work, I feel that a teacher should have a reasonable and fair policy

as well in regard to retakes and revisions. I feel that students should be able to redo or revise

formative assessments, but summative assessments are one and done. Revising work is an

essential part of the writing process in an English classroom; it is important to know how to

reflect on writing and do it better the next time. As such, I would encourage students to revise

and resubmit work when it comes to formative assessments. For example, I would offer retakes

on formative quizzes or short assignments.. If any student, regardless of score, is unsatisfied with

their work, they would be allowed to retake the assessment. They would retake or revise the

assessment for full points as well. The opportunity to retake would be extended to all students in
the class as well, considering that they would have to take the opportunity themselves if they

want to improve their work or understanding. I would try to encourage students who do not meet

a certain score to retake or revise as well, or even require it depending on the situation. I imagine

that a retake would be scheduled for a time before, during, or after the class; a time limit would

be implemented if there was one present when the original test was taken; depending on certain

circumstances, a time limit could be removed for the student to take the test properly, though. I

think that keeping the procedures simple would be the best way to go about this; if a student

wants to or is required to retake, they would schedule a time in advance to retake the formative

assessment. A reasonable time frame would be established for them to get the extra time needed

to study and prepare for the retake. After, a new grade would be reported, replacing the old one if

necessary. If the student again failed to meet requirements, then I would probably have the

procedures repeated. It’s important for students to learn thus to have reasonable and fair policies;

it is for their benefit to hit standards and benchmarks.

6. Group Work and Grades

Concerning group work, I think that my classroom would have assessments built into it that

involve group work. There are many assessments that could be done, like Socratic seminars,

group presentations, multimedia projects, and so on. I would try to work graded components into

group work considering they would probably be summative assessments, thus making up a good

part of their grade. One example would be something called a literature circle. Basically, it is a

book club for a group of students which also includes specific roles for each member and graded

assignments they need to complete before each club meeting. It grades on an individual basis in

the sense that each is responsible for their own work in the group activity. Broadly speaking,
some group work could involve doing presentations for the class on a subject. Again, it would be

essential in a standards based system to report individual grades on the project. Having students

fulfill roles or develop a worksheet that outlines their contributions would allow one to assign

individual grades and measure the project against standards, maintaining the standards based

grading system and learning targets of the project. A reflection on the project based on the

learning targets completed after presenting could also show student learning and understanding.

7. Academic Integrity

I expect my classroom to maintain academic integrity, and I feel like there would be

consequences for cheating or plagiarism in my class. I do not think the consequences would

result in a drop in grades or loss of points, though; rather, I would want to adopt a file and record

system for academic dishonesty. If a student was, for example, found to have committed

plagiarism, the assignment would not count at all; the behavior would be addressed outside of the

gradebook, in the sense that it would fall to the school or district to report such things. I would

assume that the infraction would be reported and put on file. Then, the student would have to

redo the assignment they cheated for. They would be evaluated for full points on it as well.

Academic dishonesty is a form of behavior, and standards based grading does not include

behavior as a means of assessing students.

8. Extra Credit

Concerning extra credit, I think the only time I would offer extra credit is if it were designed as

assessments and aligned with standards and benchmarks. It could be simply an assignment

designed as optional for students to improve their learning and receive points for it. Even then, I
do not see myself designing extra credit opportunities of this type because if I did then I should

just include it in the overall grade anyways. So, no, I will not offer extra credit, bonus points, or

things like throwing out the lowest score and such in my classroom.