Gottlieb Chapter 9

Grading Systems

Starting question:
What value do you place on
grades?

Summary of first part of the chapter:
Grading is inevitably a mainstay of American Education

With the increasing number of ELL students - Teachers need to be careful
about how they make judgments about student performance

Grading is Evaluative other factors outside of academic performance are
often considered :
o effort
o motivation
o timeliness
o presentation of work.
How could these other factors
influence our ELLs, and possibly
affect their grades?

Scenario: Carlos is in the 7
th
grade and has lived in the United
States for 3 years. He is the oldest of 3 kids; his parents work
full-time and you have heard he is often responsible for
helping with his siblings.

He is in your first period class and is often at least 15 minutes
late to school. You always begin your class with a warm-up
and Carlos has missed most of the daily warm-ups because of
his tardiness. Once Carlos is in class he always works hard and
seems to want to be engaged in the learning; however, he is
currently getting a D in your class because of his missing
warm-ups. The warm-ups are part of the daily participation
grade that the students earn each class period. Participation is
worth 20% of their overall grade.

You do not want to excuse Carlos from his warm-ups because
they are often a review of the previous class lesson or an
introduction to the daily assignment; the warm-ups also serve
as practice in writing and speaking because they are a
combination of independent written responses and discussing
with a neighbor.


What factors could be keeping
Carlos from being on time to
class?
Are these factors things that
should affect Carloss grade?
What ways could you help
Carlos to have a grade that
reflects what he really knows?
What barriers may you
encounter in helping Carlos?


As teachers, we should think about the factors
that influence our grading practices and what we
would want to communicate to these students
about their learning.

What factors influence how we grade our
students?


Teachers should tell their students in the beginning what each component
means and how each one contributes to the overall grade - percentages ,
points

The primary goal of grading and reporting is
communication

Questions to ask when creating a grading scale:
What standards are being assessed?
Are you assessing listening, writing, reading, speaking?
What is the weight of each component ?
What is expected for classroom performance and homework?

Weight of each assignment may change for different reasons:
Language Proficiency
Teacher discretion
District policy

Grading policy should include:
Student Self-Assessment
Performance Assessment
Traditional testing procedures (*all students need familiarity with these
formats)

*classroom and large-scale assessment should have complementary functions

Considerations for Grading ELLs at different levels:
ELLs often grouped by language proficiency (especially in secondary)
We need to differentiate the grading just like we do the instruction and
assessment


Newly arrived ELLs:
o Document PROGRESS over Achievement
o It would be unfair to subject them to the same grading criteria as
native English speakers
ELLs with a Higher level of Profiency:
o Determine where the students are in meeting standards and where
they are in relation to their English proficient peers.
o ACHIEVEMENT over progress
o justifiable to use unfirorm criteria for grading these two groups of
students

The Ideal Grade:
Tie grades to statements of purpose that are matched with evidence
Grading needs to become standards based

Grading must provide clear feedback to students and their parents and
support standards-based learning.

Multiple data sources can be used for grading all students.
Grading for Language AND Content
o Language proficiency graded in ENGLISH
o Content graded in English, native language, combination
need to designate which content areas were assessed/graded
in native language

English language proficiency and academic achievement should
be presented side by side on a report card

__________________________________________________________________
Portfolios for Assessment & GRADING:
Classroom assessment that can be shared / transferred if kept correctly
with reliable data
Can be helpful for ELL students who transfer schools

Assessment portfolios should be portraits of the students who
they are, what they can do, and how they communicate their
knowledge.

Creating the Portfolio:
Students decide what goes in
o consider the students ages, language proficiency and knowledge of portfolios
Teacher / student decide together
Teacher decides
Should be organized thoughtfully so there is consistency from grading
period to grading period.
Should Present evidence of learning in various forms
*There may be restrictions on items graded depending on school /disrict

Assessing the Portfolio:
Assess portfolio in one on one conferences with the students gives
meaning to the final grade assigned
o Teachers should already have decided the criteria for the portfolio
before meeting with the student:
Quantity, how many items to be submitted, quality (rubrics) ,
presentation
Students with more language proficiency could lead the conference
Teacher can complete a summary sheet to compliment the schools report
card
Family conferences /Portfolio nights - offer opportunities for students to
share their progress with family members
o Students prepare questions for their family in English and native
language to engage everyone