12.12 EPSY485 Final Assignment

8/3/2019 12.12 EPSY485 Final Assignment

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Will Walsh13 December 2011EPSY485 Gannon

EPSY485 FINAL EXAM

PART 1: DEVELOPING A GRADING PLAN

1) Grading policy:

a. I am creating this grading policy for an 11th

grade American history course.

Overarching themes for the course include government, revolutions, and the inclusive and

integrated history of all groups. There will also be approximately eleven units in the course.

b. There are four golden rules of grading: fairness, accuracy, consistency, and

defensibility.

Fairness: I will follow the rule of fairness in my classroom by keeping my grading

to the same rubric for all students in a class. Students will all be held to a standard rubric. Late

work will not be accepted for full points unless students are able to provide proof of an excused

absence. For my classroom and I, fairness is about holding all students to the same standards of

achievement.Accuracy: Accuracy is all about creating clear expectations for assessment and

behavior. Part of an accurate grading policy for a social studies classroom is the inclusion of an

advanced and thorough rubric. With a clear rubric, accurate grading will be possible in a

classroom. Completion of requirements, according to an objective rubric, would allow for

identifiable assessment.

Consistency: To maintain consistent grades throughout the course of the year, it is

important to have established and clear expectations from the very beginning of the course.

Maintaining these expectations and a thorough grading plan will result in consistent assessments

of student performance.

Defensibility: Once again, clear expectations and grading policies will result in

assessment that is defensible. Maintaining these standards will allow me to defend grades that

students receive. Ensuring objectivity will also promote a classroom environment of

transparency and defensibility.

c. The purpose of this grading policy, like any grading policy, is to promote a classroom

environment where assessment can be expected to be fair, consistent, and accurate. Clearly

established expectations for performance and thorough requirements for assignments would

create a grading policy where every assessment is defensible and justified. My grading policy

will ensure that students receive the appropriate score for their performance on any assessment.

2) Grading components:

a. Assessment methods:

i. In an effort to differentiate instruction, there will be many different types of

assessment that would contribute to grades in my classroom.

Homework Throughout every unit students will be expected to complete

homework assignments, including worksheets, quick-writes, and opinion paragraphs.


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Quizzes Students will complete a short (10 items) quiz twice during a

unit.

Papers Every unit, students will complete one paper (varying from 2 to 3

pages in length).

Unit exams At the end of every unit there will be a 30 item unit exam.

Projects Every other unit, students will create a project including

research and presentation.

ii. Affective factors will be considered in my grading policy. Attendance and

tardiness are an important part of classroom performance, but students will not be punished in

my classroom for these factors. Simply put, students will not be punished beyond school policy

for attendance and tardiness. I will, however, enforce school policy on these two issues. Work

that is missed because of attendance will be required to be made up in order to receive credit.

Oral participation will also factor into grading in my classroom. Starting from a perfect score,

students will only lose points for oral participation if they consistently do not participate in a

classroom discussion. Participation will count for 10% of the classroom grade. Attitude, effort,and improvement will not necessarily be factors in my grading policy, but will definitely

contribute to interpersonal relationships between a student and myself. Of course, any attitude,

effort, or improvement that is notable enough to be factors into school policy on the factors will

be referred to the appropriate authority.

iii. Every type of assessment in my classroom is a justifiable method to check for

student learning and differentiate instruction.

Homework Homework is one way to ensure students are learning

towards their objectives throughout a unit. Homework is beneficial to students and I because I

will be able to modify my instruction based on the performance of my students.

Quizzes Like homework, quizzes allow me to check for student learning

throughout the semester. Unlike homework, quizzes lend me the opportunity to makes sure that

broader and enduring understandings are being achieved by students.

Papers Papers allow students to go deeper into a subject. Paper writing is

also farther up on the learning taxonomy. Students will perform multiple tasks to create a paper

and will prove a confident grasp of content and skill.

Unit exams Unit exams are like the final check to see if students are

meeting their learning objectives. A unit test allows students and the teacher to check for student

understanding and progress throughout the course.

Projects Like papers, projects allow for students to use much higher

skills to meet learning objectives. Including a presentation aspect allows students to have a

performance-based assessment in the classroom. Several different objectives may be met and I

will be able to get a fuller look into student performance.

Participation Student participation is beneficial for checking for student

understanding throughout the day and even the course. It can be expected that students more

comfortable with material will contribute to classroom discussion. If overall student contribution


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to discussion is low, then it can be clear that I am not meeting learning objectives with my

students.

b. Assign the percent of the grade for each component (weights):

i. Homework: 10% - Homework assignments will not require a significant amount

of work, but the continued completion of required homework assignments is vital to accurate

assessment of student learning throughout the semester.

Quizzes: 10% - Quizzes are an important form of assessment, but they are rather

short and infrequent. As such, they are not weighted as heavily as other forms of assessment.

Papers: 20% - Papers require a great deal of skill and time to be completed to

meet student learning objectives. Since they are not very frequent, they are not weighted too

heavily. However, papers show so much student learning that their weight is relatively

significant.

Unit exams: 30% - Unit exams should have significant weight in the final grade

because of their importance in student life. A heavy grade for exams would indicate the severity

of excellent performance on these assessments to students. Also, a heavier weight for exams isjustified by the amount of student learning that is being assessed.

Projects: 20% - Projects require a lot of work and indicate a great degree of

student learning. Projects will be weighted appropriately.

Participation: 10% - Participation should be an important consideration for

assessment, but other assessment is weighted more heavily for the larger amount of work

required.

3) Grading approach (Assigning course grades):

a. My grading policy, like almost every class I have ever taken, is based on criterion-

referenced assessment. Students do not compete with each other for grades, and all of my

assessment is designed to see whether or not students are learning and enduring understandings

are understood. As a social studies teacher, I feel that it is important that all students learn and

are assessed as individuals or as small groups, when necessary. A students final course grade is

based entirely on their own performance.

PART II: MOTIVATION AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

I have come to this school board meeting to express my concern with rewarding students

for money. This pay-for-performance motivation may seem like an easy way to improve

student performance on standardized tests, but the use of money to reward students reveals more

troubling signs in the district. It goes without saying that students should be intrinsically

motivated in their school work. Although I understand that this is not always going to be the

reality, we must teach our students that the value of education is not found in cash rewards.

Paying students for their performance is a bandage on the greater wound of unmotivated

students. It might be referred to as a steroid because it is a short-term guarantee to boost said


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performance. Extrinsically motivating students with money is one way to ensure that students are

completely missing the point of education. Doing well in school and meeting requirements for

money only shows students that students want that money reward. Paying teachers who boost

their students performance sheds a similar light. I would like to continue by saying that we will

make a grave mistake if we pay students for performance. Students, and perhaps teachers, will

learn that good academic performance is something that should be extrinsically rewarding.

Results in similar programs indicate that cash rewards for students improve test scores, but we

must consider the long-term implications of such a program in our own district. Once there is no

cash reward, students will continue to perform as poorly as they might have been before. Passing

state tests looks nice on paper, but we must consider the effects a pay-for-performance program

would have on our students already flailing motivation. We must take an alternative approach to

motivating our students by considering more wide spread efforts at incorporating the community

in our district. Motivation starts at home, but when we make it so clear that the home and the

school are separate entities, parents and students alike find themselves unmotivated. With a sense

of community and responsibility, students will be intrinsically motivated to performacademically.

PART III: COMMUNICATING STUDENT PERFORMANCE TO PARENTS

Margaret displays a lot of strengths that should be commended. For example, she is

excellent with science. She got an A- in her science class and would have done even better if she

submitted her missing lab. She also exceeded science standards on her ISAT, which is fantastic.

Margaret is also very good at math. However, she missed an assignment and seems to struggle

with extended responses. Her effort and participation in her science, English, and math classes

has been perfect. Also, her performance in science and math exams has been very good. She has

shown a lot of improvement in her completion of journals for her English class. There are also

some areas where Margaret is showing signs of struggling. Her exam scores for English and

social studies are rather low. She has also lost a lot of points for her effort and participation in

my social studies class, despite doing consistently well on her homework. She struggled with the

English multiple choice part of the ISAT, despite getting a perfect score on her extended

response in the same section.

Margarets grades say a lot about her motivation in class. She receives scores for effort

and participation, and only scored poorly in social studies, which indicates a high level of

motivation in most of her classes. Her grades are similar to her performance on the ISAT. Both

assessments indicate very good performance with most math and science in addition to some

struggles with English. Discrepancies between grades and ISAT scores might be explained by

factors like test anxiety. Taking one long standardized test is simply different from completing

traditional schoolwork. Overall, her performance in school this year has been decent. She needs

to improve effort and participation in her social studies class, even if it boring. She needs to

remember to turn in all of her assignments and study for exams. Also, it is crucial to note that


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Margaret is struggling with aspects of English. I would recommend talking to her English

teacher about her performance, in addition to meeting with a school adviser who could help her

focus on her struggles.

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12.12 EPSY485 Final Assignment