Christopher Caada

Dr. Doris Murphy

English 4113.04
18 September 2014
Assessment Assignment
1. List all current evaluation and grading practices you think are beneficial to students and
their learning.
- Grading based on progress towards the learning objective
- Allowing students to revise work for resubmission
- Rubric based grading
- Grading of specific learning standards
- Essays that require higher level thinking skills
2. List all grading and assessment practices you think are, although not harmful,
nonetheless not beneficial to students and their learning.
- Grading on a curve
- Offering extra credit
- Grading group work
- Grading homework
- Grading based on expectations
3. List all grading and assessment practices you think are harmful or destructive to
students and their learning.
- Grading on a curve
- Using zeros as punishment

- Grading for behavioral issues

4. Reflect on the three lists that you have made. What do they tell you about your own
personal dispositions toward evaluation and grading?
I think my lists are what most would consider standard. I definitely think that altering
grades based on behavior is a very poor method of assessing students. I personally think it is a
lazy way to deal with a student that is a little more difficult to reach, and in turn, sabotages their
opportunities to succeed. Holding grades over students heads is never the correct method. I also
think that my lists show that I am very interested in what we talked about today in classthe big
idea. I am a firm believer that if the students do not know why they are learning what they are
learning, the impact of the material will be minimal at its best. I also think that I showed that I
tend to shy away from group work and homework as effective methods of grading. Maybe that is
because for high school English I feel like worksheets and group work would not be an effective
means of assessing their knowledge and understanding of the big picture; that is not to say that
those practices are ineffective for everything, and they do have a place in my classroom.
5. Give yourself a magic wand; and describe the evaluation program you would decree if it
were completely up to you.
In Mr. Canadas perfect classroom in Perfect ISD, I would definitely change a few things
up for evaluation. In the name of structure and readability, lets pretend that I was teaching a
lesson that only focused on the content of a novel in my classroom. I know this is an
unreasonable lesson, but it should be effective for giving good examples of assessment. The first
thing I would do, in relationship to assessment, is have an open discussion in the class about the
novel and how it makes each of us feel. After I get a good feel about how the class feels about
the text, I would try my bestwhich would work in my perfect classroomto group the

students together in small discussion groups with one another based on different feelings on the
book. That is to say, put students together that feel differently about it. From that point, I would
rove around the room in an effort to monitor the progress of the conversation; and of course to
ensure they stay on task. This would be my first method of assessment. It is not the same as
gradingas they will not receive a gradebut they will be assessed so I can re-evaluate my
methods and better meet the needs of my students. Once the book is complete I would hand out
tests over the content of the text. Once again, perhaps to my own dismay, I would not grade these
tests. I would instead assess myself on the effectiveness of my teaching. At that point I would
once again re-evaluate my methods and alter them to better meet the needs of my kids.
During the length of the lesson, I would have my students working on an essay that is
directed toward their learning objectives and higher level thinking. The students would receive a
very descriptive rubric that would be graded by category on a scale of one to ten. In the little
amount of time I have spent reviewing products, I have found that the only thing less accurate
than a 1 out of 10 scale is a 1 out of 100 scale. By making the rubric descriptive and easy to
digest, I think that students will feel less anxiety while writing and more freedom to play within
my boundaries. Upon submission of these essays, I would definitely allow for revision. I do
understand that this may not be the most effective method for some classrooms, I think it is vital
in an English course. A portion of what we do is writing, and I know as a writer I would make no
money if it wasnt for editing and revision.