My Grading Philosophy

Darlene Durgan
18 Nov 09

Welcome to my Regent’s Living Environment/Biology Class. Below is an outline of the grading

system that will be applied to my classroom.

The Purpose of Grades and Grading:

The purpose of grades and grading is for me to check individual student learning achievements, a
form of communication with parents, and administrative purpose of evaluating students for certain
educational paths or programs. Students with an overall average above 90 will receive high honors.
Students with an average of 85 - 89 meets honor requirements. Students with an average below 65
are failing. Grades will be communicated to parents so they can be on board if extra help is needed.
The grading system will help the school to determine how many students are at a particular level
and which students need to be placed in an accelerated program or academic intervention program.

What Grades Mean:

Grades will be used as assessments for learning and determining what material a student knows
or doesn’t know about a particular topic at a particular time. Grades are standardized measurements
of varying levels of comprehension within a subject area. Grades will be used to help determine
what information students need more help on or the learning style that works best for them.
Students can use grades to determine their strengths and weaknesses in a particular subject and as a
self assessment. I believe that attitude, effort, ability, behavior, and the like should not affect grades
at all, because they are subjective and can be influenced by many outside factors and grades should
reflect the level of student academic achievement in each course.

Formative versus Summative Assessments:

Different types of assessments will be obtained throughout the year for each student and placed in
a portfolio. Formative assessments will be used for learning and will show growth or development
in different areas. I will incorporate formative assessments in my classroom by using specific
criteria and setting goals with students, identifying where each learner is in relation to the goals,
where they need to go next and ways to get there. Some examples of formative assessments that I
will use are multiple choice, true/false, written response, essays, and authentic assessments such as:
(poster board, diorama, power point presentation, skit, play or a documentary). Summative
assessments will be used to demonstrate assessment of learning and to show cumulative information
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taught in each topic and how well each student responds. Some examples of summative assessments
that will be used in my class are state assessments, district benchmark or interim assessments, end-
of-unit or chapter tests, end-of-term or semester exams, and students’ report card grades. The key is
to think of summative assessment as a means to gauge, at a particular point in time, student learning
relative to content standards.

Fair Grading and Re-Do Grades:

The grading system will be fair and everyone will have the opportunity to improve homework
and lab grades. Students can re-do work with grades that are below 65 on all assignments except
tests and quizzes. I would allow re-do work three times. One reason for re-do work is to give a
student the opportunity to improve a bad grade and help re-enforce class material that they don’t
understand. Another reason for allowing re-do work is because it also reflects back on the teacher’s
way of teaching. My goal is for all students to comprehend the Biology material being taught. If I
find out that a student is cheating, then the student will receive the original grade obtained.

Rubrics:
Rubrics will be used for subjective assessment for learning to evaluate performance assessments
based on observation and judgment. It is a set of criteria and standards linked to learning objectives
that is used to assess a student's performance on papers, projects, essays, and other assignments. The
rubric may include grading categories for comprehension, research evidence, vocabulary, visuals,
and presentation. For example, each category may have a weighted rating scale based on the most
important information being rated with the highest percentage points. Rubrics can also help students
judge and revise their own work before handing in their assignments allows for standardized
evaluation according to specified criteria, making grading simpler and more transparent.

Student Self-Assessments:

I will have students use self-assessments to help determine their own strengths and weaknesses.
Students will receive constant feedback from assessment results to help them to keep striving
towards attainable goals. Instructional decisions will be based on careful collection and analysis of
information gathered from students. The successful use of student self assessment depends on three
key elements such as goal setting, guided practice with assessment tools and portfolios.

Dealing With Late Work:

Late homework will be dealt with according to the school’s policy. If a student has an approved
absence, then the homework can be handed in at a date determined to be suitable. The school policy
will ensure everyone is treated equally. Students will receive an incomplete grade until the
homework has been handed in.

Extra Credit:
Extra credit work can be done for each topic taught throughout the year for any student who
would like to improve their grade. This may include writing a paper, preparing a chart or table with
related content information, performing a project, assisting with lab setups, helping the teacher
perform research, answering additional questions or an idea that a student may have that is related
to the content area and approved by the teacher. The student who intends on improving his or her
grade must perform the extra credit work themselves otherwise no credit will be given.

Grading Class Work and Grading Homework:

Class work and homework grades will be used be used as tools to help students learning
classroom material, teach responsibility and communicate about achievement. They are intended to
reinforce information being taught in each lesson, promote teamwork and to teach independent
study. Homework and class work will count as 10% each, which equals 20% overall towards the
final grade. The reason they are worth less is because a student could cheat and that would not result
in a true reflection of their effort and grade. Lab grades are worth 30 % and quizzes will count as
20%. Tests/exams will count as 30% of the final grade. The above categories will be averaged
together to result in a final grade based on a scale of 100%.

The Purpose of Homework:

The purpose of homework is to formatively assess, to reinforce the information being taught in
each lesson and to teach independent study. Homework also helps students to practice, elaborate on
the information in more detail, prepare for tests and quizzes and gives feedback on areas that the
student needs to work on. Biology contains a lot of definitions that the students must know in order
to understand the science concept being taught. The more practice each student receives with the
information being taught, the more beneficial it will be for them on tests and quizzes. I believe
students will learn more each time they hear and process the information, whether they read, write,
watch or perform an activity associated with it

Biology Labs:
As well as meeting every day for a single period, we will also meet every other day for two

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periods. Generally on a double period day, students are involved in laboratory investigations. This
ensures that they meet New York State's minimum lab requirement (1200 minutes) in order to be
eligible for the Regents Exam at the end of the year. Information on Regents Exam will be covered
during each lesson and be placed on class test to help prepare for the end of the year. The students
will perform approximately 40 different labs throughout the year. There are four state required labs.
Lab grades are worth 30 % towards each quarter final grade and will based on a scale of 100%.

How Much Curriculum should be on One Test?

The amount of curriculum that will be placed on one test will vary depending on how much
material needs to be addressed in one individual topic, timeframe and personal skills that students
need to learn such as being responsible for (collecting, organizing, summarizing information and
producing a product). Homework and quizzes will help to gauge if students are on target. Too much
information will overload the students and not give a true determination of how well the students
understand the content material. My goal is for the students to learn and comprehend small amounts
of information in a timely manner and not feel stressed.

Modified or Adjusted Curriculum:

The curriculum will be modified to meet the needs of state standards and Regents Exam and
emphasize its effectiveness in improving education for all students. The modification will provide
vivid examples and useful resources which will enrich actual classroom practices for diverse
learners. Modification involves combinations of altered content knowledge, conceptual difficulty,
educational goals and instructional methods. The types of instructional methods that I will use are
direct, differentiated, tiered, cooperative learning groups and technology in order to reach all types
of learning styles.

Role of Alternative Assessments:

Each student learns material in a different way and at a different pace. Alternative assessments
will be used to help students with different learning styles. Alternative assessment refers to
procedures and techniques which can be used within the context of instruction and can be easily
incorporated into the daily activities of the school or classroom. The main goal is to gather evidence
about how students are approaching, processing, and completing real-life tasks in a particular topic.
Alternative assessments generally meet the following criteria: focus is on documenting individual
student growth over time, rather than comparing students with one another and the emphasis is on
students' strengths (what they know), rather than weaknesses (what they don't know). Alternative
assessments are performance assessments that can include short-answer questions, essays, oral
presentations, describing, explaining, summarizing, retelling and paraphrasing content material,
demonstrations, exhibitions, and portfolios.

Weighting Grades:
Weighting test grades will be performed if more than 20% of the class gets a particular question
wrong on an exam. The teacher will evaluate the question to determine if it was too hard or the
material was not discussed in detail for the students to fully understand. All test scores will be
charted and compared to other Biology classes. The teacher reserves the right to confer with other
teachers and adjust grades accordingly.

Group Grades:
No group grades will be given out. I want each student to be held accountable for their
achievement. I believe group grades are unfair, undermine motivation, communicate to students that
their grade is a function of forces beyond their control, and create resistance to cooperative learning.

Grading Scales (100 vs. 4.0) and Averaging Grades vs. Using Median/Mode:
I will follow the schools grading scale policy. If the grading scale is not based on 100%, then I
will use both types of grading scales to document the final grade for each quarter. I believe a
grading scale based on 100% makes more sense to use for high school, because of all the different
categories that will be incorporated into one grade. Plus, it is easier to defend to a student than a
letter grade. Also, most students in high school should understand the math concept behind whole
numbers and can calculate their own grade. The grading system based on 100% will allow for
different numbers of questions to be used for all class work, homework, quizzes, labs, and tests. For
example; the score will be calculated as: (number of correct answers) divided by (total number of
answers) times (100%). The above categories will be averaged together to result in a final grade
based on a scale of 100%. Using the median, a student with grades of A, A, B, B, B, C, F, F would
receive a B rather than the C that results from calculating the mean. I prefer to average grades to
truly reflect a student’s level of achievement and to determine what needs to be done to improve the
grade if necessary.

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