As teachers, our job is not only limited to giving daily lessons required
by the curriculum. We also have to assess and give marks to our students. Every
periodical period, we are tasked to solve grades for our students as a sort of
feedback to them. Grades may be just a number for some, but these could imply a
lot of things to our students. Some students may be motivated to push more to
improve, while others may get discouraged. These are the reasons why that as
teachers, we should take this task seriously and effectively. Thus here are
some principles teacher can do to provide effective grading to their students.
These principles were adapted from de Guzman-Santos(2007).
- Discuss grading measures to
students at the start of instruction
One
of the routines that we do as teachers during the first day of classes, aside
from do’s and don’ts inside the classroom, is no other than discussing our
grading system. This is a way to make our students be clarified on the
processes relating to their grades. At the same time, they will be given the
idea on how will they be assessed and to plan their future actions in order to
achieve their desired grade.
- Accurately weigh the various types
of achievements included in the grade
Every
grade is a sum of achievement from various components. These components would
include quizzes, projects, recitation etc. It is important to properly weigh
these components since these components vary from one subject to another. Some
subject may focus on written works while some on performance and outputs.
Bottomline is, teachers should justify each of these components that would best
reflect student’s achievement and performance.
- Relate grading procedures to
intended learning outcomes
Describe
to the students that their grades will be based on how they have achieved a
certain learning outcome. Most of the time, teachers would give a certain
criterion like 75% passing mark in a test or activity. It has to be made clear
among the students as to what comprises this certain criterion like they have
to get 30 correct items out of 40 to pass, or they have to answer 3 out of 5
problems or perform 32 counts of jumping jack etc. This way, students would
know their target and perhaps perform the intended learning outcome better and
above the given criterion.
- Explain that grades will be based
on achievement only.
Most
of the time, a grade could reflect a lot of things. We may give grades based on
the actual performance or achievement of the student while some would include
how much effort and diligence the student exhibited. This is the reason why
there is a need to clarify among students on the way they will be graded.
Ideally speaking, a grade should reflect achievement only. However, as
teachers, we also tend to give credits to the efforts done by our students.
This is quite a dilemma among us. For example, how will you grade a student who
are tardy and truant but performs well inside the classroom visavis a student
who goes to school everyday and is diligent but still get low scores on your
assessment results? If you can’t help giving credits aside form achievement,
discuss and clarify this to the class. This way, students would also show
favorable and good attributes and not just overconfidently rely on their
assessment results.
- Acquire valid evidence (test, etc.)
for assigning grades
Try
to utilize a variety of tools to assess your students to serve as valid
evidences of their grades. One of the worst things that a teacher could do is
to give a grade out of nowhere without any proofs of this grade. Some parents
are very particular with their children’s grades and questioning the teacher
about the grade given to their son/daughter is very common nowadays. If we have
these valid evidences, we can surely justify the grades that we gave to our
students. This maintains our integrity as teachers and at the same time
ultimately gives our students a valid reflection of their achievement.
- Return and review all test results
as soon as possible.
This
is very important but some teachers are quite guilty of this. We need to return
test result to our students so that they can monitor their own learning. This
is a form of feedback to them so that they can work on the parts that they
found difficult and performed low.
- Control cheating among students
It
is important to know who performs well or not inside our classroom. As much as
possible, we want our grades to be given to those who deserve it. This however
would be a challenge if there is a rampant cheating among the students. We
would end up giving grades to wrong students and thus would send a wrong
feedback. One way to solve cheating among our students is to be vigilant. A
simple principle of proximity or being visible and near our students is enough
to make students stop cheating especially during examinations.
- Be fair. Avoid bias. When in doubt,
review the evidence. If still in doubt, give the higher grade.
Always
be fair to our students. Avoid favoritism because this may result to halo
effect. Avoid being personal as well especially to those students we find
annoying because this may result to evil effect. These biases may unconsciously influence our
grade. We may end up giving a higher grade to those students we like while
giving a lower grade to those we hate. Focus on the evidences gathered during
the grading period and not on our subjective opinions about our students.
