Ch. 12: Grading Scales

At the beginning of the year, you must decide on a grading scale and stick to it. The two most popular scales are the 4pt and the 100pt. On both scales an A means that the student has mastered the material. With a 4pt system, there is more leeway because there is a list of what you are looking for. The looking for items include recognizes what they need to do, understanding, doing it correctly, double checking and arriving at the correct response. Students gain credit for each piece that is correct, unlike the 100pt scale, where you only look for the answer. With the 100pt scale, you are either right or wrong. I think it is unfair to be either correct or incorrect, because in my high school we used to get ½ a credit for being ½ right. This got confusing because grades would round up and that ½ would become a whole. We also have to take into consideration to not base all grades on a rubric and learn to differentiate and reexamine grades before recording them. I think the most important question to consider in teaching is, “What is fair for my students?” We need to ask ourselves this with every assignment and every grading process to meet the needs of our students and their personal growth.