I strongly believe and even more believe after pre-internship is that every student is different. When assessing students, it is important to understand why they are not understanding the material. It is crucial to understand every student has a different story. Some students might not get homework done because they go home and are a parent, have a bad home life, have a job, don’t have time, have a learning disability and more. As a teacher, I found students were not getting a lot of the assignments done outside of class because they had their own problems. I think as a teacher, we need to give every student fair opportunity. I think that students who do not get their homework or assignments done should be referred to a tutorial where they can then be allowed to get a grade they deserve. Giving zeros on assignments doesn’t tell me that they do not know the material. It tells me they did not hand it in. The curriculum today is based around if they are reaching the outcome. A zero is a summative assessment and does not formatively show that they do not understand the material. In most cases, it shows they took the option or maybe just did not understand the assignment.
I found that even in PE that students who did not have a (NHI) not handed in assignment beside their name, the computer would automatically put in a zero… which decreased their overall grade by 3% that means a student either went from a 90% to a 87% and a 50% to a 47%. If a student misses more then 4 assignments… they would drop 12%. This does not show that they do not understand the material, but more so… that they did not get their assignments in…. This is where I suggest a way where a student can go get help in the school to finish an assignment before the end of the year. I feel I care about my students and want them to pass my class so in result I would give them the option to get their stuff done. However, if I know they are not getting it done and not trying to make it up.. I might not be so lenient with them. Basically it depends on the student and their background and their motivation to want to improve their grades.
In conclusion, understanding each student is different and assessing students based on not completing an assignment can be looked at with different options. I think treating the students as fairly as possible is also a balance as well. It is not fair obviously to the students who get their homework done on time, but it is fair to be reasonable with your students. Also, using a variety of assessments for students helps to targets. This is something I really want to work on during internship.
Ms. Wheeler's Journey as an Educator 