Philosophy

of Assessing and Grading Student Learning

I believe all students regardless of their gender, social class, ethnicity, or race, should have equal
opportunities to learn in school. All students can learn. Diversity is an on-going process, and as
teachers even though it will be a little harder to deal with barriers such as language, we need to
strive to enhance higher-order thinking and problem solving skills to increase academic
performance of all students, increase awareness and knowledge of the history, culture, and
perspectives of all ethnic and racial groups, enhance students' self-esteem, self-awareness, and
identity, and promote the valuing of cultural.
Its important we as teachers encourage efficient and effective learning. We need to always be
prepared, and yet consider the kids in your class. Its important to continually assess learning.
Taking a test on a unit does not always indicate student learning. Teachers need to know their
students and care. Planning for instruction involves thinking about what is most important for
students to learn, objectives students should meet, land handing out activities that will help
students meet the objectives not just busy work.
Teachers focus primarily on objectives in the cognitive domain, but the affective domain, which
involves attitudes and values, and the psychomotor domain, which involves physical abilities are
also important.
As a teacher we will have to face many challenging problems over the years. I know language is
a hard topic to deal with; and it is one I am familiar with because I went to an international
school with 90% Asian students. Our nation is becoming more diverse and as teachers we have a
responsibility to understand what the best way is to help our diverse students and meet there
needs.
I read somewhere that, our nation tends to regard children's differences - language differences,
in particular - as handicaps rather than resources. Negative attitudes toward non-English speakers
can lead to children's difficulties in mastering English as well as their first language. Children
will develop the use of English even if their home language is preserved. I think this is a shame
because the student may be very intelligent but we hold them back because of language. I think
translators can be a wonderful thing for a student of an older age until that student becomes
fluent enough with English to work on his/her own.
It does not matter the age, all kids, teens, students, etc. teachers need to try to understand their
world through their own language and culture. As a teacher, when I am faced with a kids who
has a different language I am going to start by identifying what he/she already knows and then I
plan to build on their prior learning, regardless of language. I believe this will help promote an
environment that engages all children in learning. I also plan to do what ever research I can on
that childs language and culture. All adolescence are cognitively, linguistically, and emotionally
connected to the language and culture of their home.
I know that language can be a barrier. It can cause frustration in a student, it can cause
depression, hatred, it can cast them as an out sider, and they can fall behind in school. Its

important as a teacher not to give up on your student, stick with them, help them in any way you
can, actively involve parents and families in the early learning program and setting, and provide
them with strategies to support, maintain, and preserve home-language learning.
As teachers we should assess students through multiple ways, and I believe it is okay to diversity
lesson plans and work to different ability levels within the class. The best student cant be bored
and must be challenged, but the lowest level student needs to not be overwhelmed and able to do
his/her work.

Grading Policy
In my class, students will earn six-week-term and semester grades by completing a variety of in-class learning
activities and homework assignments. All of the work for this class will challenge students to develop reading,
writing, and critical thinking skills; it will also allow much room for creativity and self expression. Each assignment
will be worth a specified point value.
For each assignment, I will give you a clear outline of how the points are distributed and what is expected of you
and Rubric. Students final grade for each six-week-term will be based on your performance on the various
assignments. Students will also have opportunities to do extra credit to enhance your grade, and test corrections. The
grading scale that I use is as follows:
A..92-100%
A-.90-91%
B+85-89%
B..83-84%
B-.80-82%
C+75-79%
C..73-74%
C-.70-72%
D+65-69%
D..63-64%
D-.60-62%
Non-passing 0-59%