WATCH THIS: Teacher and blogger, Joe Bower, gives the goods on how to assign summative assessment grades when all other assignments are grade-less. Where teachers would normally average the scores for different categories of assignments (i.e. homework, tests, projects), Bower suggests having a conversation instead -- a collaboration between teacher and student to determine the final grade. Gems like this and his subsequent explanation left us searching for bonus footage. We were intrigued by Joe's analysis of the seemingly objective nature of letter grades. Under the assumption that most formative assessment is designed to measure the average student, he finds little rationale in "averaging a list of averages to come up with a final average," adding that "grades masquerade as objective assessments." We're no "mathemagicians" either, Joe, but sounds like you could be on to something here.
