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April Hodge February 22, 2010 Week 11 Assignment

**To Retake or Not**

It is often asked what is fair for retakes? What grade must a student get to retake? Who gets to retake (only IEP students?) There are many things that seem to make retakes fair for some and unfair for others. This is what I think about in my class regarding quiz and test retakes.
 * In my practice:**

Some say that retakes are not a good idea because they devalue the grade a student gets because they did not try hard enough the first time around. They think that they can not try as hard, see the quiz or test material, and then come back and take it again once they know what to expect. Others say that retakes are valuable to students who really do try, but perhaps just did not master the material in the same time table as other students in the class, and that should not hurt their grade. If they try hard enough to do well on a retake, then they deserve the grade. Whichever side one chooses, there are many arguments that are both valid and legitimate and any teacher could easily be on one side of the argument one day and on the other side the next.
 * Both sides of the argument:**

The issue of retakes is one that I often think about in my class. I have found that when I offer retakes, it is rarely something that students are willing to do, even to increase their grades. I tend to side with those who think that retakes are not always the best idea. I feel this way because I struggle to find a way to make a retake work in a fair way for all students, and to make it useful for mastery of information, and not just for a grade. What would be the point that you should allow a retake? What about a student who got a 98 and wants a retake to get a 100? Are they retaking it for the right reason or just to say they got a 100? Then there are the conditions of taking a retake. Do the students need to attend an after school class first? Do extra homework to show they have been studying? Often when there are requirements such as these, students to not find it worth their while to retake a quiz to increase the grade. And then there is always the age old question of, if they fail the first one and get a 100 on the retake, do they get a 100 or do you average the two? What is fair? I however do not fully agree that there shouldn’t be any way to increase grades and learning. I feel that there is a balance of using assessments for grades, but also for seeing how students are understanding. Please see my reflections for how I have found a balance that works for me in my classroom. After researching quiz and test retakes, what I have found is that there is not right or wrong way. I find that some teachers find that they get students to do better with retakes while others find that students tend to lack any motivation to do better. I feel that it is something that teachers need to evaluate in their classrooms based on their individual students, and also perhaps the subject that they teach. It also made me realize that a quiz is an assessment, not just a grade, and should be used to see how students are learning. Teachers need to remember that number grades on one quiz do not reflect everything that a student may or may not have learned. After all a quiz is just a small piece of everything that you have taught on a subject, and it could be that it happened to be the piece a student did not understand. While I tend to agree that retakes are a bad idea, I do not feel that students should be stuck with what they do on assessment. I feel that there is a good compromise in which students can reinvest time in the material, and allow themselves to actually master the material. I have found an alternative that has seemed to work this year. What I do is require that students do quiz corrections instead of retakes. They are required to take their quiz home, and look up the questions that they got wrong, and then make the appropriate corrections, explaining why they got the answer wrong the first time. This allows them to explain their thinking. What I then do is give them points for making these corrections. I find that when I reassess students on the information, that they actually understand it better than if I gave them a retake. This forces them to reengage with the information. This reminds me what the point of the quiz was in the first place.
 * My Position:**
 * After Researching Conclusion:**
 * Reflection:**

Works Cited Barnes, Peter. "Test Retakes May Help Students Succeed - TheApple.com." //TheApple.com : Where Teachers Meet and Learn//. Web. 18 Feb. 2010. . Craft, Harvey. "Educational Problems With Grading Students: Student Evaluation Offers Real Issues for Teachers and Principals." //Training/Professional Development//. Web. 19 Feb. 2010. . Draves, William A. "Smart boys, bad grades - Tips for Teachers." //Smart Boys, Bad Grades//. 2004. Web. 19 Feb. 2010. . "Grading debate: Homework, zeros and retaking tests | School Zone | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle." //School Zone: Blogging Houston-area education with the Chronicle staff.// Web. 19 Feb. 2010. .