Secondary state standards grading

Reading this article I learned a lot of little tips about grading with what to do and what not to do. I enjoyed this article because it was not something obvious that some articles would point out, but little things that I have never really thought of. One of these tips I thought was a great idea, was to have no zeros. Zeros on a rubric I thought was always just a standard thing that every assignment had; however, the article points out the negativity that comes with having zeros and the motivation level for some students can decrease. I liked the example that was given when calculating a students grade. The students grade was significantly lower when adding in that extra zero even though everything else they did was good. Personally, as a future teacher I do not want my students to be discouraged about grades, so I like many other teachers want them to get the best possible grade and by eliminating zeros, better grades will appear along with motivation. The other point that I thought was interesting, mainly because I thought it was more of a college thing, but having homework not be graded. In high school teachers always gave so much homework and our grades were highly based on the completion of homework. Having this not be the case now, I agree with what the article was saying how students can value homework more and get more out of it if they think of it more as a practice tool than a grade. In classes here at Eastern, I have had a lot of teachers give assignments that were not mandatory but they would always say for your benefit and for you to practice. I think this is an excellent way to look at assignments in a more positive way, whenever I hear that I think of it as a benefit for me, not by grades but by actually learning. Personally, I am not a fan of homework mainly because I find a lot of it to be busy work, but having actual assignments that are meaningful and would be thought of as practice I find useful and encourages me to actually do it.