Annotated Bibliography

Vaden-Goad, Robert E. (2009). College Teaching. College Teaching, 57, 3. Leveraging Summative Assessment for Formative Purposes.

“Leveraging Summative Assessment for Formative Purposes” is a journal article that examines the role that motivation and self-confidence plays in mathematics at the college level. Specifically, the study attempts to remedy the all-too-common problem of students giving up either physically or mentally at the first sign of trouble. This study postulates that the way to enhance student determination is to adopt a simple grade-replacement strategy. As the title suggests, it involves substituting earlier, lower grades with higher grades that students earn later on in a course. To test this hypothesis, a professor taught several sections of the same introductory level math course in which some of the sections were treated as low-frequency (few quizzes and tests) and some of the sections were treated as high-frequency (high number of quizzes and tests). Moreover, some of the sections were treated as replacement sections in which a lower test grade could be replaced by corresponding portions of the final while others were not. The results of the study showed that frequency had no impact whatsoever on grades but the replacement strategy did. In fact, grades were raised by a whole letter grade for the most part. Accounting for the natural effect that the replacement strategy had on the numerical data gathered, the researchers were able to conclude that the growth in grades was not due solely to this natural effect. As a matter of fact, they were able to positively conclude that student retention rates were higher in the sections that had a replacement strategy.

In my opinion, I believe the replacement strategy works. It gives students the sense of hope and direction they need all year long to continue to persevere even when they run into obstacles. Having said that, I am concerned about whether or not this works at the middle school level. At the college level, students take more responsibility for their learning. Accordingly, it would seem more probable that a struggling (or lazy) student would be able to pull themselves out of a hole so to speak. In addition to this, in my experiences at a student, I never was a fan of the replacement strategy because I always tried to avoid being in the scary situation where my entire grade was dependent on the final. I had some friends in college who liked this strategy and did well on this all-or-nothing finals., However, I also had quite a number of friends who used the replacement strategy as an excuse for not applying themselves in the first half of a course and then found themselves scrambling to achieve better grades on the final. Many of them were never able to dig themselves out of the hole they dug themselves in.


Frudden, Sally J.(1984). Education. Education, 104, 4. Lesson Plans Can Make A Difference In Evaluating Teachers.

“Lesson Plans Can Make A Difference In Evaluating Teachers” is a journal article detailing a study that was conducted in the 1980s linking lesson plans to evaluating the effectiveness of teachers. In particular, the study was able to conclude that using instruments to evaluate a teacher’s lesson plans proved more effective in determining the effectiveness of a teacher than regular reviews. The reason why instruments allow for more accurate reviews of teacher performance is because they give the evaluator the specific criteria to look for when it comes to evaluating a specific teacher. It follows then that just looking at a lesson plan is not sufficient enough to give an evaluator a good idea of the credibility of a teacher; rather, it is more ideal to use the aid of an instrument. This will allow for more expert-like reviews of teachers in the long run.

I find myself in agreement with this article. As a first-year teacher, I honestly don’t have the slightest clue as to what to look for when it comes to evaluating another teacher. As I have reviewed a number of peer teachers’ lesson plans, I also feel as if I am just glancing through it. This is partially due to the fact that I don’t quite know where exactly to start my analysis or what questions I should be asking. Even when I find some elements of another teacher’s lesson plan that I don’t agree with it, I chalk it up to a difference of opinion. What works for one teacher doesn’t work for me. Accordingly, how am I supposed to judge, especially as a first-year teacher? Therefore, I believe that evaluation instruments are extremely useful in rating teacher performance. Unless you are an expert when it comes to evaluating teachers, I think that we could all use a couple of pointers when it comes to continually rating both our and our peers’ effectiveness as teachers. Instruments are the best way to go about doing so sans experts.