Daniel Johnson
ED 602
Stacey Harrell
Making a Difference
Making a Difference Chapters 12 and 13
Chapter 12: What learning activities and assignments could you make that would reflect an effort to
better treat your chosen image bearers and thus reveal a part of what grace is about?
I do an assignment every year to commemorate the terrorist attacks on 9/11/01. My students
have to interview someone, preferably a family member, who remembers the events of 9/11. I review
the events and show video of the event but it does not really convey the panic and fear that many of us
felt on that day. I instruct my students to ask questions like: “What were you doing when you first heard
about the attacks?” and “How did you feel emotionally when you witnessed the events on the news?”
Talking to family often gives the student an emotional connection to the event. I post the student
interviews and we discuss the events from the perspective of their various family members. I like this
assignment because the students get a chance to see history from a very personal point of view that
they helped to create.
Chapter 13: What changes in your approach to measurement, evaluation, and grading could you make
that would reflect an effort to better treat your chosen students as image bearers and thus reveal a part
of what grace is about?
Four of my five classes are Advanced Placement courses and AP students are very much
concerned about their grades. These are the kinds of students who for the most part have received A’s
all through their elementary and middle school years. I feel they put too much pressure on themselves
and I try hard to calm them down when they inevitably earn a B or C grade. I try to reassure my students
that my class is much more rigorous and difficult than most of the classes they have had before and
struggling is just part of the process. I make accommodations to help my students improve their grades
to help relieve their stress and anxiety about my class. When my students take a large unit test I use
what I call an AP curve; my tests mirror the AP exam so it is very difficult. I curve the test so that 80% is
an A, 70% a B and so on. After all tests, quizzes, and written essays my students are allowed to do test
corrections where they can earn partial credit for correcting wrong answers. I do this so my students will
review material they had trouble with and they can keep their grades up and not be tempted to drop my
class at the end of the semester. I want my class to be rigorous but not so tough that I scare the
students out of the class. I think this represents grace because the students are more confident because
they know that if they do fail they will have the opportunity to make it right.