Grading Practices
This week I have been involved in three extensive conversations about grading practices, and I also happened to look at one of my student's grades this week. In the following categories, she is currently earning the following scores:
Participation (in class and on the blog) - 89%
Objective and Written Exams - 99% (extraordinary!!!)
Content of Formal Essays - 69%
Mechanics of Formal Essays - 59%
This is very useful information because her overall grade in the class is a B ---- 83%. This student could look at her overall grade and say, "I am doing pretty well in this honors class." Or she could look at the categories and say, "I am doing a great job of thinking, participating, and studying for exams for this class, but I REALLY need to work on my writing skills."
That second statement is much more useful, in my mind, than the first. And because so many honors students (and their parents) are concerned with their overall grades, this is a student who will stick with honors, but also get the message loud and clear about her need to work on her writing.
Participation (in class and on the blog) - 89%
Objective and Written Exams - 99% (extraordinary!!!)
Content of Formal Essays - 69%
Mechanics of Formal Essays - 59%
This is very useful information because her overall grade in the class is a B ---- 83%. This student could look at her overall grade and say, "I am doing pretty well in this honors class." Or she could look at the categories and say, "I am doing a great job of thinking, participating, and studying for exams for this class, but I REALLY need to work on my writing skills."
That second statement is much more useful, in my mind, than the first. And because so many honors students (and their parents) are concerned with their overall grades, this is a student who will stick with honors, but also get the message loud and clear about her need to work on her writing.
posted by Crosby at 10:27 PM
3 Comments:
I find the lack of focus on vocabulary and grammar has impacted the ability of many of today's students to write with any real fluency and direction.
There is such power in the King's English. While many of today's students are truly creative and original thinkers, they have difficulty grasping the importance of daily journaling and putting thoughts to paper or the value of editing and rewriting... or having peer reviews to improve their writing skills. Texting and writing MySpace comments do not qualify. As such, the literacy seen in colleges is the direct result of the direction that we've taken in education.
The focus is on content facts... regurgitation, with some application and analysis in the mix. Teachers are pressured to maximize content knowledge.
What happened to creative writing? For that matter, what happened to formal English classes that focused on grammar? How can students become fluent in another language when they have no control of their own?
As a student, I will admit that often times, I focus less on the details and more on the overall grade. I don’t concern myself with looking over categories to see where I need improvement. As long as I see an A staring back at me from the computer screen, I don’t particularly care how I am in specific aspects of the class. Although this is a terrible habit that many students face, I am happy to say that when the grade is not an A, I immediately set out to find the root of the problem. I know that a lot of students do this. My friends and I often talk about how certain things affect our grade and when we focus on those, grades improve.
Honestly, it’s tedious to look through every category of every class, but your right; we need to focus on the details. Our overall grade may be excellent, but that may just be because we participate in class. Our writing skills might stink and we wouldn’t even know until we fail our final paper. Sometimes, we students don’t realize that you place things in categories for a reason, and not merely for your own enjoyment. Grades are set up the way they are so we can pinpoint the exact problem in our learning. You can’t fix a problem if you don’t know its there. Perhaps talking to students about different categories and how they affect grades would help students take more initiative in their learning.
-AvereeL
As a student, I always look at my overall grade before going further into it and looking at the categories. If I do see a grade I'm a little iffy on, I will look at all the possibilities on why, for example, my test scores are this way and what I really need to focus on. Honestly, almost every classmate of mine and student there is, they probably don't look at the minor things they can work on, instead they look at the overall grade. Maybe if students thought took the time to read and specify what they need to work on more, grades could increase and more education would get learned. I know , from reading this blog, that I am now going to take my time and look at all my grades and each category.
Post a Comment
<< Home