The grading thread

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I wish there was a way students could understand why their grades increase or decrease. They don't see to understand how weighted averages work, and why a 93 (for example) could lower their grade since they had a 100% in that grade category before I graded the assignment they got a 93% on.

Unfortunately, there's a big problem with math illiteracy. I thought that my grade formula was simple. It's additive. Just add up points and drop the lowest grade. Students still don't get it.

[Caracal]

I wish there was a way students could understand why their grades increase or decrease. They don't see to understand how weighted averages work, and why a 93 (for example) could lower their grade since they had a 100% in that grade category before I graded the assignment they got a 93% on.

Unfortunately, there's a big problem with math illiteracy. I thought that my grade formula was simple. It's additive. Just add up points and drop the lowest grade. Students still don't get it.

I think most students understand perfectly. Its just that you hear from the minority who seem to be perpetually confused.

[Aster]

I wish there was a way students could understand why their grades increase or decrease. They don't see to understand how weighted averages work, and why a 93 (for example) could lower their grade since they had a 100% in that grade category before I graded the assignment they got a 93% on.

Unfortunately, there's a big problem with math illiteracy. I thought that my grade formula was simple. It's additive. Just add up points and drop the lowest grade. Students still don't get it.

I think most students understand perfectly. Its just that you hear from the minority who seem to be perpetually confused.

I think most students understand perfectly. It's just that you hear from students who are faking ignorance and confusion to try and influence you into artificially bumping up their grades.

[Caracal]

I wish there was a way students could understand why their grades increase or decrease. They don't see to understand how weighted averages work, and why a 93 (for example) could lower their grade since they had a 100% in that grade category before I graded the assignment they got a 93% on.

Unfortunately, there's a big problem with math illiteracy. I thought that my grade formula was simple. It's additive. Just add up points and drop the lowest grade. Students still don't get it.

I think most students understand perfectly. Its just that you hear from the minority who seem to be perpetually confused.

I think most students understand perfectly. It's just that you hear from students who are faking ignorance and confusion to try and influence you into artificially bumping up their grades.

That too. I get the impression that there are students who have really adopted an ethic of confusion. Its a way to deny your own agency. If everything is confusing then it isn't your fault that you don't know what's going on and it isn't your responsibility to figure it out.

[AvidReader]

I get the impression that there are students who have really adopted an ethic of confusion. Its a way to deny your own agency. If everything is confusing then it isn't your fault that you don't know what's going on and it isn't your responsibility to figure it out.

Oh yes. I had a student this semester who missed a class. Stu did not do the assigned reading for that class, which included directions for the next essay the class was writing and a sample essay in that genre. When Stu came back, Stu said. "I missed class last week, so I didn't do any of the reading because I wouldn't be there to discuss it." I suggested that Stu should still do the reading so Stu would know what to do for the essay, but Stu patiently explained to me that that was old work and Stu wanted to focus on upcoming work.

Two weeks later, Stu complained that Stu was hopelessly confused about how to approach the essay. Stu still refused to read the directions or the sample, since Stu "wouldn't get any credit" for doing so (doing well on the essay apparently not counting as "credit").

The Fora readers will be shocked to hear that Stu did not, in fact, do very well on the essay, and was very confused about why the submitted work fared poorly.

AR.

[Puget]

Grades for graduating students are due Monday. Luckily only 6/18 students in my seminar are graduating, but I really have to make myself grade term papers for those six today (turned in Friday). They take about half an hour each so not that bad I'm just not feeling very motivated, so posting to keep myself on track.
1 down, 5 to go.

[AvidReader]

You can do it, Puget! Hope they are already done and you are celebrating with a little breather.

I'm trying to enter grades for all small activities today so that the students who are taking my final tomorrow will know exactly how many points they need to earn to pass.

AR.

[lightning]

You can do it, Puget! Hope they are already done and you are celebrating with a little breather.

I'm trying to enter grades for all small activities today so that the students who are taking my final tomorrow will know exactly how many points they need to earn to pass.

AR.

You're too nice. The students don't deserve you.

[AvidReader]

You're too nice. The students don't deserve you.

I don't think that's what they think. ;) But this also benefits me: I'm completely finished with 3 of 5 classes except for the final exams! The end is in sight!

AR.

[FishProf]

Ugh.  Up until 1am grading papers underserving of the effort.  Unbelievably bad.

Some were OK.  But the bead ones were comically bad.

Hey student:  If I am more than half-way through your text and I don't yet know what your paper is about, that is a problem.

[ergative]

Student is writing a paper about work X, and then out of the blue mentions a character from work Y. I highlight the character and say in a marginal note, 'Who?' Student requests a regrade because the grader obviously didn't have sufficient knowledge to mark the text.

In the future, I will write in my marginal notes, 'For goodness sake, introduce your characters properly by saying where they come from and why you're drawing this comparison, so that I don't get rhetorical whiplash trying to follow your reasoning!' But then they would submit a complain that I made them feel bad.

Argh.

Is this a course with multiple graders, or are they just telling you that you don't know enough to grade their paper?

Actually, they aren't wrong about that! This is a Year 1 survey course of the entirety of our extremely broadly construed field, with multiple graders. I organize it, but don't do any of the teaching myself, and only a small handful of the grading for the one discussion section I lead, so I'm just the point person for students to complain to. And the student is in fact entirely correct in identifying that my subdiscipline does not align with their paper topic. I don't begrudge them that.

The student does not even know that I was the one who graded the paper. It was originally allotted to one of our TAs, but because the TA didn't grade it (or four fifths of her other allotment of papers) and didn't tell me until it was far too late to find other TAs to do it, I had to step in and do it myself, in addition to the papers for my own discussion section. The upshot of this whole mess is that there is no record that I was ever the person to grade the paper.

Anyway, I just sent the whole correspondence off to the subject specialist who taught that part of the course and assigned that essay topic, and blandly commented that a student had requested a regrade, please take a look. I guess we'll see if the subject specialist agrees with me, but I am not letting myself care one way or the other.

The grade in question, by the way, was a B.

Vindicated! Subject specialist agrees that the essay was appropriately graded.

[apl68]

I get the impression that there are students who have really adopted an ethic of confusion. Its a way to deny your own agency. If everything is confusing then it isn't your fault that you don't know what's going on and it isn't your responsibility to figure it out.

Oh yes. I had a student this semester who missed a class. Stu did not do the assigned reading for that class, which included directions for the next essay the class was writing and a sample essay in that genre. When Stu came back, Stu said. "I missed class last week, so I didn't do any of the reading because I wouldn't be there to discuss it." I suggested that Stu should still do the reading so Stu would know what to do for the essay, but Stu patiently explained to me that that was old work and Stu wanted to focus on upcoming work.

Two weeks later, Stu complained that Stu was hopelessly confused about how to approach the essay. Stu still refused to read the directions or the sample, since Stu "wouldn't get any credit" for doing so (doing well on the essay apparently not counting as "credit").

The Fora readers will be shocked to hear that Stu did not, in fact, do very well on the essay, and was very confused about why the submitted work fared poorly.

AR.

Another rude job market surprise coming.

[larryc]

Do you have advice on how to approach grading scaffolded assignments efficiently?

My apologies for missing this question--but I really don't! I agree that it is far more time consuming, at each step of the way.

[AmLitHist]

I turned in my last class' final grades just before noon today. The other two classes were submitted early last week; this was a second-8 weeks Comp II, and I gave them until 11:59 Saturday night to submit the final paper.  (Not like it helped, but at least they got the full 8 weeks, rather than just the 7 before final exams week.)

I'm free for two weeks, until the summer session begins June 7.  Of course, I need to update my schedule and Bb for those two classes, but not today.  I'm toast.

[AvidReader]

I submitted all my students' grades on Saturday. No complaints yet, though a few did forget how I round and emailed me in a panic about their 598 and 898 points, respectively.

AR.