I want to thank those who responded to my fair grading question. It was
a relief to find that my criteria are not dissimilar to those of Miguel
Roig (from his web page). Paul Brandon and Annette Taylor make a
distinction between final course grades and intermediate grades for
drafts. I agree with this completely and have explained to my students
that I will not assign final grades below their total points or average,
but I reserve the right to adjust "up" for those who are borderline and
have demonstrated significant growth. Thanks also to Tim Shearon and
Shirley-Anne Hensch, who make good points regarding students' privacy
and the nature of grading papers.
Lou Manza's response regarding uniform standards forced me to examine
my philosophy of teaching as well as my personal biases regarding
undergraduate standards. I worry that as a long time graduate student
my immersion in the psych literature and constant exposure to the
graduate level of thought and writing among my student colleagues, may
lead to unrealistic expectations for undergraduate papers. I'm
confident in my ability to recognize talent, but not so sure about the
standards for an average paper. I expect this will come with
experience, but for now I truly struggle with the grading process.
Annette's response about stretching a student reminded me of my favorite
teaching story. Anne Sexton, when asked about her teacher, Robert
Lowell, said that he would hold up a hoop, and all she had to do was
jump through it. I have always thought that it takes a very special
teacher to know just how high to raise that hoop--high enough to force
a stretch, but never so high that one falls too far and too hard to
recover. I don't think we can get it right every time, but I intend
to keep trying.
All my best,
Pam
Pamela Joyce Shapiro | email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Temple University | voice mail: (215) 204-9595
Cognitive Psychology | box # 888-3214
Annette Taylor wrote:
> But, referring to the response below, I find that with very, very
> good students, who can exceed the stated goals, I tend to push them
> harder--and that is sometimes reflected in an A-/B+ grade on what
> by the 'standards' might be a straight A paper--I think they can
> stretch and reach and do more than what the particular class goals
> are and stretch them in that way--on the other hand, I make sure that
> they are (not) 'penalized' when the overall grades are given for the semester's
> grade book. Don't we all want to push students to their max? and don't
> we all have a good mix?
>
> So while I agree that I don't grade 'effort' either and do have standards,
> on the other hand, I also feel a need to push those whose ability is
> way above the class expectations--there students are few and far between
> but always seemed to have appreciated the push.
>
> annette
>
> On Fri, 23 Apr 1999, Lou Manza wrote:
> > Why would it not be possible to apply uniform grading standards across all
> > papers within a single class? Unless I'm missing something here, as a
> > teacher, one should set up standards for papers that are made very clear to
> > students, and ALL students are judged equally by these standards. I know
> > that I have had the experience where a student will receive a VERY LOW
> > grade on a paper, and then tell me that "they put so much effort into the
> > paper that they shouldn't receive [fill in the grade]." My response to
> > this is that I don't grade effort; there are certain standards that MUST BE
> > MET. An analogy I will frequently use is "Would you want to be operated on
> > by a surgeon who tried real hard in medical school but only squeaked by, or
> > by the best surgeon in the graduating class?" Effort + Performance are the
> > critical variables here, not effort alone.
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Lou
> >
