I've really struggled with this.
I completely agree in thinking that it's the students' responsibility to track
their own grades. But then there's the practicality -- many of them don't or
don't know how (lacking quantitative literacy).
My imperfect solution:
I post updated grades on my website and I give grade reports after each exam (I
mail merge a form letter with my excel spreadsheet) that includes a
personalized note -- often of encouragement ("You did better on this exam, good
job!" "Your quiz grade is very low, are you keeping up with the reading?"
"You've been missing class a lot, is this the best time for you to be taking
this course?") . Frankly, I mostly do this as a double check for me -- did I
accurately record grades for each assignment?
I also include a javascript grade calculator on my website. For those who
lack the math skills or the inclination to do the math, the power is still in
their hands to figure out what they need to do on the remaining assignments to
get the grade they want. But I'm very ambivalent about it. I feel like I
should take the time to teach them the math -- but when I've done that, many of
the students seemed to opt not to and preferred to remain in the dark -- or
continued to ask me. I used to include a grade tracking sheet in my syllabus
and encouraged students to use it -- but it didn't stop the
what-do-I-need-to-get-on-the-final-to-pass-the-class questions.
Even with the periodic grade reports and the grade calculator, I still get
questions like the one I got this week: "I have not been attending your class
for the last week and a half .[Note: We're on quarters!] ... i am fearing
failing your class and would also like to know if there is any way that i will
be able to pass that class." Of course this student has missed more than just
the last week and a half -- I have a couple grade reports (out of 3 I've given
so far) for this student in my class folder because I haven't seen the student.
Finals are next week and it's too late to withdraw, so I'm not sure what sort
of solution the student is imagining. But in any case, my response will be,
"Visit the grade calculator -- here's the address..."
--
Sue Frantz Highline Community College
Psychology Des Moines, WA
206.878.3710 x3404 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/
--
Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology
Assistant Director
Project Syllabus
http://www.lemoyne.edu/OTRP/projectsyllabus.html ________________________________ From: Martin Bourgeois [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thu 12/7/2006 5:27 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: [tips] calculating final grades I'm teaching intro for the first time in eight years, and I'm observing an interesting phenomenon: I have an optional final that would replace their lowest exam grade, and just about every student in the class is emailing me, asking me to calculate their final grade if they don't take the final. I feel that since I give them their score on every exam and paper, and the syllabus explains how much each assignment is worth, it's their responsibility to figure that out. Is my expectation old-fashioned? This has never happened before, but I'm at a new institution, so I don't know if it's a cultural difference or an age-related trend. I'd be curious to hear if others have dealt with the same issue. Marty Bourgeois Florida Gulf Coast University --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
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