>Pam Shapiro said:
>
>>I guess my question concerns "fair" grading. Is it possible to adhere
>>to uniform grading standards? Is it even desirable? I think of
>>my students as individuals and see my job as teaching individuals, not
>>judging students by the skills and knowledge which they bring to class
>>on day one. How do others deal with this?
>>
>
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
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Dr. Louis Manza phone: (717) 867-6193
Assistant Professor of Psychology fax: (717) 867-6075
Lebanon Valley College E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Annville, PA 17003
"Living in the limelight, the universal dream...for
those who wish to seem. Those who wish to be...must
put aside the alienation, get on with the fascination,
the real relation, the underlying theme."
Rush, "Limelight" (lyrics, N. Peart)
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