In response to my comments regarding final grades, Erica Klein asked:
> Don't you get a lot of attempted bargaining and begging at the end of the
> semester from students claiming to have 'grown'? How do you manage that
> aspect?
> Erica Klein
No. I find that students given the chance to improve their grades
by demonstrating a willingness to work towards my standards, usually
do so. I've turned back what I consider unacceptable work and asked
students to do it over again. One can't earn an A by rewriting an F
paper, but one can learn something about the process of writing good
papers.
Now, if a student goes from an F to a C, strict "by the numbers"
grading will yield a D. That student can't pass this class with a D
and can't graduate this year without passing this class. I don't
believe that struggling to understand material and to improve
written communication is trivial. Students who succeed in
significantly improving the quality of their work are not well served
by rigid grading standards which apply to "product" only. That's
where my "adjusting up" comes into play. Students with A or B
averages rarely ask for adjustments, probably because the work
involved is more than they're willing to do.
Pam
Pamela Joyce Shapiro | email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Temple University | voice mail: (215) 204-9595
Cognitive Psychology | box # 888-3214
