Friday, August 1, 2008

Grading Philosophies

Lately, I have really been thinking about the way I grade students.

Sometimes I feel that grading can be very arbitrary -- its entirely up to the teacher. Teachers decide the distribution of grades (ie. 25% quizzes, 25% homework, etc.). Teachers decide how many points a quiz is worth. Teachers decide how much partial credit to award.

I stumbled upon this book, and while I haven't had a chance to read it yet, I did read the study guide. The book discusses 15 fixes for broken grades. Here are 5 fixes that I am racking my brain around. I typically do all of these "Don'ts".

  • Fix 1: Don't include student behavior in grades.
  • Fix 2: Don't reduce grades on work submitted late.
  • Fix 3: Don't give points for extra credit.
  • Fix 4: Don't punish academic dishonesty/cheating with reduced grades.
  • Fix 12: Don't include zeros for missing assignments when calculating grades.
Any comments?

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