How to move past feeling like a shitty teacher
May 6, 2010 10:27 AM Subscribe
I feel awful. I adjusted my grading practices and now I have all these emails from angry students.
Last semester the chair of my department cautioned me that I'm grading too high. I provided too many "A" grades - its a 400 level course and he felt it was unlikely that my students performed as well as I felt they did. He felt that, since I'm a new instructor, I was going easy on them. So I ramped things up. I drastically increased the penalties for missing more than one class and I stopped accepting late papers. In my class, I grade twelve written assignments for each student, as well as four in-class quizzes, a mid-term and a final.
If I failed, it was in that I didn't provide my students with a clear picture of their overall grades during the semester. I use an 800 point scale - and I returned their papers and quizzes to them, however I didn't provide them with their "running" grade, I felt they could keep track of that themselves.
Anyway, I failed three students and assigned several "D" grades. The students who failed haven't contacted me - but the "D" students have. They want an explanation.
In graduate school my hardest professor once responded to me - when I asked the same question - with, "You received the grade you earned."
I can explain to them how their cumulative poor marks and missed classes contributed to their grade - but I can't get over this lump in my throat. They're good, honest students. I can imagine them sitting there, looking at their shitty "D" grade, and I've probably ruined their month. I just feel horrible about it. I want to just erase the "D" and make it a "C" because of how horrible I would feel if I got a D. I understand that this leads to grade inflation. But I can't get over the feeling that these students would excel in their field and I'm the one holding them back because they failed my class. If I would have worked with them more closely, they would have done better.
What can I do to stop feeling like a monster for wreaking havoc on their GPA?
Last semester the chair of my department cautioned me that I'm grading too high. I provided too many "A" grades - its a 400 level course and he felt it was unlikely that my students performed as well as I felt they did. He felt that, since I'm a new instructor, I was going easy on them. So I ramped things up. I drastically increased the penalties for missing more than one class and I stopped accepting late papers. In my class, I grade twelve written assignments for each student, as well as four in-class quizzes, a mid-term and a final.
If I failed, it was in that I didn't provide my students with a clear picture of their overall grades during the semester. I use an 800 point scale - and I returned their papers and quizzes to them, however I didn't provide them with their "running" grade, I felt they could keep track of that themselves.
Anyway, I failed three students and assigned several "D" grades. The students who failed haven't contacted me - but the "D" students have. They want an explanation.
In graduate school my hardest professor once responded to me - when I asked the same question - with, "You received the grade you earned."
I can explain to them how their cumulative poor marks and missed classes contributed to their grade - but I can't get over this lump in my throat. They're good, honest students. I can imagine them sitting there, looking at their shitty "D" grade, and I've probably ruined their month. I just feel horrible about it. I want to just erase the "D" and make it a "C" because of how horrible I would feel if I got a D. I understand that this leads to grade inflation. But I can't get over the feeling that these students would excel in their field and I'm the one holding them back because they failed my class. If I would have worked with them more closely, they would have done better.
What can I do to stop feeling like a monster for wreaking havoc on their GPA?
If you made your expectations clear at the start of the semester as to how and why you are grading the way you are, I don't see a problem. Of course people getting bad grades will be upset, but if you can honestly say to yourself that you graded everyone fairly based upon classwork, test scores and attendance and this was properly communicated to them, all you need to do it refer your disgruntled students back to the syllabus.
All you can do is be fair.
posted by inturnaround at 10:33 AM on May 6, 2010
All you can do is be fair.
posted by inturnaround at 10:33 AM on May 6, 2010
This depends on how many students are in the class. Three Fs and "several" Ds in a class of one hundred would be trivial. In a class of a dozen, harsh.
posted by adipocere at 10:36 AM on May 6, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by adipocere at 10:36 AM on May 6, 2010 [4 favorites]
I feel your pain. But you do not need to feel like a monster for wreaking havoc on their GPA between a D and a C. Did the grade change what they got out of the course personally? No. Beyond that, what is the real impact on that student? If the students you gave low grades to were really keen and wanted to excel in that field, they have many other opportunities to engage again to pursue that. And they will, even despite your grade (which could still be appealed).
I find that with most students, the best way to handle grade disappointment is to show them an A paper/exam/answer (with the name taken off) and review that A paper compared to what was requested on the paper/exam/question. After that, I don't need to be the one to say explicitly "but you didn't do that", because the student can see that for themselves, and that is usually satisfactory as an "explanation".
posted by kch at 10:37 AM on May 6, 2010 [6 favorites]
I find that with most students, the best way to handle grade disappointment is to show them an A paper/exam/answer (with the name taken off) and review that A paper compared to what was requested on the paper/exam/question. After that, I don't need to be the one to say explicitly "but you didn't do that", because the student can see that for themselves, and that is usually satisfactory as an "explanation".
posted by kch at 10:37 AM on May 6, 2010 [6 favorites]
Did you explain the penalties early on, or did you impose them on an ad hoc basis?
posted by Jaltcoh at 10:39 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Jaltcoh at 10:39 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
There's also a bunch of better students who appreciate your work against grade inflation.
posted by oxit at 10:39 AM on May 6, 2010 [7 favorites]
posted by oxit at 10:39 AM on May 6, 2010 [7 favorites]
If you raise their grade how would it be fair to the students who did the work and showed up all the time and earned a better grade without your pity?
It is a 400 class, they are supposed to be very hard and getting a good grade in one demonstrates something akin to master of the subject. This is not their first rodeo so to speak and they should know what is expected of them at this point, their future employers will not be so forgiving.
That is not to say you cannot take something away from this semester, perhaps go to greater lengths to explain your grading criteria next semester, but above all be consistent, which it looks like you are.
posted by BobbyDigital at 10:40 AM on May 6, 2010 [3 favorites]
It is a 400 class, they are supposed to be very hard and getting a good grade in one demonstrates something akin to master of the subject. This is not their first rodeo so to speak and they should know what is expected of them at this point, their future employers will not be so forgiving.
That is not to say you cannot take something away from this semester, perhaps go to greater lengths to explain your grading criteria next semester, but above all be consistent, which it looks like you are.
posted by BobbyDigital at 10:40 AM on May 6, 2010 [3 favorites]
It's a learning process for you too yes? Sounds like you may have over assigned grades before, and now are trying to correct it. If you have clearly stated your outline, method and goals prior to the class getting down to work then you are well within your boundaries to simply restate that to the upset students, especially if this is a 400 level course.
Now, having said that:
In the future, even though you are under no obligation to do so, it may be in your best interest to provide a running total in some manner. As well, again not obligatory, being aware of when certain students are having trouble and letting them know early enough so they can effect some significant change, especially if those students are as you say good and honest.
At this stage you have to stick with what you have outlined as your expectation for this past semester, yes, you may be right, you may need to pay more attention. Learn from it and do better in the future, BUT this is not exclusively your problem, especially at a 400 level course, the students have a certain obligation to speak up if they are having problems.
posted by edgeways at 10:47 AM on May 6, 2010 [3 favorites]
Now, having said that:
In the future, even though you are under no obligation to do so, it may be in your best interest to provide a running total in some manner. As well, again not obligatory, being aware of when certain students are having trouble and letting them know early enough so they can effect some significant change, especially if those students are as you say good and honest.
At this stage you have to stick with what you have outlined as your expectation for this past semester, yes, you may be right, you may need to pay more attention. Learn from it and do better in the future, BUT this is not exclusively your problem, especially at a 400 level course, the students have a certain obligation to speak up if they are having problems.
posted by edgeways at 10:47 AM on May 6, 2010 [3 favorites]
I can explain to them how their cumulative poor marks and missed classes contributed to their grade
Then do that. It's not your job to give them a warning that they are headed for D territory. It is your job to give them a clear explanation of the grading policy and return assignments/quizzes on time. It sounds like you did your job. If they are only now realizing the ramifications of their poor grades that you have been reporting all along, it is further evidence that they are not people that would excel in their field that you are holding back.
I'd stay away from "You received the grade you earned" which sounds a little harsh and judgmental, and stick to a recitation of the facts.
posted by grouse at 10:50 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
Then do that. It's not your job to give them a warning that they are headed for D territory. It is your job to give them a clear explanation of the grading policy and return assignments/quizzes on time. It sounds like you did your job. If they are only now realizing the ramifications of their poor grades that you have been reporting all along, it is further evidence that they are not people that would excel in their field that you are holding back.
I'd stay away from "You received the grade you earned" which sounds a little harsh and judgmental, and stick to a recitation of the facts.
posted by grouse at 10:50 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
Holy cow... twelve writtens, four quizzes, and two exams, and they still don't know how they are doing in your class? (I hope you have a TA, or you must be drowning in grading.) Presumably some students earned A's in your class, so you are not being unfair, right? And you are not holding those D students back, they are doing it themselves. Grades are not a gift you give them. They need to know that, and it sounds like you need to remind yourself of it.
Is it possible that some of them heard from friends that your class was "easy" and such was their expectation? This was your first crack-down term, so that problem should go away soon.
posted by Knowyournuts at 10:51 AM on May 6, 2010 [14 favorites]
Is it possible that some of them heard from friends that your class was "easy" and such was their expectation? This was your first crack-down term, so that problem should go away soon.
posted by Knowyournuts at 10:51 AM on May 6, 2010 [14 favorites]
I assume that you CAN provide them an itemized list of grades and assignments to show them that yes, they violated the terms of the syllabus on getting an "A" in the course.
This is NOT about you and your feelings, it is about the performance of your students. Trying to rationalize that they would excel if it weren't for you is pure hubris. If they are committed to excelling in their field then they would not have 1) kept track of their grades; 2) showed up to class; 3) did the assignments; 4) done the assignments that they did do with a certain amount of care and professionalism.
Regarding their feelings, well, it does suck about having to face that you may not be as good as your self marketing and perception would have BUT it is a wake up call to get it together and get done.
It is a question of fairness. If I was one of your OTHER students, you know, the ones that abided by the rules set forth in the syllabus and got decent scores how do you think I would feel if you gave a slacker a decent grade when I hauled ass?
Now to the politics, this is what your chair is supposed to handle. If you look like a pushover a lot of disrespect for you will happen down the road as in, "Take the class, the instructor is a pushover." and your chair obviously saw a trend so now, here are the steps:
1) reply to each student by email showing CLEARLY how their grade was derived and show the pertinent part of the syllabus where penalties for attendance or whatever was involved;
2) keep copies and be prepared to forward to your chair ONLY if a student wishes to continue the argument or appeal to a higher authority;
3) keep a copy of their work, if you can, for review purposes. You may get a student who wants to know why you scored a particular section the way you did and you want to be sure that the BOTH of you are talking about the same exam (yeah, dodgy student tried to palm off another person's section as theirs during the grading review);
4) if the student STILL insists that they are all that and a bag of chips, in the face of non-attendance and poor work, you can boot them to the chair where they will then have to explain why they did not attend class or did not perform to expectation. Let me tell you, as a bureaucrat, that it is a rough haul to justify absences and poor work without good proof. How good? Well I worked for the Dean of Students at one institution and he granted in one instance a semester of retroactive drops for a student because she had been kidnapped and held prisoner by her stalker; she had A LOT of paperwork from authorities to show her absence was legit. So don't bet too much on someone who has a poorer case.
Gah, I am grading now, so I feel for you. But really, you are a professional and need to take a professional attitude regarding grading and the necessity that you are not here to be loved but to teach.
posted by jadepearl at 10:51 AM on May 6, 2010 [4 favorites]
This is NOT about you and your feelings, it is about the performance of your students. Trying to rationalize that they would excel if it weren't for you is pure hubris. If they are committed to excelling in their field then they would not have 1) kept track of their grades; 2) showed up to class; 3) did the assignments; 4) done the assignments that they did do with a certain amount of care and professionalism.
Regarding their feelings, well, it does suck about having to face that you may not be as good as your self marketing and perception would have BUT it is a wake up call to get it together and get done.
It is a question of fairness. If I was one of your OTHER students, you know, the ones that abided by the rules set forth in the syllabus and got decent scores how do you think I would feel if you gave a slacker a decent grade when I hauled ass?
Now to the politics, this is what your chair is supposed to handle. If you look like a pushover a lot of disrespect for you will happen down the road as in, "Take the class, the instructor is a pushover." and your chair obviously saw a trend so now, here are the steps:
1) reply to each student by email showing CLEARLY how their grade was derived and show the pertinent part of the syllabus where penalties for attendance or whatever was involved;
2) keep copies and be prepared to forward to your chair ONLY if a student wishes to continue the argument or appeal to a higher authority;
3) keep a copy of their work, if you can, for review purposes. You may get a student who wants to know why you scored a particular section the way you did and you want to be sure that the BOTH of you are talking about the same exam (yeah, dodgy student tried to palm off another person's section as theirs during the grading review);
4) if the student STILL insists that they are all that and a bag of chips, in the face of non-attendance and poor work, you can boot them to the chair where they will then have to explain why they did not attend class or did not perform to expectation. Let me tell you, as a bureaucrat, that it is a rough haul to justify absences and poor work without good proof. How good? Well I worked for the Dean of Students at one institution and he granted in one instance a semester of retroactive drops for a student because she had been kidnapped and held prisoner by her stalker; she had A LOT of paperwork from authorities to show her absence was legit. So don't bet too much on someone who has a poorer case.
Gah, I am grading now, so I feel for you. But really, you are a professional and need to take a professional attitude regarding grading and the necessity that you are not here to be loved but to teach.
posted by jadepearl at 10:51 AM on May 6, 2010 [4 favorites]
At the beginning of the semester, did you hand out a syllabus explaining how the grades will be calculated? Did you calculate the grades according to this clearly explained method? If so, you need to fall back on your sense of transparency and fairness. Your policies were open and fully explained and applied consistently to every student. Your explanation to the D students then is simply a spreadsheet column showing that their grades were accurately calculated.
posted by mr_roboto at 10:52 AM on May 6, 2010
posted by mr_roboto at 10:52 AM on May 6, 2010
As long as you set forth the grading policies at the outset of the class in the syllabus, you did nothing wrong, they knew how the class worked.
posted by T.D. Strange at 10:52 AM on May 6, 2010
posted by T.D. Strange at 10:52 AM on May 6, 2010
You did them a favour. Being a good, honest student isn't enough, and they need to learn this. It's your responsibility to them, to the university and to their future employers to grade them according to the quality of their output rather than the honesty of their efforts.
I occasionally anger people or disappoint them while doing things I think are right, and when I get upset about that I remind myself that it's just not possible to do something really meaningful and important while keeping everyone perfectly happy all the time.
posted by emilyw at 10:52 AM on May 6, 2010
I occasionally anger people or disappoint them while doing things I think are right, and when I get upset about that I remind myself that it's just not possible to do something really meaningful and important while keeping everyone perfectly happy all the time.
posted by emilyw at 10:52 AM on May 6, 2010
Damn it, remove, "not", from paragraph 2. You get the gist.
posted by jadepearl at 10:54 AM on May 6, 2010
posted by jadepearl at 10:54 AM on May 6, 2010
I don't know that we have enough information here to judge. We don't know the size of the class, and we don't know much about the details of the class. My upper level classes are certainly small enough that I would consider sub-C grades to 6 or so people a pedagogical disaster (for reasons below), but maybe yours are bigger. It sounds like you might have simply failed them because you believed you needed to fail more people; if this is so I wouldn't really support this and I don't think it does anything to work against grade inflation (though that is really tangential to the issue here).
I am kind of an easy grader, but I would consider approaching it not in terms of the curve but in terms of "learning assessment"-type thinking. That is, someone who fails should basically come out of the class knowing nothing much more than they did when coming in. Someone who gets a D should be pretty close to this state. Is this true of the students you gave Ds/Fs? It sounds like you graded somewhat harshly on attendance -- but was class discussion really that important to the class? Of course if they simply missed work resulting in low grades that is different.
Also, I wouldn't blindly change the grades to a C without knowing what the retaking policy is at your university. That is, having pity on them may block them from being able to retake the class if they so desire, and be more counterproductive to their GPA in the long run.
posted by advil at 10:57 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
I am kind of an easy grader, but I would consider approaching it not in terms of the curve but in terms of "learning assessment"-type thinking. That is, someone who fails should basically come out of the class knowing nothing much more than they did when coming in. Someone who gets a D should be pretty close to this state. Is this true of the students you gave Ds/Fs? It sounds like you graded somewhat harshly on attendance -- but was class discussion really that important to the class? Of course if they simply missed work resulting in low grades that is different.
Also, I wouldn't blindly change the grades to a C without knowing what the retaking policy is at your university. That is, having pity on them may block them from being able to retake the class if they so desire, and be more counterproductive to their GPA in the long run.
posted by advil at 10:57 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
I'm only an adjunct, so my opinion may not count much, but I say if your department chair said your grading is skewing unnaturally high, you have nothing to feel guilty about,. You had two choices: make the coursework harder or steepen your curve. You should feel guilty about neither course of action. To get over feeling guilty, I have two suggestions.
First: I highly recommend going out with some colleagues, grabbing some beers, and talking about how it feels to be an instructor. It's a weird position to be in, especially when you first start out. It's hard to feel like you're not just making shit up as you go along; it's hard to feel like you have any business judging your students work; it's hard to worry that you're not somehow screwing them over if yours is the worst grade they get. But seriously, you haven't screwed up anyone's life, academic or job prospects if they earn a low grade in your course. Life just doesn't work that way. Accept that your department chair was right and you needed to tighten your grading standards, and talk to your colleagues about best practices (not only about grading, but also about presenting your material). You'll get over feeling this way.
Second: Make your grading policies very clear from the outset and make sure the students know that they can get a "your grade so far in the course" assessment from you at any time. I don't know if you're dealing with undergrads or grads, but I don't really think it makes a difference. In my experience, grads are more worried about how their performance in your course will affect their Future and undergrads are more worried about how their performance in your course affects their self-image. Transparent grading practices are the best way of dealing with that, I think. kch's suggestion about having an A example to show a student who doesn't understand why she got the grade she did is an excellent one. It helped me both as a law student and as faculty.
And please don't feel guilty about refusing to accept late assignments. In my graduate courses, I simply do not accept late papers. A student who speaks with me before 5pm on the day before the assignment is due can get an extension. and I mean "speaks with me in person". If the student has sent an email at 4:50pm, it doesn't count and I tell them this upfront. An email is fine, but if you don't have a confirmation from me that you've been granted an extension before 5pm the day before the assignment is due, it's late. You have three phone numbers that work for me, pick up the phone and call to confirm your extension. At least once a semester, I get a student who is pissed off about it. Fortunately, my department chair always backs me up because my policies are very clear. In school, like in life, a failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part. The department chair and dean of students exist--in part--to intervene in the case of a real emergency or in a truly special case, but otherwise, the classroom policy stands.
posted by crush-onastick at 10:58 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
First: I highly recommend going out with some colleagues, grabbing some beers, and talking about how it feels to be an instructor. It's a weird position to be in, especially when you first start out. It's hard to feel like you're not just making shit up as you go along; it's hard to feel like you have any business judging your students work; it's hard to worry that you're not somehow screwing them over if yours is the worst grade they get. But seriously, you haven't screwed up anyone's life, academic or job prospects if they earn a low grade in your course. Life just doesn't work that way. Accept that your department chair was right and you needed to tighten your grading standards, and talk to your colleagues about best practices (not only about grading, but also about presenting your material). You'll get over feeling this way.
Second: Make your grading policies very clear from the outset and make sure the students know that they can get a "your grade so far in the course" assessment from you at any time. I don't know if you're dealing with undergrads or grads, but I don't really think it makes a difference. In my experience, grads are more worried about how their performance in your course will affect their Future and undergrads are more worried about how their performance in your course affects their self-image. Transparent grading practices are the best way of dealing with that, I think. kch's suggestion about having an A example to show a student who doesn't understand why she got the grade she did is an excellent one. It helped me both as a law student and as faculty.
And please don't feel guilty about refusing to accept late assignments. In my graduate courses, I simply do not accept late papers. A student who speaks with me before 5pm on the day before the assignment is due can get an extension. and I mean "speaks with me in person". If the student has sent an email at 4:50pm, it doesn't count and I tell them this upfront. An email is fine, but if you don't have a confirmation from me that you've been granted an extension before 5pm the day before the assignment is due, it's late. You have three phone numbers that work for me, pick up the phone and call to confirm your extension. At least once a semester, I get a student who is pissed off about it. Fortunately, my department chair always backs me up because my policies are very clear. In school, like in life, a failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part. The department chair and dean of students exist--in part--to intervene in the case of a real emergency or in a truly special case, but otherwise, the classroom policy stands.
posted by crush-onastick at 10:58 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
Oh, two more things:
1. Borrow the syllabi from some colleagues and make sure you are doing all you can to lay out upfront what the expectations are for the students and how they will be graded.
2. Show your students a graph of the grade distribution for their class. Let them see that there are X percent A's and B's, a bunch of C's in the middle, etc. The D students need to get the idea that they peformed poorly in comparison to their classmates. That's strong medicine right there.
posted by Knowyournuts at 10:58 AM on May 6, 2010 [3 favorites]
1. Borrow the syllabi from some colleagues and make sure you are doing all you can to lay out upfront what the expectations are for the students and how they will be graded.
2. Show your students a graph of the grade distribution for their class. Let them see that there are X percent A's and B's, a bunch of C's in the middle, etc. The D students need to get the idea that they peformed poorly in comparison to their classmates. That's strong medicine right there.
posted by Knowyournuts at 10:58 AM on May 6, 2010 [3 favorites]
The only time I have ever disputed a grade in a class was when the prof did not grade a paper according to a given rubric handed out at the very start of term. It had certain requirements, and he dropped a grade on a paper worth 40% of the grade from A to C because he said I did not cover one of the requirements.
It was clear he just did not take his time reading, and was lazy. I highlighted the part where I talked about the thing he said was missing, his TA agreed I did the paper according to the rubric, but for whatever reason he said it didn't fly. I never got more detail and dropped it.
That is an example of poor grading; he did not grade according to expectations and I had no chance to meet those expectations. If you provide written expectations and clear feedback that says if the expectations were met, you are doing your job and the D students are whiners. If you do not explain points deducted (even in office hours) then that's unfair, but your students are smart enough to add and they can keep track of their own points. The difference between an A student and a D student is not teacher feedback.
posted by slow graffiti at 11:03 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
It was clear he just did not take his time reading, and was lazy. I highlighted the part where I talked about the thing he said was missing, his TA agreed I did the paper according to the rubric, but for whatever reason he said it didn't fly. I never got more detail and dropped it.
That is an example of poor grading; he did not grade according to expectations and I had no chance to meet those expectations. If you provide written expectations and clear feedback that says if the expectations were met, you are doing your job and the D students are whiners. If you do not explain points deducted (even in office hours) then that's unfair, but your students are smart enough to add and they can keep track of their own points. The difference between an A student and a D student is not teacher feedback.
posted by slow graffiti at 11:03 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
Trust me, you're doing them a favor. Good students deserve a D or failure once in a while. Chances are these weren't the rocket scientists bound for grad school at MIT. The grade won't kill them. The opportunity to fail is a great motivator.
I got a BS in engineering in a program where teachers graded on an honest-to-god some-of-you-will-fail curve. Fear was a great motivator for me and I did pretty damn well. I got a D once and EARNED that thing. It hurt, but it made me actually come to class and pay attention the next couple of years.
Then I went to grad school at a place where "average" was an A-, regardless of the quality of your work. I would've gotten a lot more out of the program if I'd been forced to give it more effort. I'm embarrassed by how easy the degree was for what's one of the top programs in the country.
posted by pjaust at 11:05 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
I got a BS in engineering in a program where teachers graded on an honest-to-god some-of-you-will-fail curve. Fear was a great motivator for me and I did pretty damn well. I got a D once and EARNED that thing. It hurt, but it made me actually come to class and pay attention the next couple of years.
Then I went to grad school at a place where "average" was an A-, regardless of the quality of your work. I would've gotten a lot more out of the program if I'd been forced to give it more effort. I'm embarrassed by how easy the degree was for what's one of the top programs in the country.
posted by pjaust at 11:05 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
I think you're fine and you did what was right. I had professors in college that explicitly stated that they would not accept late papers and unexcused absences cost 2% grade each time. It was on the syllabus. You told them you wouldn't accept late assignments and they're responsible for meeting their half of the bargain.
Don't be upset. You did the right thing. They knew what the consequences were and they expected you to give them a break? That's them trying to take advantage of your good nature and it's not fair that you have to feel bad about giving them a crappy grade they earned by being too lazy to hand in their assignments on time or show up to class. Maybe they or their parents paid for the class, but they paid to adhere to your standards. They aren't your clients, they're your students.
posted by anniecat at 11:07 AM on May 6, 2010
Don't be upset. You did the right thing. They knew what the consequences were and they expected you to give them a break? That's them trying to take advantage of your good nature and it's not fair that you have to feel bad about giving them a crappy grade they earned by being too lazy to hand in their assignments on time or show up to class. Maybe they or their parents paid for the class, but they paid to adhere to your standards. They aren't your clients, they're your students.
posted by anniecat at 11:07 AM on May 6, 2010
Provide them with all of their grades, invite them to check your math, and let them know that you're happy to change their grade in event of a mathematical error. They'll get the idea.
In the future, state in your syllabus that any grade complaints that are not the result of a mathematical error won't be evaluated until the following semester, when the student must stop by your office hours and speak to you in person. Repeat this when they email you, inevitably, at the end of the semester. You'll find that pretty much no one will care enough to visit you the following semester--once their initial feeling of anger and entitlement wears off, you'll find that students generally don't care about this sort of thing enough to do much more than fire off a ticked off email.
And quit feeling so bad. You're doing a good job. You're not ruining anyone's life. Did that professor ruin yours? No? See what I mean?
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 11:07 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
In the future, state in your syllabus that any grade complaints that are not the result of a mathematical error won't be evaluated until the following semester, when the student must stop by your office hours and speak to you in person. Repeat this when they email you, inevitably, at the end of the semester. You'll find that pretty much no one will care enough to visit you the following semester--once their initial feeling of anger and entitlement wears off, you'll find that students generally don't care about this sort of thing enough to do much more than fire off a ticked off email.
And quit feeling so bad. You're doing a good job. You're not ruining anyone's life. Did that professor ruin yours? No? See what I mean?
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 11:07 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
Also, you should direct their angry emails to the appropriate person, be it ombudperson or chairman. It's not okay to send "angry" emails to a professor, like it's not okay to send angry emails to a boss or manager. It's okay to inquire about a grade or ask for a meeting to discuss, but sending an angry email is totally inappropriate and they ought to know that.
posted by anniecat at 11:09 AM on May 6, 2010
posted by anniecat at 11:09 AM on May 6, 2010
This is my opinion, as I've not spoken with these students. Just based on what I know from working with college students.
They are reacting to the structure you provided, and the fact that you actually stuck to your guidelines and aren't "giving in" at the end. They may be responding to the gossip they heard about you last semester ("a really easy professor! Take this class and you'll have no problems!") not matching up to their current reality, which frustrates them. They are also probably freaking out at the fact that they just did poorly on a 400 level class, which affects their major GPA and could affect their grad school application. Also, those D level students who are complaining probably think they have a chance to get a grade changed (as opposed to those who just flat out failed...they can probably retake the class and get that F erased...depends on your university).
The bottom line is that if you specifically gave them information on how their grade would be earned, gave them the points breakdown for each assignment, and you did not change any of that unfairly during the semester without letting them know, you've done nothing wrong. You could always look at how tough your assignments are (and adjust the difficulty level if necessary), you could look at how the end of the semester is weighted compared to the beginning (is the test in the 10th week weighted the same as the test in the 5th week?), and you can look at how you teach the students to figure their grade (or whatever) but that comes with experience. If you are feeling bad about not giving them a running total of their grade during the semester, ask yourself how many students approached you and asked for that information from you. A lot of times, students don't think about it until it's too late for them to mathematically save themselves.
You can also think about the fact that students just tend to do this at the end of the semester. There are always students who beg their professors for extra points or whatever to raise their letter grade. It happens. You just may have more of them in your class this semester.
They're good, honest students.
But I can't get over the feeling that these students would excel in their field and I'm the one holding them back because they failed my class.
Do you really know this? I guess you could look at their transcript if you have access to that, but it wouldn't be appropriate in this situation (so I don't advise it). My point is to ask you "How do you know they are good students?" They may be very nice, good people but that doesn't mean they are good at that particular subject or overall an A student.
If you don't already, go read the forums at www.chronicle.com, the section titled "In the Classroom". There's TONS of posts from professors about the emails and the pleads they get from students about grades, and how they handle it. A lot of them are just blowing off steam (so some of what they say is inappropriate and they would never say to the student) but I think it would not only comfort you to realize that you are in the same boat as many others, but you might get some good ideas on how to handle these students.
Based on what you told us, I think you did fine. On the 4 campuses I've been at, everyone bemoans the Human Anatomy class. Straight A students are thrilled to get a C in that class because it's difficult and dense with information. You may have a subject that's just that difficult to grasp. It's not always you.
Relax....semester's over!
posted by MultiFaceted at 11:09 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
They are reacting to the structure you provided, and the fact that you actually stuck to your guidelines and aren't "giving in" at the end. They may be responding to the gossip they heard about you last semester ("a really easy professor! Take this class and you'll have no problems!") not matching up to their current reality, which frustrates them. They are also probably freaking out at the fact that they just did poorly on a 400 level class, which affects their major GPA and could affect their grad school application. Also, those D level students who are complaining probably think they have a chance to get a grade changed (as opposed to those who just flat out failed...they can probably retake the class and get that F erased...depends on your university).
The bottom line is that if you specifically gave them information on how their grade would be earned, gave them the points breakdown for each assignment, and you did not change any of that unfairly during the semester without letting them know, you've done nothing wrong. You could always look at how tough your assignments are (and adjust the difficulty level if necessary), you could look at how the end of the semester is weighted compared to the beginning (is the test in the 10th week weighted the same as the test in the 5th week?), and you can look at how you teach the students to figure their grade (or whatever) but that comes with experience. If you are feeling bad about not giving them a running total of their grade during the semester, ask yourself how many students approached you and asked for that information from you. A lot of times, students don't think about it until it's too late for them to mathematically save themselves.
You can also think about the fact that students just tend to do this at the end of the semester. There are always students who beg their professors for extra points or whatever to raise their letter grade. It happens. You just may have more of them in your class this semester.
They're good, honest students.
But I can't get over the feeling that these students would excel in their field and I'm the one holding them back because they failed my class.
Do you really know this? I guess you could look at their transcript if you have access to that, but it wouldn't be appropriate in this situation (so I don't advise it). My point is to ask you "How do you know they are good students?" They may be very nice, good people but that doesn't mean they are good at that particular subject or overall an A student.
If you don't already, go read the forums at www.chronicle.com, the section titled "In the Classroom". There's TONS of posts from professors about the emails and the pleads they get from students about grades, and how they handle it. A lot of them are just blowing off steam (so some of what they say is inappropriate and they would never say to the student) but I think it would not only comfort you to realize that you are in the same boat as many others, but you might get some good ideas on how to handle these students.
Based on what you told us, I think you did fine. On the 4 campuses I've been at, everyone bemoans the Human Anatomy class. Straight A students are thrilled to get a C in that class because it's difficult and dense with information. You may have a subject that's just that difficult to grasp. It's not always you.
Relax....semester's over!
posted by MultiFaceted at 11:09 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
In the last sentence of my comment above, I wasn't saying that you were teaching Anatomy. I was trying to make a comparison that there's always those classes that are extremely challenging to people, and you shouldn't feel bad if you have challenging material. Everyone could use some challenging now and then!
posted by MultiFaceted at 11:15 AM on May 6, 2010
posted by MultiFaceted at 11:15 AM on May 6, 2010
I hope your grading policy was clearly laid out in the syllabus. If not, then you probably have a problem to deal with. But if it was, then you should be in the clear vis a vis the grades themselves.
Grading sucks. My tendency is to give out grade slips a couple of times a semester so that I know that students know how I think they're doing, with the caveat that it is preliminary and will probably change, especially given that xx % of the grade is still outstanding. Sure, I provide a function for determining grades, but students don't pay attention to it---there's always the hope that somehow things will magically fix themselves.
1) reply to each student by email showing CLEARLY how their grade was derived and show the pertinent part of the syllabus where penalties for attendance or whatever was involved;
Be aware that many institutions have policies that prohibit discussing grades over e-mail, for student confidentiality reasons.
I'm with you on feeling awful on assigning "bad" grades, but you need to hold firm. You're not doing the students any favors by giving them higher grades than they earned (at least long-term).
OP: But I can't get over the feeling that these students would excel in their field and I'm the one holding them back because they failed my class. If I would have worked with them more closely, they would have done better.
Look. It's their choice to do the work (or not), their choice to come to class (or not), their choice to come to you for help so that you can work with them more closely (or not). And it's their choice to do their best to succeed in their field (or not!). The sooner you stop feeling like their performance is your responsibility, the happier you will be.
I'm serious about this. Stop caring about each student's performance so much---it's not about you. You will be happier, and you will allow students to rise to your stronger expectations. (This is tricky to articulate. Of course you should be doing the best you can at being the best teacher you can. But be mellow about the whole experience. Students fail. Life gets in the way. By and large, individual student performance is not really a reflection on your ability/performance as an instructor.)
Now, if you are failing everyone, there's probably some sort of systemic issue that you need to address---and this is where peer evaluation can come in handy. It sounds like you've already had some discussions about teaching with your department chair. It probably would be good if you had some more discussions, and some peer observations, and discussions with peers/mentors about your grading policy and syllabus, etc., since it sounds like you're pretty new at this. Don't be afraid to talk to people.
tl;dnr: Grading sucks. Students are cranky. Life goes on; have a beer!
posted by leahwrenn at 11:17 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
Grading sucks. My tendency is to give out grade slips a couple of times a semester so that I know that students know how I think they're doing, with the caveat that it is preliminary and will probably change, especially given that xx % of the grade is still outstanding. Sure, I provide a function for determining grades, but students don't pay attention to it---there's always the hope that somehow things will magically fix themselves.
1) reply to each student by email showing CLEARLY how their grade was derived and show the pertinent part of the syllabus where penalties for attendance or whatever was involved;
Be aware that many institutions have policies that prohibit discussing grades over e-mail, for student confidentiality reasons.
I'm with you on feeling awful on assigning "bad" grades, but you need to hold firm. You're not doing the students any favors by giving them higher grades than they earned (at least long-term).
OP: But I can't get over the feeling that these students would excel in their field and I'm the one holding them back because they failed my class. If I would have worked with them more closely, they would have done better.
Look. It's their choice to do the work (or not), their choice to come to class (or not), their choice to come to you for help so that you can work with them more closely (or not). And it's their choice to do their best to succeed in their field (or not!). The sooner you stop feeling like their performance is your responsibility, the happier you will be.
I'm serious about this. Stop caring about each student's performance so much---it's not about you. You will be happier, and you will allow students to rise to your stronger expectations. (This is tricky to articulate. Of course you should be doing the best you can at being the best teacher you can. But be mellow about the whole experience. Students fail. Life gets in the way. By and large, individual student performance is not really a reflection on your ability/performance as an instructor.)
Now, if you are failing everyone, there's probably some sort of systemic issue that you need to address---and this is where peer evaluation can come in handy. It sounds like you've already had some discussions about teaching with your department chair. It probably would be good if you had some more discussions, and some peer observations, and discussions with peers/mentors about your grading policy and syllabus, etc., since it sounds like you're pretty new at this. Don't be afraid to talk to people.
tl;dnr: Grading sucks. Students are cranky. Life goes on; have a beer!
posted by leahwrenn at 11:17 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
I think all of the responses here are pretty spot on. Every single college course I've attended has started with a syllabus that clearly explained the grading scheme for the class--I'm sure your class was no different. So you shouldn't feel culpable for students' mistakes.
That said, this doesn't mean you should turn a deaf ear to the complaints. There's always something you can tweak or tune to become a better teacher. For example, providing the running total you mentioned would probably be a welcome change. Simply putting grades in a spreadsheet that auto-calculates grades would be very helpful. Put that spreadsheet online, have it indexed by student ID for anonymity, and now everyone can easily check their progress.
posted by Herschel at 11:20 AM on May 6, 2010
That said, this doesn't mean you should turn a deaf ear to the complaints. There's always something you can tweak or tune to become a better teacher. For example, providing the running total you mentioned would probably be a welcome change. Simply putting grades in a spreadsheet that auto-calculates grades would be very helpful. Put that spreadsheet online, have it indexed by student ID for anonymity, and now everyone can easily check their progress.
posted by Herschel at 11:20 AM on May 6, 2010
They're good, honest students. I can imagine them sitting there, looking at their shitty "D" grade, and I've probably ruined their month.
Nope. Their performance ruined their month.
This is, at least at lower-tier schools, an unfortunate part of the game. The grades people receive in your class will render them effectively ineligible for the professional schools they hoped to enter after college. The grades people receive in your class will force them to leave school. Sometimes, the grades people receive in your class will cause them to lose their scholarship. Or will cause them to lose their student visa and be deported back to wherever.
Unless your requirements are truly unreasonably difficult, this isn't your fault. It's theirs, or the fault of people before you who failed to teach the student how to effectively be a university student. And I think it's unlikely that your standards are unreasonably difficult, especially if the students are failing / D-ing in large part because they're just not turning in the work on time.
As well, when it comes to really serious remediation, I don't think that's your job, or mine. They hired me, teaching-wise, because I am more or less a substantive expert in my field. I do not have any special pedagogical expertise. I certainly do not have any training whatsoever in teaching people effective study habits or strategies, or stuff like that. But there are (probably) other units in the university who do have people who are trained in pedagogy, and trained in helping people learn to be effective students, and they should go see those people. But those people don't have to be you. Dealing with people who fundamentally do not grasp how to do approximately-college-level work is very far outside my skill set.
As it happens, this mostly happens to me in my intro courses. I feel bad for the people I assign Fs and Ds to, but I take some solace in that you have to work pretty damn hard to get an F in that course, and getting one means that either you just don't do the work or you are currently incapable of succeeding at college.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:21 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
Nope. Their performance ruined their month.
This is, at least at lower-tier schools, an unfortunate part of the game. The grades people receive in your class will render them effectively ineligible for the professional schools they hoped to enter after college. The grades people receive in your class will force them to leave school. Sometimes, the grades people receive in your class will cause them to lose their scholarship. Or will cause them to lose their student visa and be deported back to wherever.
Unless your requirements are truly unreasonably difficult, this isn't your fault. It's theirs, or the fault of people before you who failed to teach the student how to effectively be a university student. And I think it's unlikely that your standards are unreasonably difficult, especially if the students are failing / D-ing in large part because they're just not turning in the work on time.
As well, when it comes to really serious remediation, I don't think that's your job, or mine. They hired me, teaching-wise, because I am more or less a substantive expert in my field. I do not have any special pedagogical expertise. I certainly do not have any training whatsoever in teaching people effective study habits or strategies, or stuff like that. But there are (probably) other units in the university who do have people who are trained in pedagogy, and trained in helping people learn to be effective students, and they should go see those people. But those people don't have to be you. Dealing with people who fundamentally do not grasp how to do approximately-college-level work is very far outside my skill set.
As it happens, this mostly happens to me in my intro courses. I feel bad for the people I assign Fs and Ds to, but I take some solace in that you have to work pretty damn hard to get an F in that course, and getting one means that either you just don't do the work or you are currently incapable of succeeding at college.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:21 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
adipocere has the crux of it: how many students were in the class? A couple of D's and F's are expected in (some) large classes, but if your grading distribution doesn't look like the bell-curve of similar classes at your institution, something is wrong. Did your attempt to adjust your grading practices result in a fair distribution of grades, or did the pendulum just shift to the other side of where it was the previous semester?
It's not clear from your description whether the students were provided a clear picture of what was expected of them. You say you expected them to keep track of their "running" grade, but did you tell them that? Again this speaks to the standards at your institution - your dept chair was trying to recalibrate your grading practices to better match the standard at the school... and there are aspects of that standard that go beyond the basic grade.
Failing a class can result in the loss of scholarships and other financial aid. So the question that comes to my mind is "were there any students for whom a bad grade in your course is the only bad grade they've ever received?". Did your efforts match up with the prevailing standards at your institution, or did they go beyond that?
posted by foobario at 11:27 AM on May 6, 2010
It's not clear from your description whether the students were provided a clear picture of what was expected of them. You say you expected them to keep track of their "running" grade, but did you tell them that? Again this speaks to the standards at your institution - your dept chair was trying to recalibrate your grading practices to better match the standard at the school... and there are aspects of that standard that go beyond the basic grade.
Failing a class can result in the loss of scholarships and other financial aid. So the question that comes to my mind is "were there any students for whom a bad grade in your course is the only bad grade they've ever received?". Did your efforts match up with the prevailing standards at your institution, or did they go beyond that?
posted by foobario at 11:27 AM on May 6, 2010
If I failed, it was in that I didn't provide my students with a clear picture of their overall grades during the semester. I use an 800 point scale - and I returned their papers and quizzes to them, however I didn't provide them with their "running" grade, I felt they could keep track of that themselves.
This used to drive me nuts when I taught college. I'd have students come to me and say, "But I got A's on all the homework!" And I'd say, "Yes, and the homework is only worth 10% of your grade, as it plainly says here in the syllabus. As opposed to these three papers you got C's on, which are worth 70%. And the other 20%, which you never bothered to turn in at all." I was amazed that they couldn't seem to do that math for themselves.
Eventually I started handing out a grade sheet at the beginning of the semester, with the syllabus, that showed all the assignments and how much they were worth and included the calculations and places for them to write in their scores so they could keep track.
Most students who get low grades, even if they complain, actually know they deserved them. But there really is an atmosphere where people get grades changed if they complain--I once had the chair of my department agree to re-evaluate a student's final portfolio when he had turned it in days after the deadline, with parts missing, and not even remotely resembling the format required by the course. Even in graduate school I had faculty change student grades if enough people complained (and I was one of those people who had earned a 4.0 in the class, so when I got the e-mail that everybody else's grade was being bumped by .5, I was pretty pissed). So you'll get this kind of thing a lot. I know all about the knot in the stomach. But unless you think you screwed up in terms of not making requirement clear, not being fair, or not standing by your own written policies, stand firm.
posted by not that girl at 11:33 AM on May 6, 2010
This used to drive me nuts when I taught college. I'd have students come to me and say, "But I got A's on all the homework!" And I'd say, "Yes, and the homework is only worth 10% of your grade, as it plainly says here in the syllabus. As opposed to these three papers you got C's on, which are worth 70%. And the other 20%, which you never bothered to turn in at all." I was amazed that they couldn't seem to do that math for themselves.
Eventually I started handing out a grade sheet at the beginning of the semester, with the syllabus, that showed all the assignments and how much they were worth and included the calculations and places for them to write in their scores so they could keep track.
Most students who get low grades, even if they complain, actually know they deserved them. But there really is an atmosphere where people get grades changed if they complain--I once had the chair of my department agree to re-evaluate a student's final portfolio when he had turned it in days after the deadline, with parts missing, and not even remotely resembling the format required by the course. Even in graduate school I had faculty change student grades if enough people complained (and I was one of those people who had earned a 4.0 in the class, so when I got the e-mail that everybody else's grade was being bumped by .5, I was pretty pissed). So you'll get this kind of thing a lot. I know all about the knot in the stomach. But unless you think you screwed up in terms of not making requirement clear, not being fair, or not standing by your own written policies, stand firm.
posted by not that girl at 11:33 AM on May 6, 2010
I agree with much of the above -- assuming your syllabus clearly laid out the details, adhering to them is your duty; easing off on some students is not "being nice," it is "being unfair."
Size of the class is unimportant. If, in a 12 person class, 3 students earn Fs and 3 earn Ds, I would reexamine how the class had gone, but that happens. I have had a class with 23 students earn 21 As and A-s, and that was OK by me. I have also had classes where a third of the students failed or earned Ds and low Cs. I despise curves -- students should be earning their grades in relation to your expectations, not other students' work.
And notice the use of "earn" -- I never say "I gave a student an A." as noted above, this is not a gift, it is an evaluation. The student did the work (or did not do the work); the student earned the grade s/he earned.
Also, if students in a 400 level class can't keep track of their grades, they have larger problems than a low grade in a single class.
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:36 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
Size of the class is unimportant. If, in a 12 person class, 3 students earn Fs and 3 earn Ds, I would reexamine how the class had gone, but that happens. I have had a class with 23 students earn 21 As and A-s, and that was OK by me. I have also had classes where a third of the students failed or earned Ds and low Cs. I despise curves -- students should be earning their grades in relation to your expectations, not other students' work.
And notice the use of "earn" -- I never say "I gave a student an A." as noted above, this is not a gift, it is an evaluation. The student did the work (or did not do the work); the student earned the grade s/he earned.
Also, if students in a 400 level class can't keep track of their grades, they have larger problems than a low grade in a single class.
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:36 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
I don't know how clear you were or if your grading is fair, that's hard to evaluate but I'm more than willing to give you the bennefit of the doubt. What I strongly suggest is that if you do end up changing grades don't do it just for people that complain, doing so unfairly penalizes the people that respect your judgment and take responsibility for their own actions.
posted by I Foody at 11:45 AM on May 6, 2010
posted by I Foody at 11:45 AM on May 6, 2010
The real problem is that teaching and grading are two separate jobs and you prefer the former to the latter. The first is giving your students a gift while the second feels harsh. It's like reconciling the new and old testaments. I always feel bad grading no matter what trick I try to convince myself and/or the student that they deserve their grade. Why do we grade anyway? Is it to be some kind of gatekeeper to the profession? Is there really more value to punishing the honest under- performers than there is to forgiving them and increasing their grade? If I believed in The System, it would be easier. Do you believe in it?
posted by Obscure Reference at 11:47 AM on May 6, 2010
posted by Obscure Reference at 11:47 AM on May 6, 2010
You returned their papers with a grade on it every time? So they're capable of calculating their score? Fair enough.
They had every opportunity to address these issues before now. They can be upset that they have a D, but it's not like you kept that a secret and then said "Suprise! You fail." They knew this was coming, and if they didn't, that's on them.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 11:49 AM on May 6, 2010
They had every opportunity to address these issues before now. They can be upset that they have a D, but it's not like you kept that a secret and then said "Suprise! You fail." They knew this was coming, and if they didn't, that's on them.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 11:49 AM on May 6, 2010
I don't have much in the way of grading advice, just something that might make you feel a little better about the D students.
I got a D in a required class in college. It was definitely, definitely the grade I earned, but that didn't stop me from sitting at my computer in shock when grades came out and feeling sorry for myself all summer. It turned out to be one of the best things that could have happened because if the instructor let me slide by with a C-, I wouldn't have had to retake the class. But because it was a required class and I failed it, I had to retake it the next year.
So I worked my ass off, got the top grade in the class, and the instructor wrote me a glowing recommendation for grad school. I had a couple of rough semesters in college, and then I turned things around and took it seriously and kept a 4.0 after that. It was one of the linchpins in my wildly successful grad school applications that I could say, "Look, I screwed up one year, but I turned it around and learned from my mistake, and here's a letter from a prominent researcher in the field that proves it."
Maybe your students will learn from their mistake and see you again next year, with a better work ethic in place. Maybe they won't, but you can't control that. I just want to reassure you that my experience has been that this one grade absolutely does not hold them back from excelling in their field, and can even turn out to be a really positive thing for them in the future.
posted by adiabat at 11:58 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
I got a D in a required class in college. It was definitely, definitely the grade I earned, but that didn't stop me from sitting at my computer in shock when grades came out and feeling sorry for myself all summer. It turned out to be one of the best things that could have happened because if the instructor let me slide by with a C-, I wouldn't have had to retake the class. But because it was a required class and I failed it, I had to retake it the next year.
So I worked my ass off, got the top grade in the class, and the instructor wrote me a glowing recommendation for grad school. I had a couple of rough semesters in college, and then I turned things around and took it seriously and kept a 4.0 after that. It was one of the linchpins in my wildly successful grad school applications that I could say, "Look, I screwed up one year, but I turned it around and learned from my mistake, and here's a letter from a prominent researcher in the field that proves it."
Maybe your students will learn from their mistake and see you again next year, with a better work ethic in place. Maybe they won't, but you can't control that. I just want to reassure you that my experience has been that this one grade absolutely does not hold them back from excelling in their field, and can even turn out to be a really positive thing for them in the future.
posted by adiabat at 11:58 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
Size of the class is unimportant. If, in a 12 person class, 3 students earn Fs and 3 earn Ds, I would reexamine how the class had gone, but that happens.
This isn't true w.r.t. answering the OP's question. Assuming any reasonable distribution of student abilities, a class with half the students nearly failing is a much more unusual event than a class with a small percentage nearly failing, so the reasons for it happening are much less likely to be random chance (what this comment suggests) than some other factor.
posted by advil at 11:59 AM on May 6, 2010
This isn't true w.r.t. answering the OP's question. Assuming any reasonable distribution of student abilities, a class with half the students nearly failing is a much more unusual event than a class with a small percentage nearly failing, so the reasons for it happening are much less likely to be random chance (what this comment suggests) than some other factor.
posted by advil at 11:59 AM on May 6, 2010
As an undergrad, I have never--not once--been given a running tally of what my mark is during the middle of the term. I got my assignments and reports back with some expediency, and the rest was up to me. If I want to go into the final exam not knowing if I had an A or an F currently, that was my problem.
As long as you clearly stated the mark distribution scheme at the beginning of the term and stuck to it, you are not at fault at all. Even if they don't want to calculate the score, just a quick skim of what they got on the assignment is more than enough to have a ballpark idea of where they stand currently. Unless they don't do their assignments or come to class...in which case, you owe them nothing. I don't care if you have a small class and this screws the bell curve; if your superiors ask, clearly lay out your expectations and how you follow them. I'm sure every instructor in existence has had a 'bad' class or exceptionally 'good' class that didn't adhere to a Gaussian.
Again, from a student that is their age...this is their problem, not yours. Even if they're bright, they're not going anywhere if they don't apply it.
posted by Hakaisha at 12:05 PM on May 6, 2010
As long as you clearly stated the mark distribution scheme at the beginning of the term and stuck to it, you are not at fault at all. Even if they don't want to calculate the score, just a quick skim of what they got on the assignment is more than enough to have a ballpark idea of where they stand currently. Unless they don't do their assignments or come to class...in which case, you owe them nothing. I don't care if you have a small class and this screws the bell curve; if your superiors ask, clearly lay out your expectations and how you follow them. I'm sure every instructor in existence has had a 'bad' class or exceptionally 'good' class that didn't adhere to a Gaussian.
Again, from a student that is their age...this is their problem, not yours. Even if they're bright, they're not going anywhere if they don't apply it.
posted by Hakaisha at 12:05 PM on May 6, 2010
I say this as someone who frequently skipped class, even when attendance was graded, and didn't turn in every assignment...
They did it to themselves. You're very sweet for caring about their feelings, but you did nothing wrong and giving the D students a higher grade would be very unfair to the students who did what they were supposed to. When I got a crappy grade, I knew it was because I deserved it, and if I wasn't sure -- like I got a bad grade on an essay with no comments about why -- I asked the teacher well before the end of the semester.
They're e-mailing you for at least one of three reasons:
1. They know they fucked up, but they're hoping that if they challenge you you'll change the grade. Don't give in. They need to know that they have to actually earn their grades. You are doing them no favors in life by sending the signal that whining is more valuable than hard work.
2. They can't acknowledge that they fucked up because they feel entitled to higher grades -- especially thanks to teachers that inflate their grades -- and getting a D is so at odds with how they think of themselves they're taking it out on you. Don't contribute to this by inflating their grades. Again, you are doing them no favors in life. Getting a D in your class might hurt their GPA, but it might be the most helpful lesson they ever learn in college. I have seen it happen time and time again that these kids who feel entitled to stuff go on and have a terrible time in the real world. Do your part to shake them out of that mindset.
3. They're genuinely confused, in which case an explanation should suffice.
posted by Nattie at 12:05 PM on May 6, 2010
They did it to themselves. You're very sweet for caring about their feelings, but you did nothing wrong and giving the D students a higher grade would be very unfair to the students who did what they were supposed to. When I got a crappy grade, I knew it was because I deserved it, and if I wasn't sure -- like I got a bad grade on an essay with no comments about why -- I asked the teacher well before the end of the semester.
They're e-mailing you for at least one of three reasons:
1. They know they fucked up, but they're hoping that if they challenge you you'll change the grade. Don't give in. They need to know that they have to actually earn their grades. You are doing them no favors in life by sending the signal that whining is more valuable than hard work.
2. They can't acknowledge that they fucked up because they feel entitled to higher grades -- especially thanks to teachers that inflate their grades -- and getting a D is so at odds with how they think of themselves they're taking it out on you. Don't contribute to this by inflating their grades. Again, you are doing them no favors in life. Getting a D in your class might hurt their GPA, but it might be the most helpful lesson they ever learn in college. I have seen it happen time and time again that these kids who feel entitled to stuff go on and have a terrible time in the real world. Do your part to shake them out of that mindset.
3. They're genuinely confused, in which case an explanation should suffice.
posted by Nattie at 12:05 PM on May 6, 2010
Don’t know if my reply will help you, but I taught at a university for a few years and I failed a few students per semester. Almost no one debated grades with me. In addition, I tried to raise the bar on for intro level classes, so if the below information helps feel free to use it.
• They had a syllabus at the start of the class that clearly defined grading policies (I am sure you had this)
• (A small college forced us to do this but it really helped) Let students know their grades half way or a third of the way through the semester but before the drop date (this sounds horrible but it helped raise the bar, especially in intro level classes)
• Give them lots of feedback early on and opportunities to learn the material (so before an exam worth 25% of their grade, they had a quiz with similar material worth 2% of their grade, or online exercises and quizzes)
I actually felt horrible when I failed a few students in a human anatomy course. These were upper level students with dreams of becoming (insert student’s dream medical field). I thought about it a bit more and realized, though, that 1) if the student did not know the material now and was passed to higher level classes, the student would either be forced to retake the class or hold his or her classmates behind and 2) if the student wanted to be some sort of health care provider and couldn’t master basic anatomy or physiology, it would be better to have that student relearn the material and retake the class, rather than potentially injure a future patient. Would I want that student to treat a friend or family member? No (then it is better that the student repeat the class) That is the perspective that I would use. Will this have an effect on how that student performs a job in his or her chosen field? Will it hold back that student from mastering material in future semesters, especially if it is a core class (don’t just think of the student, think of his or her classmates … if they are in advanced physiology and the student raises his or her hand and states “what is a cell?” – everyone will be held back and can’t cover the material).
Pardon me while I give personal opinions, this may or may not help.
I never let anyone else define my grades (not the chair, etc.). Did the student master the material or not? Decide what you think is important. Is it learning or acquiring a skill? I would never grade on attendance; if the student mastered the material, it did not make a difference, but that was just me. But you should decide what merits failure/passing and don't make it arbitrary to make the chair happy.
Many years later, I still remember the stduents that I failed, and I even rememer one student in particular who wanted to become a doctor. I still feel bad. But the student did not master the material and also fell well below his or her classmates.
posted by Wolfster at 12:12 PM on May 6, 2010
• They had a syllabus at the start of the class that clearly defined grading policies (I am sure you had this)
• (A small college forced us to do this but it really helped) Let students know their grades half way or a third of the way through the semester but before the drop date (this sounds horrible but it helped raise the bar, especially in intro level classes)
• Give them lots of feedback early on and opportunities to learn the material (so before an exam worth 25% of their grade, they had a quiz with similar material worth 2% of their grade, or online exercises and quizzes)
I actually felt horrible when I failed a few students in a human anatomy course. These were upper level students with dreams of becoming (insert student’s dream medical field). I thought about it a bit more and realized, though, that 1) if the student did not know the material now and was passed to higher level classes, the student would either be forced to retake the class or hold his or her classmates behind and 2) if the student wanted to be some sort of health care provider and couldn’t master basic anatomy or physiology, it would be better to have that student relearn the material and retake the class, rather than potentially injure a future patient. Would I want that student to treat a friend or family member? No (then it is better that the student repeat the class) That is the perspective that I would use. Will this have an effect on how that student performs a job in his or her chosen field? Will it hold back that student from mastering material in future semesters, especially if it is a core class (don’t just think of the student, think of his or her classmates … if they are in advanced physiology and the student raises his or her hand and states “what is a cell?” – everyone will be held back and can’t cover the material).
Pardon me while I give personal opinions, this may or may not help.
I never let anyone else define my grades (not the chair, etc.). Did the student master the material or not? Decide what you think is important. Is it learning or acquiring a skill? I would never grade on attendance; if the student mastered the material, it did not make a difference, but that was just me. But you should decide what merits failure/passing and don't make it arbitrary to make the chair happy.
Many years later, I still remember the stduents that I failed, and I even rememer one student in particular who wanted to become a doctor. I still feel bad. But the student did not master the material and also fell well below his or her classmates.
posted by Wolfster at 12:12 PM on May 6, 2010
That is, someone who fails should basically come out of the class knowing nothing much more than they did when coming in. Someone who gets a D should be pretty close to this state.
I think this is a weird metric. It means that the grade you deserve is dependent on your knowledge level and ability before entering the course. But students can deserve As without learning anything... this happens when they take a course that is too easy for them. And students can deserve Ds even if they learn a ton of material... this happens when they enter a course that was much too advanced for them.
There are different schools of thought on this issue, and interesting things to say about it, but I think grades should be performance-based, not effort-based or learning-based. The product is what matters, not the path used to get there. This means that you shouldn't penalize a genius for having natural aptitude. And this also means that students might work really hard, learn a lot, be good people and diligent workers, fully understand the expectations and do their best to meet them, but still deserve Ds if they are incapable of mastering the material.
I think some of the answers in this thread are suggesting that it's OK for you feel justified because it's the students' own fault if they failed to meet the expectations you laid out. The tacit suggestion is that academic failures come from a lack of willpower or gumption or something like that. You shouldn't blame yourself because the failing students deserve the blame. The problem is that, often, there's a real sense in which it's not the student's own fault that they didn't meet the expectations. They just, well, aren't smart enough or well-equipped enough to deserve a good grade.
It's hard to say this to a student to his or her face. I've found this to be a really hard part of teaching. Giving Fs to slackers who don't come to class is easy. Those are freebies for the teacher. Giving bad grades to students who come to office hours every week... that is tough. Rating people based on intelligence seems cold. Outside of an academic setting, being judgmental is a vice. But it's what a professor is hired to do. You're hired to do something that is somewhat robotic and inhuman... so it's no wonder that you feel bad. It's good and human for you to feel bad. But hey, someone's gotta do it. That's why they pay you thebig medium-sized bucks.
I'm not sure what will make you feel better, other than saying that I sympathize.
posted by painquale at 12:12 PM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
I think this is a weird metric. It means that the grade you deserve is dependent on your knowledge level and ability before entering the course. But students can deserve As without learning anything... this happens when they take a course that is too easy for them. And students can deserve Ds even if they learn a ton of material... this happens when they enter a course that was much too advanced for them.
There are different schools of thought on this issue, and interesting things to say about it, but I think grades should be performance-based, not effort-based or learning-based. The product is what matters, not the path used to get there. This means that you shouldn't penalize a genius for having natural aptitude. And this also means that students might work really hard, learn a lot, be good people and diligent workers, fully understand the expectations and do their best to meet them, but still deserve Ds if they are incapable of mastering the material.
I think some of the answers in this thread are suggesting that it's OK for you feel justified because it's the students' own fault if they failed to meet the expectations you laid out. The tacit suggestion is that academic failures come from a lack of willpower or gumption or something like that. You shouldn't blame yourself because the failing students deserve the blame. The problem is that, often, there's a real sense in which it's not the student's own fault that they didn't meet the expectations. They just, well, aren't smart enough or well-equipped enough to deserve a good grade.
It's hard to say this to a student to his or her face. I've found this to be a really hard part of teaching. Giving Fs to slackers who don't come to class is easy. Those are freebies for the teacher. Giving bad grades to students who come to office hours every week... that is tough. Rating people based on intelligence seems cold. Outside of an academic setting, being judgmental is a vice. But it's what a professor is hired to do. You're hired to do something that is somewhat robotic and inhuman... so it's no wonder that you feel bad. It's good and human for you to feel bad. But hey, someone's gotta do it. That's why they pay you the
I'm not sure what will make you feel better, other than saying that I sympathize.
posted by painquale at 12:12 PM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
Speaking as someone who slacked off far too much in college... They received the grade they earned.
Every time I got a C or D it never came as a shock, I knew what I was getting, same for As. Bs, for whatever reason, were always the hardest to come to terms with... to me it meant that I tried my hardest and didn't do well enough. A C or a D? I slacked off.
posted by togdon at 12:58 PM on May 6, 2010
Every time I got a C or D it never came as a shock, I knew what I was getting, same for As. Bs, for whatever reason, were always the hardest to come to terms with... to me it meant that I tried my hardest and didn't do well enough. A C or a D? I slacked off.
posted by togdon at 12:58 PM on May 6, 2010
See it as a very valuable lesson you are teaching them. And do not show them you feel awful.
posted by Tarumba at 1:00 PM on May 6, 2010
posted by Tarumba at 1:00 PM on May 6, 2010
What can I do to stop feeling like a monster for wreaking havoc on their GPA?
Teach a few more semesters. You'll have a lot less sympathy for class-skippers and half-assers when you've put up with them for longer. I still feel bad about the students who WORK REALLY HARD and just don't get it, but I have no sympathy for the ones who don't work and do badly and then are upset about it.
(Also, grading distributions where I am are more likely to be inverse bell curves; students who work at it can attain As and Bs; students who don't get Ds and Fs. My dean told me it raises a lot more red flags for her when she sees a bell curve in grading than when she sees an inverse bell curve. I don't know if that's due types of classes (intro), student population, or discipline, but I don't think I've ever seen a bell curve in one of my classes.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 1:11 PM on May 6, 2010
Teach a few more semesters. You'll have a lot less sympathy for class-skippers and half-assers when you've put up with them for longer. I still feel bad about the students who WORK REALLY HARD and just don't get it, but I have no sympathy for the ones who don't work and do badly and then are upset about it.
(Also, grading distributions where I am are more likely to be inverse bell curves; students who work at it can attain As and Bs; students who don't get Ds and Fs. My dean told me it raises a lot more red flags for her when she sees a bell curve in grading than when she sees an inverse bell curve. I don't know if that's due types of classes (intro), student population, or discipline, but I don't think I've ever seen a bell curve in one of my classes.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 1:11 PM on May 6, 2010
Imagine you've just gotten in a car accident and have been rushed to the ER. The last thing you see before the anesthesia kicks in -- is the face of a D student who got their low grade overturned through whining, standing over you with a scalpel in their hand and a slightly quizzical look on their face.
posted by benzenedream at 1:14 PM on May 6, 2010
posted by benzenedream at 1:14 PM on May 6, 2010
Size of the class is unimportant. If, in a 12 person class, 3 students earn Fs and 3 earn Ds, I would reexamine how the class had gone, but that happens.
This isn't true w.r.t. answering the OP's question. Assuming any reasonable distribution of student abilities, a class with half the students nearly failing is a much more unusual event than a class with a small percentage nearly failing, so the reasons for it happening are much less likely to be random chance (what this comment suggests) than some other factor.
The problem is that you *can't* assume any reasonable distribution of student abilities, because students are not randomly assigned to classes. Students end up in classes for a variety of reasons, including choice of major, interest in the topic, and sometimes simply because of the day/time the class was offered. I've had classes where no one did A-level work, and so I assigned no As, and sometimes I've had classes where no one failed, etc.
Sometimes, classes work out to a standard distribution, but frequently they don't. There are so many selection biases at work that you cannot *assume* that just because many people did poorly, you did something wrong. If you adhered to all of your policies, and students failed to follow your guidelines, then there's no reason for you to feel bad. If you think you went overboard on your standards, you may want to consult with your colleagues, but don't make that decision based on the whining of a few students.
And for the record, I have been using the university's online learning management system to post grades for years now, and it has all but eliminated the "what's my grade" pestering. On the few occasions that I do get that question, I just tell them to look online. I post my grades online as soon as I've finished them, and these systems usually allow you to show students a running total, so there's no work for you or them. I highly recommend this approach if your school has an LMS (and how many schools don't these days?).
posted by DiscourseMarker at 1:14 PM on May 6, 2010
This isn't true w.r.t. answering the OP's question. Assuming any reasonable distribution of student abilities, a class with half the students nearly failing is a much more unusual event than a class with a small percentage nearly failing, so the reasons for it happening are much less likely to be random chance (what this comment suggests) than some other factor.
The problem is that you *can't* assume any reasonable distribution of student abilities, because students are not randomly assigned to classes. Students end up in classes for a variety of reasons, including choice of major, interest in the topic, and sometimes simply because of the day/time the class was offered. I've had classes where no one did A-level work, and so I assigned no As, and sometimes I've had classes where no one failed, etc.
Sometimes, classes work out to a standard distribution, but frequently they don't. There are so many selection biases at work that you cannot *assume* that just because many people did poorly, you did something wrong. If you adhered to all of your policies, and students failed to follow your guidelines, then there's no reason for you to feel bad. If you think you went overboard on your standards, you may want to consult with your colleagues, but don't make that decision based on the whining of a few students.
And for the record, I have been using the university's online learning management system to post grades for years now, and it has all but eliminated the "what's my grade" pestering. On the few occasions that I do get that question, I just tell them to look online. I post my grades online as soon as I've finished them, and these systems usually allow you to show students a running total, so there's no work for you or them. I highly recommend this approach if your school has an LMS (and how many schools don't these days?).
posted by DiscourseMarker at 1:14 PM on May 6, 2010
Last semester the chair of my department cautioned me that I'm grading too high. [...] So I ramped things up. I drastically increased the penalties for missing more than one class and I stopped accepting late papers.
Have you made sure your attendance marks and late paper policy are in line with what other people in your department are doing?
It's possible the chair wanted you to lower the average grade by teaching more difficult material and expecting students learn more to receive the highest grades - rather than wanting you to lower the average grade by increasing non-attendance and late submission penalties.
posted by Mike1024 at 1:20 PM on May 6, 2010
Have you made sure your attendance marks and late paper policy are in line with what other people in your department are doing?
It's possible the chair wanted you to lower the average grade by teaching more difficult material and expecting students learn more to receive the highest grades - rather than wanting you to lower the average grade by increasing non-attendance and late submission penalties.
posted by Mike1024 at 1:20 PM on May 6, 2010
At my university, grading on a curve is against policy (although I suspect some prof's are encouraged to make the assignments harder the following semester) and the class outline/grading criteria handed out at the first lecture is considered a contract and cannot be altered by the prof. without the consent of the class (and if it is modified--usually only ever done in the best interest of the students--the prof. must hand out/email a new outline to the students). It's sort of unfair to change the rules of the game mid-way. If there were concerns by the powers that be that you were grading too easily, they should have had it adjusted before the semester started imo.
Is there any way that you can offer some kind of bonus work to make up for it? Or, what many of my professors do, add an extra assignment and have the lowest-graded assignment thrown out? I guess I'm really lucky on the west coast of Canada, our professors are really laid back and if they notice students are struggling, they will either drop items from the readings/assignments or throw out lowest grades, or do something else to adjust the grades if the students are struggling and it's not entirely their faults.
posted by 1000monkeys at 1:29 PM on May 6, 2010
Is there any way that you can offer some kind of bonus work to make up for it? Or, what many of my professors do, add an extra assignment and have the lowest-graded assignment thrown out? I guess I'm really lucky on the west coast of Canada, our professors are really laid back and if they notice students are struggling, they will either drop items from the readings/assignments or throw out lowest grades, or do something else to adjust the grades if the students are struggling and it's not entirely their faults.
posted by 1000monkeys at 1:29 PM on May 6, 2010
If there were concerns by the powers that be that you were grading too easily, they should have had it adjusted before the semester started imo.
The OP didn't change her policy mid-semester. She changed the grading policy she used last semester and adopted a new policy for this semester.
And OP, I agree with many of the comments here that the students who are challenging you are basically hoping you'll react the way your reacting--feel bad, feel guilty--like it's your fault, and then change their grade.
But if your grading policy was clearly set forth in the syllabus and if all students got all work back showing the grade received on each assignment/quiz/exam, you could not have done more to make sure they knew where they stood. Tell them you are happy to show them how, mathematically, they got the grades they did; if you want to, offer to meet with them to discuss how they failed to grasp the material; but don't change their grades now simply because you feel bad.
posted by devinemissk at 1:44 PM on May 6, 2010
The OP didn't change her policy mid-semester. She changed the grading policy she used last semester and adopted a new policy for this semester.
And OP, I agree with many of the comments here that the students who are challenging you are basically hoping you'll react the way your reacting--feel bad, feel guilty--like it's your fault, and then change their grade.
But if your grading policy was clearly set forth in the syllabus and if all students got all work back showing the grade received on each assignment/quiz/exam, you could not have done more to make sure they knew where they stood. Tell them you are happy to show them how, mathematically, they got the grades they did; if you want to, offer to meet with them to discuss how they failed to grasp the material; but don't change their grades now simply because you feel bad.
posted by devinemissk at 1:44 PM on May 6, 2010
If it helps you feel any better, I remember every teacher/professor who ever gave me a bad grade, and every single one of them is still among my favorites. I was the kind of student who learned everything and yet slacked on attendance and homework, 'cause I thought I was above it. Those teachers who managed to get me to work much harder and held me to their expectations taught me far more than the rest. The bad grade at the end definitely stung, but I really appreciated both their honesty and their pushing me to do things better.
posted by Blau at 2:08 PM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Blau at 2:08 PM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
"What can I do to stop feeling like a monster for wreaking havoc on their GPA?"
Hey there. I'm a high school teacher and assistant principal. I'm gonna come off sounding like a jerk here, but I want to help clarify the situation. First of all, you are not a monster, but I do want to make sure you did this right. Here's what I want to address:
"Last semester the chair of my department cautioned me that I'm grading too high.... I drastically increased the penalties for missing more than one class and I stopped accepting late papers."
My question is: Why? You don't mention anything about increasing the difficulty of the assignments, readings, tests or quizzes. Neither do you mention altering your grading rubrics for any of these assignments to raise the bar of expectations. If you did those things, but just didn't mention them, then cool: you've got a really thoughtfully created and challenging course there. However--and I'm not saying these are the only changes you made--but the only changes you mention are procedural--stricter penalties--so of course grades went down. In short, you went from being the "nice" teacher to being the "mean" teacher.
Did you make these changes to address student shortcomings? Are students chronically absent? Are late papers really a problem for you? You give a lot of assignments for a college class. I would be surprised if there weren't a lot of late papers, but is it a problem? I’m not saying you should be willing to accept late work or absenteeism, but did you make those changes to your syllabus because of your own values and tolerance/intolerance for such things, or did you just do it “because your grades are too high”?
The real issue is the quality of the work submitted. Ask your chair to look at some of your student work. Look at some of your "A" papers and your "C" papers. Look at another instructor's "A" and "C" papers. Maybe you are in line with the rest of them, but are just getting better work; or maybe you're grading too easy. But how can you know? If you want to feel better about the grades you are assigning, find out.
Grading is hard for new teachers, but in my experience, new teachers tend to grade too harshly, not too easily. You will get batter at it and you will learn to calibrate your expectations.
In the end, the very fact that you are concerned about this issue speaks to the fact that you are a teacher who wants to improve at the craft of teaching. And I admire that.
posted by etc. at 2:38 PM on May 6, 2010 [3 favorites]
Hey there. I'm a high school teacher and assistant principal. I'm gonna come off sounding like a jerk here, but I want to help clarify the situation. First of all, you are not a monster, but I do want to make sure you did this right. Here's what I want to address:
"Last semester the chair of my department cautioned me that I'm grading too high.... I drastically increased the penalties for missing more than one class and I stopped accepting late papers."
My question is: Why? You don't mention anything about increasing the difficulty of the assignments, readings, tests or quizzes. Neither do you mention altering your grading rubrics for any of these assignments to raise the bar of expectations. If you did those things, but just didn't mention them, then cool: you've got a really thoughtfully created and challenging course there. However--and I'm not saying these are the only changes you made--but the only changes you mention are procedural--stricter penalties--so of course grades went down. In short, you went from being the "nice" teacher to being the "mean" teacher.
Did you make these changes to address student shortcomings? Are students chronically absent? Are late papers really a problem for you? You give a lot of assignments for a college class. I would be surprised if there weren't a lot of late papers, but is it a problem? I’m not saying you should be willing to accept late work or absenteeism, but did you make those changes to your syllabus because of your own values and tolerance/intolerance for such things, or did you just do it “because your grades are too high”?
The real issue is the quality of the work submitted. Ask your chair to look at some of your student work. Look at some of your "A" papers and your "C" papers. Look at another instructor's "A" and "C" papers. Maybe you are in line with the rest of them, but are just getting better work; or maybe you're grading too easy. But how can you know? If you want to feel better about the grades you are assigning, find out.
Grading is hard for new teachers, but in my experience, new teachers tend to grade too harshly, not too easily. You will get batter at it and you will learn to calibrate your expectations.
In the end, the very fact that you are concerned about this issue speaks to the fact that you are a teacher who wants to improve at the craft of teaching. And I admire that.
posted by etc. at 2:38 PM on May 6, 2010 [3 favorites]
It's interesting how many of your answers are ignoring your explicit statement that the stricter grading criteria you are now using were imposed on you from above and do not reflect your own understanding of the performance of your students (all but one, as I read the thread).
I admire your commitment to your students, and I support you in your attempt to find a way of ethically doing what you need to do to survive in a hierarchy where you can be fired if you don't do what you are told to do by your superiors, but I think you would probably be far happier and more productive in a department and at an institution which did not seek to compensate for an apparent sense of its own inferiority (quite justified in light of its attitude toward you and your students, I'd guess) by roughing up students and junior faculty.
posted by jamjam at 2:44 PM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
I admire your commitment to your students, and I support you in your attempt to find a way of ethically doing what you need to do to survive in a hierarchy where you can be fired if you don't do what you are told to do by your superiors, but I think you would probably be far happier and more productive in a department and at an institution which did not seek to compensate for an apparent sense of its own inferiority (quite justified in light of its attitude toward you and your students, I'd guess) by roughing up students and junior faculty.
posted by jamjam at 2:44 PM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
I may be in the minority, but I wanted to offer a word of caution: you were told to tighten your grading criteria, which you apparently did. But did you go too far? Grades cannot, and should not, be completely objective measures. They should measure against reasonable expectations for student performance. Just because someone only got 400 out of 800 possible points, it doesn't mean they necessarily should be given an F.
An example: Organic Chemistry for chemistry majors was the first college class I enrolled in. After struggling through our first exam (of three, which together made up our entire grade), I was dumbfounded when my exam was returned to me with a big red "42%" written on it. Turns out the average score in the class for the exam was a 36%, and the highest score was somewhere south of 72%. The test was simply *difficult* for the class level. Appropriately, the professor adjusted his grading accordingly: I was given a solid B for my 42%.
I agree with everyone who has said that it is important for you to make your grading policies clear and explicit at the beginning of the semester, and to stick to them. But you might also want to make sure you're calibrating your grading of the assignments so that B-quality work (i.e., something like "above average, but not stellar") gets B-level points, and F-quality work is given F-level points, etc. Sometimes this necessitates changing the weight (or scaling the grades) for a particular assignment on which everyone does poorly by some point measure.
That being said: if you are careful in calibrating your scoring (or the difficulty of the assignments), and your grading policies are clear and consistent, and students still fail, then you have nothing at all to feel bad about, for all the reasons already mentioned.
posted by dilettanti at 3:21 PM on May 6, 2010
An example: Organic Chemistry for chemistry majors was the first college class I enrolled in. After struggling through our first exam (of three, which together made up our entire grade), I was dumbfounded when my exam was returned to me with a big red "42%" written on it. Turns out the average score in the class for the exam was a 36%, and the highest score was somewhere south of 72%. The test was simply *difficult* for the class level. Appropriately, the professor adjusted his grading accordingly: I was given a solid B for my 42%.
I agree with everyone who has said that it is important for you to make your grading policies clear and explicit at the beginning of the semester, and to stick to them. But you might also want to make sure you're calibrating your grading of the assignments so that B-quality work (i.e., something like "above average, but not stellar") gets B-level points, and F-quality work is given F-level points, etc. Sometimes this necessitates changing the weight (or scaling the grades) for a particular assignment on which everyone does poorly by some point measure.
That being said: if you are careful in calibrating your scoring (or the difficulty of the assignments), and your grading policies are clear and consistent, and students still fail, then you have nothing at all to feel bad about, for all the reasons already mentioned.
posted by dilettanti at 3:21 PM on May 6, 2010
[My comments below assume that you were careful in making sure your assignments and tests were at the correct level of difficulty and that you used a fair grading scale. If you are worried that isn't the case, then I think dilettanti has some good advice above.]
They're good, honest students. I can imagine them sitting there, looking at their shitty "D" grade, and I've probably ruined their month....But I can't get over the feeling that these students would excel in their field and I'm the one holding them back because they failed my class. If I would have worked with them more closely, they would have done better.
It doesn't matter if you think they are capable of doing well--the key is whether or not they demonstrated that to you. Sometimes I tell students, "I can only mark you on the work you provide me with." Did they demonstrate to you, through their work and performance on tests, that they are capable of doing well?
For the last several years, I have handed out a sheet on the first day of class that clearly and simply explains what the different letter grades mean in my class. It is similar to this professor's grading scale and explanation, which is easily adjusted to different disciplines. I have found this to be enormously helpful to refer to when discussing students' grades with them.
You mentioned that you are a new instructor. I think it is fairly common for new instructors to feel guilty about assigning poor grades. In time, with more experience and confidence, you will most likely come to feel that you are in fact giving the grade that the student earned. Personally, I try to make sure that during the semester 1) I am communicating the expectations clearly in my course outline (syllabus) and during class; 2) I am evaluating the students' work fairly and accurately; 3) I am conveying the material well during lectures and class time. By doing these things, I can feel confident in my grading and I spend very little time agonizing over final marks.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 3:41 PM on May 6, 2010
They're good, honest students. I can imagine them sitting there, looking at their shitty "D" grade, and I've probably ruined their month....But I can't get over the feeling that these students would excel in their field and I'm the one holding them back because they failed my class. If I would have worked with them more closely, they would have done better.
It doesn't matter if you think they are capable of doing well--the key is whether or not they demonstrated that to you. Sometimes I tell students, "I can only mark you on the work you provide me with." Did they demonstrate to you, through their work and performance on tests, that they are capable of doing well?
For the last several years, I have handed out a sheet on the first day of class that clearly and simply explains what the different letter grades mean in my class. It is similar to this professor's grading scale and explanation, which is easily adjusted to different disciplines. I have found this to be enormously helpful to refer to when discussing students' grades with them.
You mentioned that you are a new instructor. I think it is fairly common for new instructors to feel guilty about assigning poor grades. In time, with more experience and confidence, you will most likely come to feel that you are in fact giving the grade that the student earned. Personally, I try to make sure that during the semester 1) I am communicating the expectations clearly in my course outline (syllabus) and during class; 2) I am evaluating the students' work fairly and accurately; 3) I am conveying the material well during lectures and class time. By doing these things, I can feel confident in my grading and I spend very little time agonizing over final marks.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 3:41 PM on May 6, 2010
The OP didn't change her policy mid-semester. She changed the grading policy she used last semester and adopted a new policy for this semester.
Well, if that's the case (and this semester isn't a continuation of the previous--i.e. it's a different course/different students from the one OP taught in the first), then I don't see the problem. If you've adjusted your grading procedures and assignments from a previous course you took, and your expectations are clear in your syllabus, then I don't see an issue. The students from the previous course were lucky to get a break but now things are different. C'est la vie!
posted by 1000monkeys at 3:47 PM on May 6, 2010
Well, if that's the case (and this semester isn't a continuation of the previous--i.e. it's a different course/different students from the one OP taught in the first), then I don't see the problem. If you've adjusted your grading procedures and assignments from a previous course you took, and your expectations are clear in your syllabus, then I don't see an issue. The students from the previous course were lucky to get a break but now things are different. C'est la vie!
posted by 1000monkeys at 3:47 PM on May 6, 2010
Speaking from a student's perspective.
First, Is it really the teacher's responsibility to provide grade tracking information on a regular basis to the students?
As a student I am personally responsible to know my standing in a class and if I feel uncertain about where I stand grade wise I have an option to go talk to the professor to either tell me my grade at a point of time or tell me how to calculate my grade for the class. To me "grade surprise" is not an excuse from a student point of view to complain about their grade, if the policy was laid out in clear terms on the syllabus.
My experience: I have met professors in my undergraduate career who have been diligent about providing all grades online for all assignments and I have met professors who enjoy the aspect of controlling the students grade to maintain their political power in a department for reasons which I attribute to ego and job security.
In your case none of these apply. You are one of the rare professors who is actually concerned about the future impact of his grade on a student's career. Kudos to u!
Back to the Q: Given the above scenario and lack of number of students in the class and grade distribution, my instinctive response is: Your only obligation is to offer to meet the D grade students individually and explain to them how their grade was arrived at. State your grading method and explain it to them hopefully it will open their eyes and mind to how they might have messed up their grade.
Yes, some may still be mad and some may have circumstances which may not have allowed them to give their best to the class and were hoping to scrape by, but in the end it will be a lesson learned. Life is tough sometimes.
posted by VickyR at 4:04 PM on May 6, 2010
First, Is it really the teacher's responsibility to provide grade tracking information on a regular basis to the students?
As a student I am personally responsible to know my standing in a class and if I feel uncertain about where I stand grade wise I have an option to go talk to the professor to either tell me my grade at a point of time or tell me how to calculate my grade for the class. To me "grade surprise" is not an excuse from a student point of view to complain about their grade, if the policy was laid out in clear terms on the syllabus.
My experience: I have met professors in my undergraduate career who have been diligent about providing all grades online for all assignments and I have met professors who enjoy the aspect of controlling the students grade to maintain their political power in a department for reasons which I attribute to ego and job security.
In your case none of these apply. You are one of the rare professors who is actually concerned about the future impact of his grade on a student's career. Kudos to u!
Back to the Q: Given the above scenario and lack of number of students in the class and grade distribution, my instinctive response is: Your only obligation is to offer to meet the D grade students individually and explain to them how their grade was arrived at. State your grading method and explain it to them hopefully it will open their eyes and mind to how they might have messed up their grade.
Yes, some may still be mad and some may have circumstances which may not have allowed them to give their best to the class and were hoping to scrape by, but in the end it will be a lesson learned. Life is tough sometimes.
posted by VickyR at 4:04 PM on May 6, 2010
Addon: I second BobbyDigital
If you raise their grade how would it be fair to the students who did the work and showed up all the time and earned a better grade without your pity?
posted by VickyR at 4:05 PM on May 6, 2010
If you raise their grade how would it be fair to the students who did the work and showed up all the time and earned a better grade without your pity?
posted by VickyR at 4:05 PM on May 6, 2010
He felt that, since I'm a new instructor, I was going easy on them. So I ramped things up. I drastically increased the penalties for missing more than one class and I stopped accepting late papers.
To me this seems rather draconian at least as compared to common practice, and as etc. suggested, I do wonder if you took the path of least resistance to satisfying your boss. Rather than raising your expectations for the intellectual rigor and content of your students' output, you decide to penalize them severely for procedural violations. But was this really the problem in the first place? Were your students getting too many good grades because you were accepting late work that was still great? When you were giving out good grades did you feel as though even if students missed more class than you'd have liked, they still mastered the material? If so, it seems like you failed to address the spirit of the problem in your policy changes. Perhaps you also changed how you judge the students' output, but that wasn't made clear in your question.
I know that as others have said, if your initial expectations were made clear, the students have themselves to blame. But with respect to your actual question about your feelings of guilt, I wonder if some of that has to do with the fact that deep down, you realize that your approach to tougher grading was the wrong one -- an approach you have described as "drastic." The fact that it might be the students' own fault unfortunately doesn't absolve you of going overboard in the changes you made. Unfortunately, I agree that it's too late to change policy, and would be even more unfair to the rest of the class to change grades at this point for the unfortunate few. But perhaps, this will be a learning experience for you, and lead you to further tweak your approach to grading in the future (hint: tougher on content, loosen up a bit on procedures, and why so many assignments).
Also, I'm kind of surprised at how easy it is for everyone to just chalk this up as a learning experience for the students. Unfortunately, when all is said and done, for many students their overall performance will be summed up by a grade point average, not the grade point median. If one teacher's approach to grading deviates significantly from the rest of the institution, this ultimately leads to massively overweighting that one teacher's course relative to the rest with respect to GPAs. Should a college freshman's goof-ups in his first semester ruin his chances at getting into graduate school even if she turned it around and did stellar work for the rest of her terms? Is that really fair?
posted by drpynchon at 4:08 PM on May 6, 2010 [6 favorites]
To me this seems rather draconian at least as compared to common practice, and as etc. suggested, I do wonder if you took the path of least resistance to satisfying your boss. Rather than raising your expectations for the intellectual rigor and content of your students' output, you decide to penalize them severely for procedural violations. But was this really the problem in the first place? Were your students getting too many good grades because you were accepting late work that was still great? When you were giving out good grades did you feel as though even if students missed more class than you'd have liked, they still mastered the material? If so, it seems like you failed to address the spirit of the problem in your policy changes. Perhaps you also changed how you judge the students' output, but that wasn't made clear in your question.
I know that as others have said, if your initial expectations were made clear, the students have themselves to blame. But with respect to your actual question about your feelings of guilt, I wonder if some of that has to do with the fact that deep down, you realize that your approach to tougher grading was the wrong one -- an approach you have described as "drastic." The fact that it might be the students' own fault unfortunately doesn't absolve you of going overboard in the changes you made. Unfortunately, I agree that it's too late to change policy, and would be even more unfair to the rest of the class to change grades at this point for the unfortunate few. But perhaps, this will be a learning experience for you, and lead you to further tweak your approach to grading in the future (hint: tougher on content, loosen up a bit on procedures, and why so many assignments).
Also, I'm kind of surprised at how easy it is for everyone to just chalk this up as a learning experience for the students. Unfortunately, when all is said and done, for many students their overall performance will be summed up by a grade point average, not the grade point median. If one teacher's approach to grading deviates significantly from the rest of the institution, this ultimately leads to massively overweighting that one teacher's course relative to the rest with respect to GPAs. Should a college freshman's goof-ups in his first semester ruin his chances at getting into graduate school even if she turned it around and did stellar work for the rest of her terms? Is that really fair?
posted by drpynchon at 4:08 PM on May 6, 2010 [6 favorites]
I think this is a weird metric. It means that the grade you deserve is dependent on your knowledge level and ability before entering the course. But students can deserve As without learning anything... this happens when they take a course that is too easy for them. And students can deserve Ds even if they learn a ton of material... this happens when they enter a course that was much too advanced for them.
Well what I said really obviously needs to be relativized to students who meets the prerequisites and are at the right stage of their career, or something like this. What I really mean to suggest is that if a student, who meets the prerequisites for the course and is initially positioned to do well, accomplishes a substantial amount of what you see as the pedagogical goals for the class, and still gets a D, there is something wrong. The idea was to use this as a heuristic to check whether the course was made hard for solid pedagogical reasons, and in a solid pedagogical way, or just because the chair said to do so. For example, (to pick a somewhat extreme example) could a grade go from a B to a D simply for missing classes? This kind of thing may make people in this thread happy, but I don't see what teaching purpose it is really serving other than making the numbers look right for the chair.
posted by advil at 6:22 PM on May 6, 2010 [3 favorites]
Well what I said really obviously needs to be relativized to students who meets the prerequisites and are at the right stage of their career, or something like this. What I really mean to suggest is that if a student, who meets the prerequisites for the course and is initially positioned to do well, accomplishes a substantial amount of what you see as the pedagogical goals for the class, and still gets a D, there is something wrong. The idea was to use this as a heuristic to check whether the course was made hard for solid pedagogical reasons, and in a solid pedagogical way, or just because the chair said to do so. For example, (to pick a somewhat extreme example) could a grade go from a B to a D simply for missing classes? This kind of thing may make people in this thread happy, but I don't see what teaching purpose it is really serving other than making the numbers look right for the chair.
posted by advil at 6:22 PM on May 6, 2010 [3 favorites]
but I don't see what teaching purpose it is really serving
Unless the class is very discussion oriented, that is, something we don't know here.
posted by advil at 6:27 PM on May 6, 2010
Unless the class is very discussion oriented, that is, something we don't know here.
posted by advil at 6:27 PM on May 6, 2010
Between undergrad and grad school, I think I got 3 C's.
The first was in one of those super-hard classes that Multi-Faceted was mentioning. It was an intro biopsych class that was required for my psych major and even though I studied my ass off I just couldn't master the material. But I wasn't surprised when I got the C. I was just happy to pass the damn class.
The other two were in my first semester of business school, coinciding with when my parents got divorced. I was pretty out of it that semester, and I didn't give myself a hard time about the grades, but neither were a surprise. One was in strategy. I was bummed that I didn't do better, because the material wasn't terribly hard and was actually interesting, but I definitely didn't put in the effort that should have. I knew I deserved the C.
The last C was in finance. I worked hard, did all my homework, asked questions in class, etc. I just sucked at it. I knew that I wasn't planning on going into finance and that it was just a required core course, but I was generally an A-student and I did try hard. I remember sitting in the final review class thinking "holy shit I have no idea what is going on."
I went to the professor afterwards, almost in tears. I said "I don't know what to do, I'm going to fail this class." He said "you're not going to fail." I said "but I failed the midterm and I'm going to fail the final." He replied "you did your homework, I know you paid attention in class and that you're a good student. You're not going to get an A, but I'm not going to fail you." He knew that I tried, and that failing me wasn't going to help anyone, so I got a C for effort.
My point of this rambling is that none of these were really surprises. (Well I was surprised/relieved that I scraped by with a C in finance, but I was expecting lower.) I knew the standards of the classes and what was expected of me, and I didn't meet the requirements. Any student who is surprised by a poor grade is just fooling themselves.
I'm a "millennial," as your students probably are, and we're definitely the "trophy" generation. We were told so long how wonderful we are and how to be confident that somehow many of us overlook the fact that you need something to actually earn that success. False confidence is even worse than low self-esteem.
It is a really big shock to a lot of kids the first time that they don't win, get a bad grade, etc. I remember once in middle school I bullshitted out a crappy essay, and my mom was proofing it for me, and she told me that it wasn't very good. I was in total shock. However, I realized "oh, well, she's right, I'd better actually put some work into this!"
posted by radioamy at 7:28 PM on May 6, 2010
The first was in one of those super-hard classes that Multi-Faceted was mentioning. It was an intro biopsych class that was required for my psych major and even though I studied my ass off I just couldn't master the material. But I wasn't surprised when I got the C. I was just happy to pass the damn class.
The other two were in my first semester of business school, coinciding with when my parents got divorced. I was pretty out of it that semester, and I didn't give myself a hard time about the grades, but neither were a surprise. One was in strategy. I was bummed that I didn't do better, because the material wasn't terribly hard and was actually interesting, but I definitely didn't put in the effort that should have. I knew I deserved the C.
The last C was in finance. I worked hard, did all my homework, asked questions in class, etc. I just sucked at it. I knew that I wasn't planning on going into finance and that it was just a required core course, but I was generally an A-student and I did try hard. I remember sitting in the final review class thinking "holy shit I have no idea what is going on."
I went to the professor afterwards, almost in tears. I said "I don't know what to do, I'm going to fail this class." He said "you're not going to fail." I said "but I failed the midterm and I'm going to fail the final." He replied "you did your homework, I know you paid attention in class and that you're a good student. You're not going to get an A, but I'm not going to fail you." He knew that I tried, and that failing me wasn't going to help anyone, so I got a C for effort.
My point of this rambling is that none of these were really surprises. (Well I was surprised/relieved that I scraped by with a C in finance, but I was expecting lower.) I knew the standards of the classes and what was expected of me, and I didn't meet the requirements. Any student who is surprised by a poor grade is just fooling themselves.
I'm a "millennial," as your students probably are, and we're definitely the "trophy" generation. We were told so long how wonderful we are and how to be confident that somehow many of us overlook the fact that you need something to actually earn that success. False confidence is even worse than low self-esteem.
It is a really big shock to a lot of kids the first time that they don't win, get a bad grade, etc. I remember once in middle school I bullshitted out a crappy essay, and my mom was proofing it for me, and she told me that it wasn't very good. I was in total shock. However, I realized "oh, well, she's right, I'd better actually put some work into this!"
posted by radioamy at 7:28 PM on May 6, 2010
If you really feel bad about it, you could give them the opportunity to re-do the assignments they missed or did poorly on and then raise their grade to a C (assuming the new work is acceptable).
posted by Jacqueline at 9:01 PM on May 6, 2010
posted by Jacqueline at 9:01 PM on May 6, 2010
Most commenters seem to be missing how you said you lowered grades -- by drastically increasing attendance penalties and refusing to accept late papers.
So were these D students receiving A's and B's on their graded work back from you all semester, and then ended up with a D because they missed a few classes? That seems unreasonable, and something that could be easily missed by the student (as opposed to getting bad grades on work, which is more transparent).
posted by palliser at 9:08 PM on May 6, 2010
So were these D students receiving A's and B's on their graded work back from you all semester, and then ended up with a D because they missed a few classes? That seems unreasonable, and something that could be easily missed by the student (as opposed to getting bad grades on work, which is more transparent).
posted by palliser at 9:08 PM on May 6, 2010
I completely understand the feeling of sympathy you're having, but I agree with others that you do have to give bad grades when they are earned, and that giving all A's ultimately takes any meaning out of grades to start with. Someone has to get the lower grades for the higher ones to matter (over time and multiple sections; you may have an exceptional section in either direction here or there, so the distribution is not always exact, which is why you have to get used to and trust your own metric). You can be against the use of grades and think this whole comparative system is a bad way of doing things, but so long as you're engaging in it, you have to give out some D's sometimes.
I'm still teaching adjunct, and therefore intro level, at a school where there aren't even options for 400 classes in my discipline, so the average in my classes is commonly about a C. I have had to fail or give D's to students who were really upset about it, and who I've really liked. I've tried to make myself feel better by making sure to do a few things:
- Let them know that I want them to do well, and will be available anytime over email, and (my hours) every week in the office, to answer questions and help them with the material if they are having trouble. Generally, one or two students make use of this, and they tend to be students who are doing fine anyway.
- Make it very clear what the grade will be based on. For instance, if you are going to significantly penalize them for missing more than one class, I would bold that on the syllabus and write it on the board the first couple times the class met, just to be sure it was understood.
- Give them a midterm update. My school requires a P/F/borderline grade entry at spring break anyway, but on the second exam I also note how many absences, latenesses, & missing assignments I have recorded for them (I don't provide all the numbers, just work completed vs work missing, so to speak)
High level students are undoubtedly different - some portion of my students probably care way less than I do about their GPA, eg - but it can't hurt to be as clear as you can for your own peace of mind, and be accessible to them.
posted by mdn at 9:38 AM on May 7, 2010
I'm still teaching adjunct, and therefore intro level, at a school where there aren't even options for 400 classes in my discipline, so the average in my classes is commonly about a C. I have had to fail or give D's to students who were really upset about it, and who I've really liked. I've tried to make myself feel better by making sure to do a few things:
- Let them know that I want them to do well, and will be available anytime over email, and (my hours) every week in the office, to answer questions and help them with the material if they are having trouble. Generally, one or two students make use of this, and they tend to be students who are doing fine anyway.
- Make it very clear what the grade will be based on. For instance, if you are going to significantly penalize them for missing more than one class, I would bold that on the syllabus and write it on the board the first couple times the class met, just to be sure it was understood.
- Give them a midterm update. My school requires a P/F/borderline grade entry at spring break anyway, but on the second exam I also note how many absences, latenesses, & missing assignments I have recorded for them (I don't provide all the numbers, just work completed vs work missing, so to speak)
High level students are undoubtedly different - some portion of my students probably care way less than I do about their GPA, eg - but it can't hurt to be as clear as you can for your own peace of mind, and be accessible to them.
posted by mdn at 9:38 AM on May 7, 2010
What DiscourseMarker said:
And for the record, I have been using the university's online learning management system to post grades for years now, and it has all but eliminated the "what's my grade" pestering. On the few occasions that I do get that question, I just tell them to look online. I post my grades online as soon as I've finished them, and these systems usually allow you to show students a running total, so there's no work for you or them. I highly recommend this approach if your school has an LMS (and how many schools don't these days?).
I highly recommend posting your grades this way not just so the students know how they stand but also because the students will do a better job of checking for entry errors than you ever can.
The other thing is, make sure you tell students what they did wrong, and what they should do to get things right on future assignments. That means posting correct answers, a grading rubric, or at least something after major assignments, as well as marking up returned work (as much as you can--that is a lot of work you're collecting).
posted by anaelith at 11:19 AM on May 7, 2010
And for the record, I have been using the university's online learning management system to post grades for years now, and it has all but eliminated the "what's my grade" pestering. On the few occasions that I do get that question, I just tell them to look online. I post my grades online as soon as I've finished them, and these systems usually allow you to show students a running total, so there's no work for you or them. I highly recommend this approach if your school has an LMS (and how many schools don't these days?).
I highly recommend posting your grades this way not just so the students know how they stand but also because the students will do a better job of checking for entry errors than you ever can.
The other thing is, make sure you tell students what they did wrong, and what they should do to get things right on future assignments. That means posting correct answers, a grading rubric, or at least something after major assignments, as well as marking up returned work (as much as you can--that is a lot of work you're collecting).
posted by anaelith at 11:19 AM on May 7, 2010
The students are e-mailing you to push you to see how far they can manipulate you. It's much easier to put pressure on you within a short span of time now than to do well consistently throughout the semester.
>>But I can't get over the feeling that these students would excel in their field and I'm the one holding them back because they failed my class.
Personally speaking, I would rather work with a person that works hard and tries to improve throughout the entire span of a project than someone who is supposedly awesome and doesn't do shit and bitches about it after everything is over.
posted by spec80 at 5:40 PM on May 7, 2010
>>But I can't get over the feeling that these students would excel in their field and I'm the one holding them back because they failed my class.
Personally speaking, I would rather work with a person that works hard and tries to improve throughout the entire span of a project than someone who is supposedly awesome and doesn't do shit and bitches about it after everything is over.
posted by spec80 at 5:40 PM on May 7, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
You didn't wreck havoc on their GPAs. They did. If you laid out your expectations at the beginning of the semester, you did your job. If they missed classes and did poorly on assignments, there was their issue.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:31 AM on May 6, 2010 [30 favorites]