Submitted for your approval, two students, both on the cusp between a C and a B. One got the C, one got the B. Why the difference? Well, student #1 came late most days, sauntered across the classroom to grab a seat (disrupting the class) and then didn’t bother to take many notes. Why was he late? Beats me, he never said. Car trouble? Job schedule? Childcare issues? Alien abduction? Quickie with his girlfriend in the Bio lab? Just plain rude? I don’t know, he never bothered to say “Hey Dr. Morose, I am sorry I’m late so often. I have a class right before yours on another campus and the shuttle gets caught in traffic.” Other students have come to me to say “I’m sorry I am late so much, I will try to do better” or ”Sorry, I come to class from work and sometimes I get delayed by my boss a few minutes.” Hey, life happens. I understand that. And no, I'm not going to ask.
This same student never asked questions, rarely spoke up in class discussions except to make wise-ass remarks, never came to me after the first two exams to ask how he could do better. He just came to class late, sat and scribbled a few notes, then left. His term paper? Eh. Nothing special. He seemed to do the minimum.
Student #2 was in class on time, asked a few questions, tried to participate in discussions, and came to me after the first test to ask advice on studying. Her grades improved on each exam and her term paper showed some thought and creativity. In other words, she TRIED.
POP QUIZ: Guess which one got a bump in their grade and got the B?
If they both got the C, then you're okay. Any other option and you've mocked the entire profession.
ReplyDeleteI always assign between 20% and 30% of the final grade to in-class participation. This system ends up rewarding active, enthusiastic hard-wrokers, and I don't face similar dilemmas in the end.
ReplyDeleteStudent #1 got the B since student #1 is the kind of jerk who complains to anyone with ears (working or not). Student #1 has been sending threatening emails all week. Instead of putting up with this for the entire break and well into next term you just bubbled B and bleached your eyes.
ReplyDeleteI actually write on my syllabus that students who are habitually absent/late/txting/listening to music/talking about non-class related stuff/messing with electronic devices/all the other rude behaviours will not get bumped to the next grade no matter how close they are. Students who participate regularly, are attentive, come to offices hours, and are respectful of the classroom, other students, and the professor may be eligible for a bump if they are within 1% of the next letter grade and they have shown significant improvement over the semester. This policy gives a lot of students incentive to step it up. Fewer than 10% of students end up borderline and they generally already know where they stand. Most will email me and I'll send a personalized form email stating the criterion I've used.
If they both have the exactly the same percent and you rounded one and not the other, I would have to agree with anonymous2. Unless you have a built in way to justify rounding up such as participation as described by Clarissa, or some other wiggle room like CMP to justify a higher percent, then to bump one up because you liked one's behaviour and not the other's is just wrong in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI was always a quiet student. Shy, sometimes to the point of being rude. Occasionally late without excuses (embarassed). Caustic wit (rude again). So, you might not remember me or like me. Chatty Cathy, on the other hand, TRIED HARD. She was pleasant, and, well, Chatty. Fun. We both have 79.4% and Chatty Cathy gets bumped for having a better personality than me? Well, *@#! (rude again).
I have looked for reasons to bump students who were on the border that I believed earned the higher grade. I would look at their Final Test grade, Quiz average or some subjective grade I gave that perhaps could have been a few points higher. But, if I rounded one 79.4% student, I rounded them all irregardless of whether they were "nice" or not.
@CMP. Great policy! If I ever get back to a face-to-face class, can I steal it? (pretty please with a cherry on top?)
I only ever grade on deliverables. Oh, I've been tempted to lower more than one students' grades, purely for disciplinary reasons. Every time I’ve wanted to, though, I looked carefully at what the student was doing and realized that I needn't bother. Bad behavior has a bad effect on students' grades, because it has a very bad effect on what they learn. They therefore really do get what they deserve, in my classes.
ReplyDeleteI will never take attendance in my big, general-ed, Intro-Astronomy-for-Non-Science-Majors class. For starters, with over 100 students in it, it's just not feasible. The main reason, though, is because it always has more than enough students who don't want to be there who make noise and otherwise cause trouble for the ones who are interested. I'd just as soon these people -not- come to class. Not attending class has a bad effect on one's grade, of course: I can be assured they'll get their just desserts.
I confess I've used Clarissa's system in the past, but only at about 5-10%. It's a tiebreaker kind of thing where I'd be able to sort student #1 and student #2 above quite easily and (a bit more) legitimately.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the responses. A few observations…
ReplyDelete1. My syllabus specifies that attendance and participation are worth 10% of the final grade. Also, they do not get full attendance for repeatedly coming in late or if they sleep through class. I put a “Z” on my attendance sheet, or “L” for late.
2. The exams are part essay so the grades are at least somewhat subjective, as is my grading of their term papers. So there is wiggle room in their final score.
3. I believe in giving some credit for improvement. I tell my classes repeatedly that I take improvement in their test scores into account.
4. It's a 35 student class, and there are usually 30-32 students there each day so taking attendance isn't difficult. My school doesn't have 100+ student classes. If I did teach one of those mega classes I'd follow Froderick's policy.
FYI, I also try my best to learn every student's name. I take a class photo on the 3d day (participation is voluntary) and then have them sign the photo by their picture. I keep the photo on my lectern during class and I drill myself using an unsigned copy. Two kinds of students are easy to remember: the really, really poor students and the really good ones. It's the 80% in the middle I struggle to remember.
@Morose
ReplyDeleteO.k. then! Your system is fair and has built in wiggles for awarding effort and appropriate behaviour. I also appreciate the effort you make to get to know your students. I stand by my earlier position, but it doesn't really apply here.
I wonder...since I teach purely online right now if I can devise something kin to CMP's policy and put applicable things like rude e-mails??? Food for thought.
So effort does count! My snowflakes will be glad.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the students who rarely go to class, but do the homework and ace the tests? Supposing that it is a technical course with no student responsibility to participate, is there a temptation to penalize them? Short of that, do you feel any ill will?
ReplyDeleteIf participation, discussion, group work, etc. are not part of the grade, then I bear no ill will to the person who doesn't need the lecture or student interaction to succeed.
ReplyDeleteBut, they ARE missing something by not being in a classroom environment. My online classes are always better when people participate in Discussions, ask each other and me questions, and swap interesting events, websites, pictures and experiences. I missed lots of this myself as a undergrad in regular albeit large lecture hall classes. I worked the graveyard shift, or stayed out too late, uh, studying, the night before and skipped out on some classes unless there was a Test. There were a couple of classes I passed but really didn't get the full impact of the material. I regret that.
Captain, haven't had that happen yet. If it does, well, they'll lose the points for attendance but otherwise, no, I wouldn't penalize them or feel any ill will.
ReplyDeleteMorose is entirely justified. Compare this to Real Life. Two employees do equally mediocre work. The boss can't afford to keep them both but doesn't want to fire them both due to the effort of training new hires. Which does he "let go"? The frequently late smartass who does the minimum, or the slightly dim but pleasant one who who shows up on time, seeks and uses feedback, and solves minor problems creatively?
ReplyDelete@ Prof & Circumstance: My policies are a combination of Morose's and CMP's, and I used to teach online classes so here's how it worked:
Participation (5% of grade) includes (or included):
- attendance (or weekly discussion post, regardless of quality*);
- improvement on exams;
- the Courtesy / Effort Bump (CEB) for when the final letter grade is within 0.5% of the next higher grade. The behaviors are similar to Crazy Math Professor's. For the online class, CEB-getters had to respond thoughtfully to others (not just "Me too"), follow up on others' responses to them, occasionally be the first to respond to the prompt, and avoid behaviors like only posting at the last minute or asking questions that were answered in the syllabus or current announcements.
*Quality of the discussion posts was a separate assignment grade. It included using course vocabulary correctly, developing ideas with evidence and using college-level English grammar and mechanics.