Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Grading dilemmas


If I could just figure out which students belong in which categories, all (okay; many) of my grading dilemmas would be solved.

8 comments:

  1. OMG YES!!! This is my dilemma too--I have been making and tweaking a rubric to make the grading go faster, but there's always one kid who complains about "a bunch of x's on a sheet" that "don't mean anything."

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  2. I have a rubric I've been using over the last couple of years, but I leave space under each of the various criteria in case I feel moved to make a comment. I make a point of making at least one comment under one of the criteria. This seems to keep them reasonably content.

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  3. My rubric is this:

    A: I'd read it if I didn't have to.
    B: If the two of us worked on it, this could be good.
    C: I had to read it.
    D: It necessitated a beer.
    F: It was over quickly.

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  4. A-freaking-men. I always give detailed feedback on their first assignment and first major paper so they know what that is and how I grade. Then after that, I have students write at the top of their papers what kinds of feedback they'd value from me. Most indicate they'd simply like a grade. A few say they'd like end comments. Two always indicate they'd like detailed feedback.

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  5. In an online class I was once short of time and the uploading was going very slowly. So I simply submitted grades without the attached papers and told the class they could request comments by e-mail. Since I had already done the comments, it was no burden on me, but I didn't want to e-mail each student's paper unless they wanted it.

    Out of a class of 20, three wrote back. So that pink circle is probably the largest.

    BTW, just to be pedantic, the venn diagram doesn't work as pictured. "Just want a grade" and "want detailed feedback" are mutually exclusive, so the circles shouldn't overlap.

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  6. CC, that is brilliant. I have never thought of just asking them what kind of feedback they want. I'm going to try that next term.

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  7. @slave: you're right. Technically, there should probably be a larger, overlapping set labeled "students who want a grade, fast," with a smaller, included subset, not overlapping with any of the other sets, that reads "students who just want a grade." The other problem (and the only objection I see to Cynic's plan, which strikes me, too, as brilliant) is that students don't really know where they fit, and/or shift position according to their current grade, anxiety level, etc. Picture a bunch of tiny little students scurrying around on the diagram, obsessively checking their grades on the LMS via smartphone, and shifting from "just want a grade, fast" to "want detailed feedback/will argue every point" as they see a B+ pop up (somewhere in there, there's an especially difficult category that adds up to "just want my A, fast").

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  8. I do let them sort themselves to some extent toward the end of the term, when I have dual deadlines for the long research-based paper: one which yields written comments delivered during a one-on-one conference, and a later one (just before the conference) which yields oral comments during a one-on-one conference. And I have a rubric, which sounds pretty similar, in design and use, to Merely's. I'd like to adopt, Reg W's however (provided I can substitute a hard cider for the beer).

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