My philosophy
My grading policies are based on the notion that a student’s grade should measure learning, not compliance.
This philosophy has led me to reconsider a few things that I’ve done in the past — things that you may be used to, since it’s what many (possibly most) instructors do.
Grading
To pass this course, you will need to do both of these two things:
- Turn in all three major essays
- Earn an average of at least a “C-” for all graded work.
If you turned in all three essays, but your graded work averaged to less than 3.5 points (more details on that, below), you would not pass the class. Similarly, even if your graded work averaged a C, but you only turned in two of the three essays, you would not pass the class.
Letter Grades and the 11-Point Scale
I assign letter grades for your work. But for the purposes of calculating your overall grade, I use an 11-point scale:
- A = 11 points
- A- = 10 points
- B+ = 9 points
- B = 8 points
- B- = 7 points
- C+ = 6 points
- C = 5 points
- C- = 4 points
- D+ = 3 points
- D = 2 points
- D- = 1 point
- F = 0 points
(The mathematically astute among you may note that this is actually a 12-point scale, since “0” is indeed a grade. But most people call it a n 11-point scale, so I’m going with that….)
Further, I only assign grades to a limited number of assignments — to essays, in most cases, though there are a couple other assignments that will also receive grades. I weigh those assignments as follows:
- Essay 1 (Educational Autobiography): 15%
- Essay 2 (Standard English): 25%
- Essay 3 (Issues in the Professions): 35%
- Annotated Bibliographies: 20%
- Reflection on the Course: 5%
Calculated grades will almost certainly end up having a decimal point (8.27, for example). I’ll follow the usual rules for rounding any decimal greater than .5 — for example, a calculated score of 6.5 points would round up to a 7, which is a B- (and, since Yuba College does not record the + or -, that would make the final grade a B).
Some Thoughts on this Grading Policy
As I mentioned earlier, I know that aspects of this policy may be different from what you’re used to, so let me offer brief explanations for the two most significant differences. If you have any further questions or concerns, I’d be happy to talk in more detail. (At some point, I’ll make a video with a more detailed explanation, but I don’t have time to do that at this point.)
Using Letter Grades
I used to use a-100 point system (A = 90+, B= 80+, etc.), but I have come to see a number of issues with that system — it puts way too much weight on failing (a “0” is almost impossible to recover from, for example), and, it encourages too much subjectivity as I grade (for example, what is the difference between an 88 and an 86 in a research paper?). Sticking with letter grades reduces both of those problems significantly.
Points (or the Lack Thereof)
Many instructors offer “points” for things like homework or discussion entries, etc. As you can tell from the breakdown above, I don’t do that.
Why not?
If points are meant to tell you how well you’ve done — well, for most of our work, it is just too soon. I want to grade you on what you know and/or can do at the end of the process. I want the grade to let you know the answer to this question: how well have you achieved the learning outcomes?
With that focus, I don’t think it makes make sense for me to grade you while you’re still learning. In some cases, the information or skill will be new to you; in other cases, I’ll be encouraging you to unlearn things you’ve learned in the past. Either way, genuine learning involves risking mistakes, and grades discourage most students from taking risks.
And if these points are just meant to encourage you to do the work… well, that doesn’t tell us if you’ve learned anything; it just tells us that you did what you were told. If you’re going to pass a class, it should be because you’ve learned something, not because you’ve jumped through hoops. And with a points system that enforces compliance, it’s often possible to pass the class without meeting the learning objectives.
Danger, Will Robinson
There are two dangers here.
First, I know many students only want to do work that is graded. Indeed, I’ve had students tell me that they didn’t do much of the work because there were no points attached.
That’s a dangerous strategy. I do not assign busy work; everything I assign—whether it’s officially graded or not—is designed to support you as you learn to read and write college-level texts. Skipping the “ungraded” work—deciding to just scroll through the modules without reading, or to skip Discussion Group Assignments or conferences—almost guarantees that you won’t understand the assignments that are graded.
The second danger: people who study student success note that community — a sense of belonging — is a major indicator of success. Indeed, some of my (ungraded) assignments, such as Discussion Group Assignments, ask you to respond to each other. If you don’t do that work, you cut yourself off from the community. (And for those who think, “I don’t need other people’s help; I know what I’m doing”: please consider that others might appreciate your help…)
A Note on Canvas’s Gradebook
I have chosen to “hide” the Canvas gradebook. I know that this annoys a lot of students, but I’ve found—especially with my grading policy—that the Canvas gradebook does more harm than good.
- The Canvas gradebook is designed around the 100 point scale. I tried to adapt it to my system, but it was a disaster. The information it presented to students was wrong, which led (understandably) to a lot of questions and complaints.
- Even if the gradebook were correct, though, the structure of the class means that grades are misleading. Since the essays increase in importance, later essays can change your grade (positively or negatively) fairly dramatically. Students with a lower grade may feel more discouraged than they should, perhaps even giving up; students with a higher grade may feel overconfident and slack off. Neither of those is a good thing.
I have learned that focusing your attention on the grade is often a weak strategy. Focus on learning, and, in many cases, the grade takes care of itself.
However, if you need to know your grade—and there are reasons where this might be true (sports, scholarships, etc.)—please feel free to ask. I hide the gradebook because I don’t want it to mislead you, not because I want to keep your grades secret from you.
One Last Thought
This grading system isn’t perfect. As far as I can tell, though, no system is perfect — there are always trade-offs. And this system has huge advantages over the 100-point scale.
If you’d like to talk through what these differences are—if you’re concerned (as many students are), or if you just want to understand better what’s going on here, I’m happy to meet with you to talk through it. I mean that: I welcome your insights, and I’ll consider them as I work on next semester’s courses.
Rewrites
As I said, I want my grades to reflect your learning. And if I want that grading to be consistent with my philosophy, it’s important that I offer you opportunities to redo at least some of your graded work. After all, you’ll be learning how to write essays all semester, and you might learn things in the second essay that would help you improve your first essay.
Therefore, I will offer you the opportunity to rewrite your first two essays, if you so choose. (There isn’t time before the end of the semester for a rewrite of the third essay.)
There are a couple requirements for this:
- You will need to meet with me to discuss how you plan to change your essay. Note that this isn’t meant to put you on the spot. But I want to be sure you’ve understood my comments on the graded paper, so you’re not just wasting your time rewriting an essay without improving it. (I’ve met with students who didn’t even realize that I had written comments on their essay.)
- Rewrites are due the last day of finals week. (This semester, that’s Friday, May 26.) Please plan accordingly, especially if you have other classes with finals that week.
I hope you can see that this rewrite policy means that, even if you’re struggling at the beginning of the course, you don’t need to give up. You’ll have the entire semester to learn what you need to know and/or be able to to, and a single grade — even a “0” — won’t doom you to failing the class.
Late Policy
As I’ve said a few times now, my grading philosophy emphasizes learning, not compliance. In a perfect world, that would mean that I’d have no late policy at all.
Unfortunately, the world isn’t perfect—and, on top of that, I have a deadline for turning in course grades. So I’ve had to put a few policies in place.
- Recommended due date: Every assignment has a recommended due date. This date is designed to keep you “on track”—to make it so that you’re only working on one essay at a time. (Note: Canvas will identify this as the official due date. Unfortunately, that means that Canvas will mark any work turned in after this date as “late.” Don’t worry about that; these policies apply, no matter what Canvas indicates.)
- Grace period due date: Every assignment has a “grace period”—usually two weeks, but later assignments may have a smaller grace period. You are free to turn in work during this grace period with no grade penalty and no additional requirements.
- After the grace period: I will still accept work with no grade penalty after the grace period, but you’ll be required to do two additional things: to fill out a questionnaire and to meet with me. This is not meant to be a big deal: the questionnaire is simple, and the meeting is brief. But I’ve found it’s an effective way to support students who have gotten this far behind.
- Drop-dead due date: All work is due no later than the last day of Finals Week. This semester, that is Friday, May 26. Please do not ask if you can turn in work that weekend—I will not accept any work after this date. Please plan ahead!
More Danger, Will Robinson
There are dangers to this late policy. Students who turn in an assignment late usually start the next assignment late as well. That can add up over the course of the semester. And I don’t know about you, but when I get overwhelmed, I procrastinate even more, which makes things worse.
So do your best to keep up with the pace of the course. But if you find you need to turn an assignment in late, try not to stress out too much. The late policy is meant to relieve the pressure of huge deadlines.
Next up: Resources
The next section is about resources that you might find helpful.