I have a grading dilemma that I entirely did not anticipate.
My students have to write a paper. They turn in a rough draft around mid-term. I comment on it, then I assign it a grade. The grade is a temporary grade to let them know how they are doing on the assignment at this point. Some papers are actually really good and those students don't have to revise (reward for putting effort into the draft and not just turning in junk). Some are happy with a C and don't revise by choice. Others just need to turn in a dang draft. Most, however, do go for the revision.
I also have a late paper policy. They lose a letter grade for each day their paper is late. Since submission is online, I can track this.
Here is the dilemma. I have students who are turning in their second draft so late that, even if they get a perfect score on the second draft, they will get a lower score than they were making on their first draft. For instance, if a person wanted to revise to raise a score of 80, but turned in the revised paper four days late, then the best possible score that person can have is a 60. So, now they are penalized for revising!
Am I being a bitch? Should I just be nice and let the first draft score stand? Should I just say "well, they can do the math and figure this out for themselves" and then warn them about this potentiality next semester? Is there a way to revise these policies to not have students end up in this situation?
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
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9 comments:
My policy is, if I have a revision function, that they can only increase their mark through revision (barring, of course, something catastrophic like a fully plagiarized revision handed in). So I'd tell them that the lateness of their submission means that they can't improve their original mark and that's standing.
In future, you might want a clause in the revisions policy that says something to the effect of "The late policy of one letter grade per day late holds for essay revisions! Nevertheless, if a revised assignment is submitted so late that penalties reduce the possible mark lower than what is already on the books, the original mark will stand and you will not lose further marks."
Let them learn via consequences. If a student does not realize that a prior grade is higher mathematically than even a potentially perfect paper minus late penalties, well then s/he will learn not only about history that semester, but also some rudimentary arithmetic. No one in life after college will protect students from their own ineptitude. Why not give them that lesson while the sole penalty is a poor grade in one class not a lost job?
You could choose to average the two grades, which would avoid the lower revision grade. But then,that's not the policy you stated to start with . . . .
give them what they chose when they they turned their paper in late. it's not fair to those who worked and got their in on time. they knew the consequences at the beginning.
yeah, i'm a hard nosed bitch, but they're not in elementary school anymore. they're adults who are going to be required to face the consequences of their actions in an adult world. can you tell work with parolees?
I grade the draft and final separately (although I do like your temporary grade idea) and assign points for each. I make it very clear that the final MUST be considerably better than the draft, unless the draft is already so darned good that there's no re-write needed. (In such cases, I just double the number of points for the draft so that a student receives maximum points.)
Oh, and if I make comments on the draft, whether at the sentence-construction-level or at the content/argument level, I expect the students to DO something with those comments. Ignoring my comments and letting bad writing go unchanged will make the final grade actually go DOWN.
I don't think you're a hardass to penalize for late papers, not at all!
If you let the original draft grade stand, rather than lowering their grade, you won't have to grade the late final papers they turned in. I would say that is the way to go. Who knows what they were thinking when they turned in their final papers so late - maybe that they'd done the work so they'd get SOME credit for it? It's entirely fair for them not to, given the policy, but it would add insult to injury to grade the late paper just so you can give them a much lower grade than they would have gotten had you done LESS work and just let the original grade stand.
I am voting with Human.
What I actually do: grade up for being on time, not down for late. I would rather be tougher but given what the circumstances are this is something I can stick to. The only reason it works is that I seem to be a hard grader. Trying to adjust my understanding of grade categories doesn't work for me. This way, I can give the grades that seem normal to me and adjust up for timeliness.
I'm with Janice, human, and profacero. If they learned something in doing the revision, that's great, but it should be neither rewarded (because it was late) nor penalized (because they're clueless.)
It's striking just how much magical thinking goes into end-of-term work. Some students pay no attention at all to the weighting of grades through the term, and they're sure that if they pull an A or B off in the final, that it will save their bacon from all of the poor grades that preceded.
Historiann.com
Thank you everyone!
I decided to do exactly what you all suggested: I did not bother to grade the revisions if their grade was going to be lower on the revision than on the draft due to late penalties. I also reminded them of the policy, on which they were quizzed at the beginning of the semester (I give a syllabus quiz to make sure that they read it, in addition to the class review of it. I'm thinking pop quizzes on it throughout the semester next year!) I shouldn't have to remind them of every single policy.
I also discovered a neat way to make sure that the revisions are, in fact revisions. Since I make them turn in their papers electronically, I realized that I can use the "compare" feature in Word to see exactly what did change between versions. Only a sentence or two changed here and there? Well, I become the Revision Nazi: "No points for you!" I think I saved a day's work and certainly a mountain of frustration right there.
Yeah, the math skills aren't so hot when it comes to grades at the end of the semester. That rush at the end of the semester to "do ANYTHING to make an A/pass the course" is what I call "getting religion." Your chosen god may forgive you your sins at the end of your life if you have a conversion experience, but grades don't work that way.
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