Hailey's Reading Notes #5

I had a moment while reading Lang this week, at the very beginning of the chapter, when I literally said aloud, “Oh my gosh! I agree! Grading is horrible!”

He discusses the situation that emerges when the first grades come back, a new line is drawn in the classroom: teacher and student. I felt that way after the first grading assignment in COMM 110. The 2-3 minutes speeches took me hours upon hours to grade. The reason wasn’t because of the complexity of the material, but instead because I felt guilty and kept reevaluating the speeches I had already graded. I knew that my grading was correct, that the students that received a C or even a D deserved the grade, but I also knew that when they received those grades, they would be mad at me. I know that I am not “giving” a student a D, they earned that grade, but I still feel guilty. Do you ever get over that feeling of being the “bad guy”?

I think one thing that I struggle with as an instructor, especially during the grading of my first set of speeches, was overmarking. Davis urges instructors to avoid overmarking assignments and only focus on one or two major problems. While this may make me sound like a mean teacher, what do I do when I can’t limit my critiques to one or two major problems? I did like the suggestions of writing helpful comments and not simply, “vague” or “unclear”. I know that I have done this in the past and should avoid it from now on. Students will benefit more from specific comments with a clear example, not broad statements.

One thing I feel strongly about is the grading system I will use in my course design. Lang discusses the percentage vs. the point system, and I am very pro point system. I think it is very useful for students to be able to see their grade as they move throughout the semester.

While I found it interesting to hear an alternate proposal on how to handle late assignments, I adamantly disagree. Lang discusses Ken Bain’s belief that students might turn in late assignments because they are spending extra time going above and beyond on the assignment. Maybe I have a poor opinion on those students that do turn in late assignments, or maybe because I would rather poke myself in the eye than turn in a late assignment, but I have to say, seriously? Does Bain really believe students turn in late assignments because they are reaching for a higher goal? This is definitely something I would want to discuss in class. To me, if you turn in a late assignment you were not prepared and your grade should reflect that.