Kristine's Reading Notes 5

             Think that grading is always going to be a tough task to complete. As students, it is all we focus on. A good grade allows us to earn a higher gpa then off to a better graduate or doctoral program. However, how these grades are weighed varies considerably and how students are assessed differs. I like when Lang cites Valvoord and Anderson (p131). The idea of the math teacher making students solve equations in one column then write out the steps involved in another is interesting. While theoretically this sounds like a good idea, it has been my experience that more students aren’t’ good at both tasks. Usually a student has an elevated skill in one solving technique. Therefore, I wonder, should we test students in ways they are stronger or areas they are weaker to help with improvement?

            The argument on page 125 in Lang about late course work should be discussed as well. I don’t agree with Bain that the reason why students turn in late work is due to extra work wanting to be done on a project. Given the opportunity to turn assignments in at a later time, students will wait. Most of the time student s are waiting to do an assignment the night before anyways. I think there should be a penalty for late work, however I am not sure, as an inexperienced teacher, what a fair policy is for late work.

            Davis on page 309, talks about different writing exercises teachers can incorporate into their class. One idea is to have a three to five minute pause where students write about a given topic. She advises not to collect these papers at the end. My question is how do I know students are writing appropriately or benefiting from these writing assignments? How often should these kind of tasks be incorporated?

            Davis also talks about how to reduce time on grading. She advices when giving a lot of homework to only grade a few problems. However, as a student I remember getting upset for not getting credit on all the other problems I spent time doing. Is this a fair way to grade homework assignments? I understand that a student could check their own work by the answer key being put on blackboard, but at the same time some math problems take ten minutes a piece, and times that by 15 problems, the time adds up quickly. Practice makes perfect but I don’t think it would be fair to make a student do all that work then give them minimal credit for it.