My Grading Philosophy

I remember watching my youngest daughter's swimming lessons. She wasn't very motivated to learn how to swim because, after all, what's the point in swimming when she has a ring float? Nevertheless, the went through two weeks of swimming lessons, during which time the instructor would watch her performance and give her feedback on how she could do certain things better (i.e. "Make those alligator arms!" and "Lean your head back and straighten your body when you float on your back.") It occurred to me while watching her lessons that this serves as a great metaphor on my grading philosophy.

Some students come to my class highly motivated and excited about learning while others would really rather be somewhere else. They all come to me having experienced English class before with varying degrees of success. I strive to break their preconceived notions of English class (good, bad, or indifferent) and I want students to understand that they will all be successful. What that looks like from one student to the next will vary, but they will all succeed.

Just imagine if my daughter was given a grade at the end of each swimming lesson. Would that number/letter tell her how well she did that day? Perhaps it may give a slight indication, but what was helpful to her was the feedback from her swimming instructor on specific things that she needed to do to improve. Students need to concentrate less on the grade and more on feedback on specific areas of improvement.

I will provide feedback to students as much as possible. Honestly, I view grades as a necessary nuisance. My concern will always be whether or not the students are learning something and are better English students when they leave my class than they were when they got there.

I encourage students to redo their work based on my feedback, and I will accept late work and re-dos up until the Friday before the end of the grading period. This gives me a week to look at everything that has been turned in and update the online gradebook. I strongly encourage students to complete the Late Work/Re-do form whenever an assignment is turned in late or is being resubmitted for a higher grade. Completing this form will ensure that I know to look for it.

Something else you need to know about the online gradebook is that at the beginning of the grading period, I will pre-fill all assignments with a 0, with the exception of the 20% for essays/major papers, which will be due at the end of the grading period. A student's grade should theoretically never go down. Don't be alarmed if a student is showing a failing grade on the progress report. I encourage you to log in to Synergy and see what we have done and what might be missing. If the dates on the assignments are in the future, then we haven't gotten to them just yet.

Please see the syllabus below for more detailed information.