Grading

What Does Your Grade Mean to You?

Is it a means to a certain GPA? Is it a ticket into nursing school or university? Does it hold additional value to you? What would you do for an A? Do you see your grade as fair indication of how much you achieved in a certain class?

I encourage you think about these questions and explore your answers.

What Your Grade Means to Me

I see grades as a measure of where a student is in the process of mastering (fully learning) the course content of Nutrition 10

Something along the lines of.......

95-100% is True Mastery
85-94 is Real Proficiency
75-84 is Getting There
68-74% is Room for More Potential

In short, your course grade is my assessment of how thoroughly and completely you learned the course content of the Nutrition 10 material. That assessment is determined through assessment tools, like tests and the diet assignment.

What Your Grade DOES NOT Means to Me (and shouldn't mean to you)

Your grade is NOT a judgement of who you are as a person, or as a student.

A low grade is NOT indicative of lack of drive, dedication or commitment.

A low grade does NOT mean a student is stupid, dumb, or has no potential. A LOT of factors goes into a student's "performance" on an assessment.

Assessments are Flawed

Here's the thing: Assessment tools are not a perfect way to measure a student's mastery of the material. Far from it.

Exams/Tests, quizzes, assignments -- these are all ways an instructor ascertains how well students have mastered a course's learning tasks. Some are better than others. Essay exams might be more revealing than multiple choice exams, for example.

And there are alternative methods, like having a conversation with a student and from that, identifying the level of comprehension a student has acquired.

Unfortunately, a teacher like myself who has ~150-200 students combined in single quarter has limited resources--time and energy! With no teacher's assistant, it is impossible for me to give assessments that take a lot of time and effort to evaluate.

So, I am forced to settle for traditional Tests-- true/false question and multiple choice questions.

I try VERY hard to make my tests fair, clear and reasonable. They reflect the course content. The good news is you will have a Study Guide for each Test.

Do This!

To help reduce that stress and improve the likelihood of getting the grade you want, PLAN to give yourself the time and space you need to do your best work. Don't procrastinate.

If you're a procrastinator, find strategies that have been shown to help people break that tendency. They exist and some might work for you. To get started, you can read 6 great tips for stopping procrastination in this LifeHack article

And use the resources I give you. I offer many.

If you find yourself confused, lost, frustrated, feeling like you want to give up, reach out to me. I might be able to give you concrete ideas for ways you can change the way things are going for you in Nutrition 10.

Points Earned

Welcome to Nutrition 10 Survey 5

Orientation Quiz 10

Pronto Participation 5

Feedback Survey 5

Asynchronous Discussion 5

6 Tests* 120

Diet Assignment 150

Total Possible Points 300

*7 Tests are given. The lowest score gets dropped from your cumulative score

Course Grading Scale

97 – 100% = A+

93 – 96 = A

89 – 92 = A-

87 – 88 = B+

82 – 86 = B

79 – 81 = B-

76 – 78 = C+

68 – 75 = C

There is no C-

66 – 67 = D+

58 – 65 = D

50 – 57 = D-

<50 = F

There are "Easy" Points to Earn -- Earn Them!

There are 30 points in this class that are super easy to earn:

The Orientation Quiz (10 points). It will consist of 10 True/False and Multiple choice questions, taken from the information found in the Orientation Module and this syllabus. It will be open from Monday--the first day of the quarter--at 6 am until Sunday night at the end of the official Week 1 of this course, at 11:55 pm. You have up to 1 hour to answer 10 questions, and you will have 2 tries to take it. If you take this quiz twice, the average of the 2 scores is the score that is kept. Getting 10/10 points is super easy IF you take the time to go through the Orientation Module, read the syllabus, etc.
The Welcome to Nutrition 10 Survey (5 super easy points)
Participating on Pronto in the first official week (5 points)
Completing a Feedback Survey (5 super easy points)
Full participation on the Asynchronous Discussion (5 points)

Takeaway Message

These 30 points are easy to earn. They do not require academic effort. EARN ALL of THEM!
Getting 30/30 points = 100%. Having a score of 100% helps to skew your total point percentage upward which can ultimately change your grade
These points account for nearly 10% of your grade. As Woody Allen famously said "80% of success is just showing up!" Well, here, 10% of your grade in this course is for "just showing up" -- Filling out the Feedback Survey, participating on the Discussion, etc.

Don't overlook the small tasks that are tied to these "easy points" opportunities

Be Totally Clear on This

These points are NOT Bonus or Extra Credit Points. They are points that are included in the 300 points. None of those tasks are optional; all are required.

So if you don't do the tasks to earn these points, your score would be 0/30 or 0% . Submitting some but not all might leave you with 50% of those points.

Not earning these points will skew your grade downward and have an undesirable effect on your course grade.

Strive for earning all 30/30 or 100% of the easy points. This will help skew your grade upward.

There will be extra credit points

YEAH......Up to 10 Extra Credit Points can be earned in this class 👏

In the last week of the quarter there will be 2 Extra Credit Reflections, each is worth 5 points.

To earn 5 points you will watch one of the TED talks and write a reflection (answer some questions about it). You can do 1 or both Extra Credit Reflections, for a maximum of 10 points.

These points can potentially raise your course grade, or add a plus or take away a minus 😊