Assignments and Grading

1. Assignments and Grading

2. The Effect of Grades After Grades Before Grades

3. The Grading Problem • No Standards • You have to set the standards • You are responsible for your own grading

4. Assignments and Exams • Should link to course objectives • Should allow you to see whether students are meeting goals • Make a Course Calendar • Check exams and assignments against objectives • Offer assignment variety • Have writing assignments • Exam test questions • Two column – problem solution in column 1, explanation in column 2 • Be Creative – maybe give a taste of professional life • May need to break large assignments into chunks • Include precise instructions

5. Example of Creative Assignments • Advertisement • Briefing paper or “white paper” • Budget with rationale • Client report for an agency • Court brief • Diary of a fictional or real historical character • Executive summary • Instructional manual • Letter to the editor • Regulations, laws, rules • Research proposal addressed to a granting agency • Review of book, play, exhibit • Taxonomy of set of categories

6. Make sure you give precise instructions

7. Late Work • Penalties • Give them a taste of professional life • No Penalties • Assignments should be learning experiences, not performances • Year 1 – establish a policy and stick to it • Year 2 – revisit your policy

8. Evaluating Assignments • Save the pen • Announce common errors in class and not on each students paper • You may be able to simply give a number or letter on the paper • Make a rubric • Establishes priorities – might even help your teaching • Tends to make grading consistent • Saves time • Share the rubric with the students • Let experience guide rubric revisions

9. Assigning Grades • DON’T CURVE • Traditionally a curve is to establish the numbers of A’s, B’s, etc. by some standard, like the normal curve • What is all students deserve an A? • Today many students mean “give me points I haven’t earned”

10. Letter Grades • How many divisions are there? • Here we use A, B, C, D, F • Assign each division a point value (F = 0, D = 1, C= 2, B = 3, A = 4) • Next assign weights to the assignments • Tests (Three) 50% (15%, 15%, 20%) • Papers (Two) 40% (20%, 20%) • Presentation 10% • Sarah gets the following grades • Tests: B, C, B • Papers: C, C • Presentations: B

11. Letter Grades (cont’d) • Convert to numerical value • Tests: 3, 2, 3 • Papers: 2, 2 • Presentation: 3 • Apply weights • Tests: .15*3; .15*2; .20*3  .45; .30; .60  Sum = 1.35 • Papers: .20*2; .20*2  .40; .40  Sum .80 • Presentation: .10*3  .30 • Net sum is 2.45 • Convert back into a letter grade (round down to C or round up to B)

12. Total Points • Generate a scale (say we assign a total of 1000 pts) • A 900 – 1000 • B 800 – 890 • C 700 – 790 • D 600 – 690 • F < 600 • Assign points/assignment • Tests: 150, 150, 200 • Papers: 200, 200 • Presentation: 100 • Just add up total points and consult the conversion table. • Having so many points allows for fine divisions

13. Norm’s System A 90 – 105 B 80 – 89 C 70 – 79 D 60 – 69 F < 60

14. Summary

15. Notes • Grading should support learning not justifying your grade • Make grading transparent • Comments on paper should be constructive • Return work promptly