Grading

I begin by saying that I hate grading in school. By the time that students are in high school they have either become point hogs, or given up. We have trained them in this way all through school and university is little different. But I have become part of the system. Perhaps for lack of imagination I participate in the system. This is only an introduction to a related subject.

I thought that I set up the history class in such a way that all students could experience success. There are extra curricular parts of my class that involve no grading. From the beginning I said that I would tell stories of history by means of films and I would come up with a new idea every day- mostly from my book called Ideas. Students get their points by taking notes from the book. The book is also on line as well as sample tests. I actually use the sample tests on line. I have showed my students where the questions are so they can practice them until they are all correct. Most of their grade is the well taken notes and scores on the test.

As of today, progress report time for the third quarter there are 2 A's, 5 B's, 1 C, 5 D's and 9 F's. I find it disgrace. In a discussion with my class someone mentioned that they were too lazy to look up the questions. That was a moment of truth. I finally agreed to give them the questions ahead of time but not the choices or the answers.

As the first progress reports come, tensions are rising in my fourth period. Because it is a full class (33), and they as a group are not very well behaved, I have instituted my point system for good and bad behavior. Good behavior gets 10 points- easy. I take a point off for each bad behavior or five off for being late or ten off for a major infraction. One of my badly behaved students who usually get a fat zero for each day's bad behavior argues that I should not count behavior and that he really should have a "B". I argue that good behavior is fundemental to a good learning environment. I told him, "If you can come up with another behavior plan that will work to make you behave yourself in class, I will go for it."