The assignment I hate grading October 14, 2013
Posted by mareserinitatis in education, teaching.Tags: frustration, grading, homework
1 comment so far
I have been giving an assignment in my class the past few years. However, after doing this three years in a row with refinements in each iteration, I’m contemplating whether or not it’s time to throw my hands up in the air and say, “Forget it!”
I have to admit a personal bias in this one: I hate grading this assignment. It’s time consuming and not something that really keeps my attention. Each year I’ve given it, I have gotten more explicit in my instructions. Each year, I have a large portion of students who either ignore the instructions and do it the way they want or completely get it wrong. There are always students who don’t read the instructions, but the latter group makes me anxious. I will present information like “A implies B” and “C implies D.” I ask the students about it, and they will insist that A implies D.
To be fair, about 2/3 of the students seem to get it. About 1/3 REALLY get it and do a great job. Their analysis is wonderful, and I think they really benefit from the assignment.
I’m left wondering if I’m not doing something right that 1/3 of the students aren’t getting it or that I must be awesome that 2/3 are. I suspect part of it is that it’s really hard to see so many students not get something so fundamental to their education. Despite what you may have taken away from my description of the assignment, it’s really a matter of trying to get students to analyze their own thoughts and then draw conclusions about how to approach school based on those thoughts. I worry that if they can’t figure those things out, how well can they really handle the more rigorous content?
I’m being used for target practice… September 27, 2012
Posted by mareserinitatis in education, teaching.Tags: favoritism, frustration, incoming freshman, students, target, teaching
2 comments
Have you ever had a student who felt like they were above doing the homework for a class?
I have the problem frequently because my class is required for all incoming freshman. Somehow, there will be one or two that will fall through the cracks and end up taking it as an upperclassman. Or maybe they come in as a transfer student and someone thinks it’s a good idea for them to take the class. This is never a good situation as most of what I have to tell them, they may have already learned by trial and error. However, in fairness to the other students, I have to make them jump through all the same hoops that they do.
Many times I get the question, “Do you really expect me to do this?”
Yes. I do.
At which point they roll their eyes. And tell me they want an A in the class.
The problem, which they don’t seem to realize, is that I have set out standards to which everyone needs to adhere to pass the class. Everyone has to contract for a grade, so it is abundantly clear what’s expected from them at the very beginning. If I let the standards slip for them, then I can get called on favoritism. On the other hand, the assignments are relatively easy that I don’t understand why they don’t just do them and turn them in. What’s wrong with having an easy class now and again? Some of these students put more effort into getting out of the assignments than they would if they actually just sat down and did them.
To some extent, I can understand it. There’s this notion that freshman need this class to succeed. If they’ve survived for two years already, it’s not unrealistic to think they don’t need the class. But someone puts them in there, and they claim they can’t get out. This leaves me stuck with treating them like trained monkeys, and I can understand the resentment. It does seem like it makes a little bit more sense to have transfers take it, but they don’t resent it any less.
I think the real problem is that they just don’t want to be there, and I’m the only person handy as a target for their frustration.
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