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Lesson Plans


Re: more about grading students

From: wendy sauls (wsauls)
Date: Sat Feb 26 2000 - 10:01:24 PST

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    hi rosa!

    i always love to read your posts - i am interested in talking grades, if you
    want to!

    my (middle school) class grades tend to be mostly a's and b's, a few c's,
    and one or two d's and f's, unfortunately.

    for each project my students receive a requirement sheet that outlines what
    i am looking for in so far as content and technique. my feeling is that if
    they participate in all aspects of the project - introductory discussions,
    research, and creation of their artwork - and make a genuine attempt to meet
    the requirements of the project which demonstrate to me that they are able
    to operationalize i tried to teach, they should get an a.

    i don't think its fair to give a's only to students who create what i
    consider to be "masterpieces". i feel like my job is to teach a lot about
    art, and help kids see how cool it is to look at and make art, not to
    identify and train future professional artists.

    i am glad most of my students seem interested enough in what we are doing in
    class to put forth the effort required to be successful. kids who get c's
    are usually the ones who refuse to do their homework but who do ok in class.
    d's go to kids who are wildly inconsistent and just can't seem to get it
    together but who i feel like are trying occassionally... f's go to kids who
    do nothing in so far as class participation. it always saddens me to give
    kids f's but i can't justify a passing grade for no work. i believe, as i
    tell my students, that since i am willing to work hard to try to come up
    with lessons that are interesting and useful to them (i beg for their input
    on this!) and i am always available for extra help, that they have to give
    some energy back in return.

    if i were queen of the world, i think i would assign grades of
    "wow!superfantasticincredible!", "pretty good", and "wake up!" with lots of
    comments to go along with the grades. at my school we have these horrible
    report cards that are printed out on a computer. the only comments we can
    give are numbers that correspond with a list at the bottom of the report
    card - "1" means "is a joy to have in class" ..."22" means "fails to turn
    in assignments", stuff like that.

    another thing that bothers me is that there is an extremely high correlation
    between failure in my class and quality of home life...the kids who fail art
    usually have all sorts of problems to deal with. there is very little
    available to address these problems, the kids are just stuck in bad
    situations.

    on the other hand, i have had to defend myself in front of the principal and
    parents when an "honors" student earned a grade of b or c in my class. how
    could they get a c in art and have all a's in their other classes?! because
    they view art as recess/playtime and are pretty slack workers!

    hope is this is what you were interested in hearing about!

    wendy

    ps i have once or twice heard some other teachers at my school express their
    views about not wanting to give too many a's. i think some feel this way
    because they want the a to represent exceptional work, not average...others,
    though, i think are just on a power trip! to me, the greatest thing would
    be to figure out how to get all the students to earn the a! it's not like
    if we give too many a's, we'll run out! (kinda like love!)

    > I guess noone is interested in telling me how their criteria is for giving
    > a student A in art. What I am actually interested in is finding out if
    > there are people out there who feel that no matter what very few students
    > should ever get A´s. Here in Iceland we have art teachers that think that
    > it should almost be impossible to get A´s. I feel that if a student
    > fulfills all the objectives I set and puts in all her/his effort, that
    > student should get an A. I really was hoping to hear some thoughts on
    this.
    > Best regards from the far north,
    > Rosa
    > p.s. my previous letter
    > >I am curious to hear from you fellow teachers what you expect a student
    to
    > >>accomplish for you to give her/him an A?
    > >Best regards from the far north,
    > >Rosa
    >
    >
    >
    > ---
    >
    > 

    ---

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