- The first issue in this week’s reading that I found valuable was the section on Grading Exams on page 143 of First Day to Final Grade. This section is pretty basic, and essentially just lists out some tips on how to make grading an exam easier for the professor. The reason I find this so valuable is because (a) I will be giving an exam in the course I teach very soon, and (b) because I tend to start doing things (such as grading) without any method and then later come to find that there was a much easier system available. I especially liked the advice on writing on students exams which I feel also applies to the way I grade speeches. The text says that if you find yourself writing more than the student did then you should stop and write “come see me” at the top of the paper. This doesn’t apply exactly to the course that I teach because all of our tests are multiple choice and true/false, but I think it applies to speeches because I found myself writing A LOT of comments on each students grade sheet, which made the grading process take even longer than it needed to. I think I need to stop worrying so much about writing the same amount of information on each grade sheet and focus more on writing good comments and keeping track of students who may need some extra advice. Again, public speaking is one of those courses where you have to mold this advice to fit the assignments and I plan when grading try this when grading the next speech and the first exam.
- The next concept that I find important is page 125 of McKeachie’s Teaching Tips. This page is an isolated table that illustrates what students’ teachers, and employers want from grades. It talks in detail about how each group views grades and what grades say about an individual from each perspective. According to this section student’s view grades as a means for gauging whether or not they feel comfortable with a certain field of study and if they feel they can succeed in that field. This is interesting to me because the majority of my students are freshman and are likely to change the major before the end of the second semester, as many do. I never gave much thought to how my students internalized or rationalized their grades, but it makes sense, especially with younger students, that they would use them this way. The text states that professors generally use grades as a means for determining what we think a students skills are and what type of person they are based on their performance in class. I mostly agree with because I know that I do this when I look at students grades, but I also think that we as professors often base some of our opinion of students on our own personal bias, and grades can either reinforce or negate those biases. On some level grading is subjective, we know we should be as objective as possible, but we are human and we run on emotion more times than not, which means we may really want a student to get grades that they just don’t deserve. This concept has got me thinking about the way I grade and whether or not I’ve let personal bias and emotions sway a grade one way or the other. I try to be objective, but that doesn’t mean I can’t fall prey to basic human emotion. This concept is present in all fields, and it is important that we as teachers are constantly aware of it. It’s made me a little paranoid.
- The third concept I find useful from this week’s reading is Handling Cheating. This section is on pages 119 through 121 in McKeachie’s Teaching Tips, and outlines some ways for dealing with cheating that help professors handle cheating in a way that is beneficial to both the student and the teacher. One of the points made in this section is that when handling cheating of any kind it is important to follow the college’s procedures; find out the legal precedents and how they can affect what you do. This section scared me a little because I haven’t had a problem with cheating (that I know of) thus far and haven’t really thought about what I will do if it occurs. I come from an undergraduate institution that is very small and thus tends to be a little more lenient when it comes to cheaters. I’ve never had to think about the legal precedents of a college before and it is a bit daunting. What I took away from this section was the importance of (a) finding out the college’s policies regarding cheating and, (b) making sure that if I see a student cheating that I do something about it. The section talks about young teachers who are afraid to call out students for cheating because they don’t want to make a scene or they themselves may have cheated in the past. I feel that I can be objective when it comes to cheating, but I guess I’ll only know for sure when the time for action presents itself.
Here are some links:
How to Cheat (funny)
NDSU Cheating Policy
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