Blog 6

I dread grading! It’s time-consuming and it often makes me feel rueful, because I don’t like to give bad grades. But sometimes, there is just no way around it, because even the most generous interpretation of the student’s work and partial credit won’t significantly raise the grade.

When I started grading four semesters ago, I felt very uncomfortable, especially when grading the papers of students who were my former classmates. It was like “Wow, not too long ago we were working on the same class project and complaining about it, and now I am the one expecting dedication and good work!” These days I care less who has taken a class with me. Since I use criterion-referenced grading, every student knows the grading criteria and is responsible for his or her own grades.

I always start out grading the lab reports of two groups together. Once I’m done, I put one group away and start with the next one, while keeping an eye of how I have graded the one I kept. Doing this is an easy way to ensure that I keep using the same criteria for all the groups. (Besides, I may find out when they start copying each other). I usually check the right answers off and write what is missing on each student’s paper. I also made it a point to give the graded lab reports back at the beginning of the next lab and go over the most missed questions. Although my grading is based on an answer key, I have at least one student every year that challenges my grading . . .

The students’ writing is sometimes missing clarity, style, and mechanics, which makes it hard to grade. I honestly don’t know how to address this problem, because the poor writing skills are most often found in students whose native language is Spanish. I don’t feel comfortable telling them that they should improve their writing in English. After all, I’m a foreigner myself; and my writing isn’t always flawless either!