Monday, November 3, 2008

Grading

I used to really despise grading when I only had to grade two classes worth of papers (around fifty at UH). But now I have five classes worth, which totals up to somewhere around one hundred and twenty papers. Yowzers! It works out to about fourteen hours of reading through lazy, underdeveloped writing by students who have systematically been taught that rigorous thought is valueless, and the best way to get through any assignment is the simplist possible formula. Also I just read that kids are now less likely to finish high school than their parents. Thank you, goodnight!

RATING: 21%

4 comments:

John said...

Give them low marks, shame them with your unsparing yet constructive comments, and then give them the option of doing a rewrite. The ones that actually care will try harder, and the ones that don't will get the low marks they deserve, while your ass is still covered if the administration asks why so many students got low marks.

Kids only write like that because they've been allowed to get away with it. You gotta trim that baby fat.

DCP said...

Yeah, I have them do drafts, so I'm already giving them some harsh comments. Then they end up just changing whatever specific words or sentences I've commented on rather than changing any general problems I've given feedback on. Rats!

John said...

So be like, "This is a D paper, and you will get a D unless heed the following comments: blah blah blah."

You have to say it like that, though: "blah blah blah." Then they'll know you're serious.

John said...

Oops. I mean "unless you heed the following comments." I'd do a rewrite of my own, except neither of my shitty browsers will let me delete comments anymore.