The Politics of Grading
I have been two students.
As an undergrad at A&M, I kind of squeaked by, didn’t enjoy the academics, and graduated with around a 2.5 grade point ratio. Looking back on it, I can honestly say that I didn’t have the maturity to do real well, and I had extracurricular stuff going on that caused academics to take a secondary or tertiary role. And before you raise your eyebrows at the word “extracurricular,” I can tell you that the dual requirements of the Corps of Cadets and my Marine Corps scholarship program (no, they’re not the same thing) had me nearly maxed out. Oh, and I had a good time, too.
As a grad student, though, it’s been a very different deal: all A’s and one B. Why? I’m the same guy, but now there’s a different level of maturity, different level of “ownership” of the academic process, and different expectations.
I’ve just finished my third semester of teaching undergraduate Spanish (101, 102, and 201) and I can tell you there are some trends in student behavior that are worthy of comment. I very much enjoy teaching and I like to see the students do well. If I was to put a bell curve of all my grading together, I know it would be skewed strongly towards A’s and B’s. Higher grades than most teachers generally give, I would guess. I believe it reflects well on me as a teacher if the students earn good grades. But each class will have one or two kids that are having a tough time just dealing with life. They frequently miss class and don’t do the work and some of them even quit coming to class altogether. They don’t drop the class or withdraw, they just quit on their own. They make F’s. The great majority of the students come to class, do their best, learn, and earn pretty good grades that reflect the work they put in. Most of the kids I have in class are really impressive. A&M is not easy to get into and I can tell that the kids in school now are very sharp, capable young people.
There are some, though, who are perfecting the art of working the teacher to get (not earn) the grade they want. This process starts when a student tells me, “I really want to get an A in this class.” I hear that phrase enough to make me think it’s taught in a Doing Well in College course. They do it because it’s effective. We as human beings want to live up to the expectations of others, even if that other person is a student and we’re the teacher. But when I hear “I really want to get an A in this class” I ask myself, “Am I getting worked here?” Because I don’t like getting worked. Someone could call me on the phone offering to sell me something I really need at a really good price and if what I’m hearing sounds like a sales pitch I politely terminate the phone call.
I think the “I really want to get an A” student believes that making that statement puts the monkey on the teacher’s back, as if the teacher is forced to think, “If I don’t give this kid an A, he/she will be really upset with me.” The “I want an A” kid doesn’t realize that when he/she tells me that he/she wants an A, he/she immediately puts the monkey on his or her own back. Because when they miss class or show up unprepared, now I really notice it.
The “I want an A” kid reviews their point total with you near the end of the semester and then wants to argue that they should receive credit for doing the on-line homework on days they had an unexcused absence. They make it a point to argue that they should get a 19 instead of an 18 on a 20-point composition (out of a 600 pt course). They try to interrogate you to find out exactly what will be on the final so they can mentally dump everything else you taught them through the course of the semester. As soon as the finals are over they’ll e-mail you asking what grade they came out with. And when you e-mail them back and say, “You did really well this semester and your final exam grade had you at a B for the class. I know you were shooting for an A, but your grade just didn’t reach that level. I’d be glad to meet with you to go over your final and show you where you fell short,” you’ll get nothing back. No response whatsoever. And that just confirms that that it wasn’t about learning, it wasn’t about getting better, you were just getting worked.
And it’s great that they want to make a good grade, but let me tell you what would be more impressive to me as a teacher: to hear the kid say, “I really want to learn to speak, read, write and understand Spanish well.”
I had a kid this summer who spoke Spanish to me every time he talked to me –in class, after/before class, in e-mails, whenever. You think that didn’t impress me? You think I didn’t help that guy in every way that I could and give him every benefit of the doubt?
