My first grade in community college was an F. I was so confused because I had gotten back A's on all assignments. I almost left college entirely. I met with my teacher and it turns out she confused my name with someone on the roster above me who had received an F. It was and remains one of the worst memories I have of being graded.
This would have sent 18-year-old me into a spiral that I would still be recovering from to this day. Imagine what had happened if you decided to drop out!!
I don't want to be too hard on this prof, who did seem to really care about his students! But you're right. And I think these kinds of comments result from a teacher's perceived need to justify the grade. Obviously knowing my paper wasn't compelling wouldn't help me do better, but it might explain why I didn't earn an A+ or whatever. Grades are definitely in the way here!
I respect your generosity! And you're right about the perceived pressure to justify the grade, though part of me wonders how much it's about justifying the grade to the student, and how much it's about justifying ourselves to the ghosts of our past teachers, professors we TA'ed for, etc.
I am *reeling* by the notion of awarding bonus points for never having to use the bathroom during class. I suspect some urologists and some other disability activists would like to have a word with that teacher.
ALL of my grading memories -- and I was also a good student who routinely got good grades without expending *that* much effort -- are bad. Every one of them.
Liz, it was something else. The intent was obviously to keep students from dawdling in the bathroom or the halls because they were bored in class, but my god.
My list instantly surfaced while reading your post. Both as a student and a teacher I cringe at big and small moments. Once, a student begged me for an extra few points to round up their grade because they feared for their physical safety at home. I had to file a CPS report. There was nothing to the claim as you might imagine and the student went ahead as if nothing happened.
My first grade in community college was an F. I was so confused because I had gotten back A's on all assignments. I almost left college entirely. I met with my teacher and it turns out she confused my name with someone on the roster above me who had received an F. It was and remains one of the worst memories I have of being graded.
This would have sent 18-year-old me into a spiral that I would still be recovering from to this day. Imagine what had happened if you decided to drop out!!
"Not exactly compelling." What is a student supposed to do with that kind of response, exactly?
The purpose of writing comments on student's work is not to demonstrate the commenter's connoisseurship.
I don't want to be too hard on this prof, who did seem to really care about his students! But you're right. And I think these kinds of comments result from a teacher's perceived need to justify the grade. Obviously knowing my paper wasn't compelling wouldn't help me do better, but it might explain why I didn't earn an A+ or whatever. Grades are definitely in the way here!
I respect your generosity! And you're right about the perceived pressure to justify the grade, though part of me wonders how much it's about justifying the grade to the student, and how much it's about justifying ourselves to the ghosts of our past teachers, professors we TA'ed for, etc.
Oh, great point. I feel this more often than I’d like to admit.
I am *reeling* by the notion of awarding bonus points for never having to use the bathroom during class. I suspect some urologists and some other disability activists would like to have a word with that teacher.
ALL of my grading memories -- and I was also a good student who routinely got good grades without expending *that* much effort -- are bad. Every one of them.
Liz, it was something else. The intent was obviously to keep students from dawdling in the bathroom or the halls because they were bored in class, but my god.
My list instantly surfaced while reading your post. Both as a student and a teacher I cringe at big and small moments. Once, a student begged me for an extra few points to round up their grade because they feared for their physical safety at home. I had to file a CPS report. There was nothing to the claim as you might imagine and the student went ahead as if nothing happened.
I would not, indeed, have imagined that there was nothing to the claim, given reports like this: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/friday-report-cards-may-raise-risk-of-child-abuse-says-study/2018/12. Either way, this is very sad. And it illustrates a number of problems with our grading systems!