Tag Archives: Grades

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Today was a pretty each day – you even had some time to finish your Deep Questions from yesterday if you haven’t gotten those done yet.

We started talking about which we’d rather: knowing WHEN we would die or knowing HOW we’d die – without any ability to change future events.

Then, we talked about grades – I’ll just post the slides that I put up.Slide4 Slide5 Slide6 Slide7 Slide8 Slide9 Slide10 Slide11Next, we watched two videos by the guys who did The Buried Life on MTV. This one is the trailer for their tv show, and this is a really deep TED Talk that the four guys gave in Rome.

We talked about the difference between a MEANINGFUL item and a COOL item – choose items that are meaningful to you. Here’s MY Bucket List!

http://bucketlist.org/list/lochnessa/

Create your own account, create your OWN BucketList, and then copy/paste the web address to the Discussion board by creating a new thread.

I’ll be grading this on having a AT LEAST ten meaningful items. Try to think of things that YOU want to do before you start borrowing from other people.

Grading Scale

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A Like a double mocha cappuccino with whipped cream and sprinkles, “A” work goes above and beyond expectations. It not only demonstrates an understanding of concepts discussed in class, but also takes risks and presents additional insights.

 

B Like a really good cup of coffee, “B” demonstrates understanding of the concepts presented in class and shows thought and effort, but it doesn’t take any risks or offer fresh insight.

 

C Like decaf, “C” work is solid, but doesn’t pack the punch of “A” or “B” work. It’s competent, but not dazzling.

 

D Like the burnt dregs from a gas-station coffee pot, a “D” paper is there, but leaves a bad taste. “D” work just doesn’t hang together and probably shows lack of thought and effort.

 

F As Ani Difranco says, “The coffee is just water dressed in brown.” While “F” is definitely better than zero, it is clearly not up to snuff. “F” work is the result of careless work and poor planning.

 

I don’t know who originally wrote this, but I’d love to be able to give credit to him or her. Can anyone help me attribute the author?

Grading

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So, what’s the deal with this whole “experience points”, you ask?

Ok, It’s pretty simple. I am using the same category weighting system (this means that major assignments and writing assignments will all still count more than dinky daily grades). I am just assigning points instead of averages. So that means if there have been a total of 50 assigned, and you have 45 points. you have an average of a 90.

However, there will be an average of 1500* points in this class, so if at the end of the term, you still only have 45 points, your average will be a 3. As in three.

The reason I am doing it this way is so that you don’t get content with a 70. Too many times, students get 70’s and then stagnate, thinking that they have it all taken care of, when in reality they are just going to colect zeros and lower their grade.

Do you have any questions about this grading scale? Ask away! Help me make it better!