Saturday, December 01, 2007

Early thoughts on zeros

A zero is not punitive; it is a reminder. Students whose grade is not affected by an uncompleted assessment will be far more likely to remember if they have a horrific average because of it. This holds ESPECIALLY true for students who care about learning - they're the ones who'll be so into learning something NEW that they won't remember to prove they learned last week's stuff!

I do accept late work without additional penalty, though. I figure having to do the late work in addition to the current work is a natural, reasonable consequence - with the side bonus that when the student DOES bust his (or her) butt and get caught up, then later on, I can push them to do more and better work, and if they gripe, I get to say, "Look, I know this is tough, but I've seen what you can do when you put your mind to it!"

>:D Heh heh heh.

I may, however, convert the zeros to fifties before the grades get locked.

2 comments:

Mrs. Chili said...

Converting zeros to fifties still equals a failing grade, right? Explain to me how that math is better, please, because I don't get it.

Joel said...

I think the question, as exemplified in this report, is not so much that it's a failing grade, but that the zero is so much more devastating to the student's overall average.

I am not fully on board one side or the other on this debate. Since I am a band director and don't have many homework assignments for the students to turn in, it's not a huge issue for me.

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