[lit-ideas] Re: Grade inflation
- From: John Wager <johnwager@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 12:48:56 -0500
Let me give you a concrete example of real grade inflation. This is a
completely true story.
The first year I taught full-time at a college, 5 faculty members from
different disciplines were all hired together to team-teach a Freshman
Studies program of 5 sections of 5 courses. We decided to require one
term paper at the end, but with a component from each course addressed
in that one paper. The general theme was "love," and every student had
to include specific concerns from each of their 5 courses.
We hadn't really thought about how we were all going to grade this until
we had a pile of 125 term papers in a pile in the office. If we each
took 25, it would be 5-10 days before we got them all passed around; we
had 3 days until grades were due.
So we put the whole lot in a big bag and went off for lunch at the
"Ground Round" restaurant down the street. We decide we would pass them
around the "round table" which was indeed a round table, until we were
done. Of course we ordered a pitcher of beer and a couple of baskets of
in-shell peanuts while we graded. Then another basket of peanuts. Then
another pitcher of beer. Then another pitcher of beer. Then another
pitcher of beer. By gosh! Those term papers got better and better as the
evening wore on! By the end of the night, we found that the last papers
we read were absolutely hilarious!
I hope we have all matured since then, but I have my doubts.
Omar Kusturica wrote:
>One thing to consider is, correcting and grading is a
>time-consuming activity anyway, and imagine how much
>more so it would be if every paper had to be discussed
>at some kind of "round-table". Those teacher types
>need a life, too.
>
>Gotta go correct compositions,
>
>O.K.
>
>
>--- Torgeir Fjeld <torgfje2@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
>>On 12 Apr 2004 at 19:33, Robert Paul wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>Torger writes:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>For papers and essays, a lone professor is the
>>>>
>>>>
>>sole arbiter... one voice, one
>>
>>
>>>opinion -- no matter how honest, meticulous, and
>>>
>>>
>>caring...<
>>
>>I did not write this.
>>
>>--
>>Torgeir Fjeld
>>torgfje2@xxxxxxxxxx
>>http://home.no.net/torgfje/
>>
>>
>>
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