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I taught elementary, so maybe this doesn't apply to secondary. I would, on occasion, throw out an assignment (for the whole class). Why? Because they did poorly and it was something that needed to be retaught. I'm not going to penalize the class with a poor grade when there was an obvious disconnect somewhere. After reteaching, I'd give the class either a new assignment or have them redo the same one as before.
My point- it is not totally unheard of for a teacher to toss out an assignment. It is quite different to not grade anything at all.
*I would begin to grade them, but I could typically tell if there was a major issue after grading 5 or so. Why continue grading if it isn't being taught. I would also explain to my students why they were not going to receive a grade for it- "I threw it away because we need to spend some more time on this concept."
When I had 21 students I could grade long writing samples very easily, so the majority of my grades came from them. Now that I have 52 students, I limit them to 2-3 times a grading period. I get my grades from other products that are easier to grade. I think it gives a more rounded grade, as some children don't perform well on long writing samples.
I'm shocked a high school math teacher isn't using scantrons. Even upper elementary teachers use them. That seems like he is a newbie with no experience.
Sounds like someone got no training in classroom management.
Not uncommon when someone "ends up" teaching.
Sounds like this was made up. I could not get away with not grading exams. For starters parents would have a fit if their kids could not see what they got wrong. My dd is in community college and she gets her graded exams back. Someone somewhere along the line is going to ask to see why they got the grade they did.
I think everyone tosses an assignment from time to time or decides it is a completion grade... But not grading assessments? Or just entering random good grades? That's crazy.
Not exactly. Where there are questions raised is if there's an inordinate number of Ds and Es and, sometimes, an over abundance of As and Bs.
I got dinged for the latter a couple times. But, as I explained to the Principal, he was talking about an elective class (Psychology, not AP) in which almost every kid was a volunteer to be in. They wanted to take it.
So I went under intense supervision in the classes for a couple weeks, had to submit test and work exemplars, and got a "Sorry, now I understand".
jesus christ! That sounds stressful. Well it was a teacher who told me this when I was in high school. A lot of the times students would hope that more than just one or two fail a test so that there could be a grading curve...I think that is what it is a ccalled and teachers would add a few points to everyone's grades.
When I had 21 students I could grade long writing samples very easily, so the majority of my grades came from them. Now that I have 52 students, I limit them to 2-3 times a grading period. I get my grades from other products that are easier to grade. I think it gives a more rounded grade, as some children don't perform well on long writing samples.
I'm shocked a high school math teacher isn't using scantrons. Even upper elementary teachers use them. That seems like he is a newbie with no experience.
Even scantrons became obsolete when...7 or 8 years ago?
jesus christ! That sounds stressful. Well it was a teacher who told me this when I was in high school. A lot of the times students would hope that more than just one or two fail a test so that there could be a grading curve...I think that is what it is a called and teachers would add a few points to everyone's grades.
It sort of wasn't because I refused to arbitrarily change things to give kids lower grades because a Principal, who spent 3 years teaching PE before becoming an administrator, was unhappy. A Principal, I might add, who had trouble showing up on time in the morning (two of my last four Principals had "interesting" theories about personal attendance).
I think what you're talking about may be a test curve, which I might have done a handful of times over 30+ years, where the highest grade on the test, say 82%, becomes the new 100% and you take your percentages off that. That would make a 50% around a 70 (too lazy to do the actual math for it).
Here's the thing, we're "teachers". If we have a class where almost everyone is crashing it isn't the kids in 99% of the cases, it's the teacher. Something isn't connecting. I had one particular colleague who taught Math, Alg II specifically. She would have 30 out of 32 kids failing the class with the other 2 having Ds. She was always upset because she claimed (with some justification) that the kids didn't know Alg I. The problem was one where she wouldn't go in reverse and fill in the Alg I gaps because she "teaches Alg II, dammit" and it wasn't her fault kids couldn't do it. She was just" following the curriculum".
I don't believe the story either. IME, everything had to be documented in detail and it was required to hold on to all student work. If a grade was disputed, the teacher needed to show evidence for that report card grade. Also, most teachers would go over the test in class so that students understood what they did wrong and didn't repeat that same mistake in the final exam or regents exam.
Even scantrons became obsolete when...7 or 8 years ago?
Plus it's difficult to assess some material on a multiple choice test.
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