Week 4: Understand the challenge of the first grades<\/p>\n
As I write this, I am thinking I don\u2019t need to be writing this, I need to be posting in my course shells and grading. <\/em>\u00a0Tonight MSW students from two classes I teach attended and facilitated groups in VSU\u2019s Readers\u2019 theater<\/em> for new students living in VSU housing.\u00a0 I was pleased to see the MSW students\u2019 contributions, and also our program being out there\u2014out of our building and with a population that I don\u2019t often see us with\u2014the undergraduates at Valdosta State University.<\/p>\n So the challenge of the first grades . . . <\/em>the students I teach are Masters students, but me and my classes are new to some of them.\u00a0 And, the fourth week is usually when assignments have been submitted and there are grades\u2014the early grades, the before midterm grades. \u00a0I have learned a lot about grading over my years of teaching. My father who was a college professor would say that \u201cGrading is the dishwashing of teaching\u201d \u2013meaning that it is a necessary task that is usually done at the end, and something that is not be the most enjoyable part of teaching.<\/p>\n When I started teaching at the university level in 1998, online and hybrid teaching were just beginning. Grading before online was grading actual papers or exams\u2014red pen in hand, and when I started as an instructor it took me so long to grade. And, then moving to online\u2014probably about 2003 or 2004, and not everything was submitted online then. That was another learning curve.\u00a0 Reading the work and grading on the screen, inserting comments, changing font colors, saving, and returning the work to the students. I have gotten faster over time, and more confident.\u00a0 Faster with the technology and more confident in my ratings and conclusions about student work.\u00a0 And, technology has gotten lighter\u2014lighter in that when I travel my laptops aren\u2019t as heavy, and lighter in that technology is easier and more reliable now.<\/p>\n Right now in my career, I don\u2019t mind grading as much I used to. I enjoy the quiet of reading a student\u2019s work and I must say I give interesting assignments\u2014so that helps.\u00a0 I see grading as communicating with the student. \u00a0I have learned so much from my students through their work\u2014learned about policy, laws and court cases, \u00a0social problems, current events, populations at risk for oppression, discrimination and poverty, and international social welfare and social work. I aim to give lots of written feedback as well as a numeric and letter grade. \u00a0I try to soften the feedback, \u201cTry rewording this\u201d or \u201cThis is a little short, elaborate more\u201d or \u201cYou write conversationally\u2014you write like you talk, take a more professional tone, use language\/terms that are more specific.\u201d<\/p>\n So back to the challenge of the first grades, <\/em>one thing I have learned is that grading is not over once you return the paper, exam or assignment.\u00a0 Students will have questions, comments and concerns especially if their grades are not what they want them to be. Encourage them to reach out, make time in your schedule for them to reach out, discuss the assignments in the next class\u2014this can be done early in the semester. Have graded assignments early in the semester. Don\u2019t wait.\u00a0 Early is the time for practice, mistakes, lessons, phone calls, appointments, and learning.<\/p>\n Midterm? Later? The last week of class?\u00a0 When grades are due? Well, I am not writing about that now, and I must get back to my course shell\u2014I’ve got articles to post and grading to do.\u00a0 We are still in the fourth week of class. More about later-later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Week 4: Understand the challenge of the first grades As I write this, I am thinking I don\u2019t need to be writing this, I need to be posting in my course shells and grading. \u00a0Tonight MSW students from two classes I teach attended and facilitated groups in VSU\u2019s Readers\u2019 theater for new students living in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":345,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/dhollim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/dhollim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/dhollim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/dhollim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/345"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/dhollim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/dhollim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/dhollim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions\/148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/dhollim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/dhollim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/dhollim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}