I have friend that uses the ungraded application activity worksheets to decide whether the student can get 80 instead of 79
Makes high achievers even value the ungraded stuff
gives some wiggle room for the arbitrary letter grades
Jim Sibley
Centre for Instructional Support
Faculty of Applied Science
University of British Columbia
604-822-9241
-----Original Message-----
From: Team Learning Discussion List on behalf of Dee Fink
Sent: Thu 24/07/2008 1:54 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: assigning letter grades
Vance and others,
Let me suggest an alternative perspective on
setting up your grading system, and one other activity to consider.
One of the reasons Larry used the system he did
for determining letter grades, was that he was
getting pressure from his department over "grade
inflation." So he had to make sure his final set
of grades had something of a bell curve to them.
I myself was in a different situation: I
was never pressured about grade inflation. But
philosophically I am also uncomfortable with the
idea of using break points to decide which scores
get particular letter grades. That seems awfully arbitrary.
As a result, I did use a predetermined
scale for the course letter grades, and I put
this scale on the course syllabus. However, my
scale was usually 92/85/78/etc. - in part to keep
a set of standards that argued against the idea
that I was "giving away high grades."
Were my grades on the high side?
Somewhat, yes. But I don't mind giving
high grades - IF I am convinced that I have kept
the standards high and that students really did
learn well. Then they are simply getting the grade they earned.
Do poor students end up with high
grades? No, not really. Their group grades were
high, yes. But their individually graded work
(usually worth collectively about 60-70% of the
course grade) balanced that out, and poor
students not always but often had low peer
evaluation scores. And that brought the impact
of the high group scores down into balance with the rest of their work.
Two Problems
But I also did have one problem that you
mentioned, Vance: many students did not know
from all the numbers, what their going-grade was
at any given time in the course. I could sort of
tell that, but they didn't know how to translate
multiple numbers into an A, B, or C.
I also had a second problem related to
the way I do peer evaluation scores. I use them
to create a number that is used as a percentage
multiplier of what the group earns. (See
Appendix B of the basic TBL book for a
description of this procedure.) Because it is a
"percentage multiplier" rather than an added
figure, it can have a major impact on their group
scores. And some people were blind-sided at the
end of the course by low peer evaluation
scores. I don't mind them getting low peer
evaluation scores, if they deserve it; but I
didn't like them being blind-sided by it.
Solution
Therefore I came up with an activity that was
effective in solving both these problems: a mid-semester grade calculation.
Sometime around mid-semester, I gave
them a sheet of paper onto which they entered
both their individual grades and their group
grades. They would then add the numbers up and
that sheet would tell them what the letter-grade
equivalent of their total score was, at mid-semester.
But I also wanted this calculation to
show how the final grade would be
calculated. Therefore we had to do a
mid-semester peer evaluation, and they had to
calculate the effect of that on their group scores.
This activity was very effective in addressing
the several problems described above:
* Students had a better understanding of how
their various number grades translated into letter grades.
* They understood the impact of the peer
evaluation scores on their overall course grade,
given the way I set it up in my courses.
* The people who were surprised by a low
mid-semester, peer evaluation score almost always
came to talk to me about this during office
hours, a visit that resulted in some very
powerful and positive "teaching moments." These
individuals almost always turned their peer
evaluation scores around by the end of the course
- and gained some powerful lessons about how to
interact more positively with their peers in the process.
Hope these thoughts offer some new options for you to consider! Dee Fink
At 11:23 AM 7/24/2008, Fried, Vance wrote:
>I've used TBL the past couple of years and am
>quite happy with it. My only major unresolved
>problem is the procedure for determining final grades.
>In the past I have used the system that Larry
>suggests in the book-rank ordering everyone by
>score and then subjectively determining letter
>grade break points. I think this approach
>results in fair grades for students. However,
>it is hard for many students to understand where
>they stand in class until the end of the
>semester. Of course the 90/80/70 doesn't work
>because so much of the score is from group
>grades. As a result often poor students can end up with a score over 80.
>Any suggestions?
>Vance H. Fried
>Brattain Professor of Entrepreneurship
>Spears School of Business
>Oklahoma State University
>Stillwater, OK 74078
>405.744.8633
>405.744.5110 fax
>
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
L. Dee Fink Phone: 405-364-6464
234 Foreman Ave Email: [log in to unmask]
Norman, OK 73069 FAX: 405-364-6464
Website: www.finkconsulting.info
**National Project Director, Teaching & Curriculum Assessment Project
**Senior Associate, Dee Fink & Associates Consulting Services
**Author of: Creating Significant Learning Experiences (Jossey-Bass, 2003)
**Former President of the POD Network
[Professional and Organizational Development] in Higher Education (2004-2005)
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