I'm talking about the 0.0 rule on fatals. During the regular semester I'm much more comfortable giving them out, because time allows me to offer so many extra credit opportunities, each of which replaces a fatal. So, during the regular term it's not that you have only four opportunities to have fatal-free test stories, for example; it's that you show me you can go fatal-free on four test stories or similar types of assignments, whether it takes you four or five or six tries.
And I'm fine with that. Repetition in writing and reporting only makes you better.
But with so little time to do our primary assignments in a seven-week term, we simply don't have time for a lot of extra credit. And that's not fair to you, especially when I see growing disparities between initial grade calculations and where I think you should be grading.
So, yesterday I was talking to J-school leaders after class about a number of things, and we came up with this idea: in hopes of striking a better balance between impressing the severity of fatals upon you but better calibrating your grade to a level that recognizes your progress, I have received permission to make a fatal grade a 1.0 instead of a 0.0.
Actually, this makes a huge difference. Every assignment is weighed with a number of points used to determine your final grade. For example, a 4.0 is 100 percent of possible points, a 3.9 is 99 percent, a 3.8 is 98 percent, and so on.
On that scale, a 1.0 is 70 percent of points. a 0.0 is zero percent. So at a 1.0, you're much closer to a 4.0 than a 0.0. I hope this helps equalize your grade.
The new fatal scale will be retroactive to all fact and time fatals this term. But the rule will NOT apply to attendance fatals. Any assignment that you fataled because you had an unexcused absence will remain a 0.0. You'll get credit for work in which you tried and hopefully will learn from; and not for work you never did without good reason.
Whaddya guys think?
No comments:
Post a Comment