grading...

Grading papers written by college students who have already checked out for summer feels like a special circle in hell.



One of my students copied most of one of her answers from Wikipedia. The answers that she didn't copy from Wikipedia, she copied straight out of the book. Arrgh. She got a zero. I'm guessing she might have done the same on her midterm, but I can't check now.

We have this "plagiarism checker" that students submit their papers to... The checker did not catch the answer that was identical to the Wikipedia entry. I am not surprised. I don't rely on the plagiarism checker.



One of my students made me laugh... He cited Michael, 1994 as one example of how culture influences development. For those of you who don't know, Michael, 1994 finds that o * a l s e * (I'm leaving it to you to figure out the letters so that google doesn't lead everyone here) is common in well-educated European Americans and is rare in African American and Hispanic cultures. It is also uncommon in older Americans. You KNOW that the college boy loved citing that study in his final. Heh. The funniest thing about this is that we barely covered the chapter in which this study was discussed. He READ the chapter about sex. Go figure!


One thing I just don't get is why any one would leave a question blank. Why not make SOME sort of attempt at an answer? It's an open book, open note test....



A student I worked really hard to keep from flunking didn't turn in his essay questions. He could have gotten a C in the class if he had done them (most likely). I just finished his grade, and somehow, magically, he got a D. I'm going to have to doublecheck in the morning.


Another student chose not to do a 30 point assignment. When I asked her about it, she said, "I just didn't have time." She got an F on the midterm. She seemed surprised when she learned she might flunk the class. Yes, she did all the little assignments, but the little assignments were only 22% of her grade. The big assignment and the midterms combined were the other 78%. Even if she had gotten an A on EVERYTHING in the class, not doing the big 30 point assignment would have cost her 15% of her grade. I think I need to explain how to make good grade gambles to my next class. Many of the students aren't making good choices.


I'm ALMOST done with grades. Then we can go back to little girl stuff!