Done!

Last night I finished grading exams, put all the grades I'd had piled up in an Excel document into GradeCenter, and then entered final grades. Now I'm just fielding a few last-minute "uh, how do I find my grades again" emails--though one of those kids also told me that he thought class was interesting and fun, so that warmed my heart a little.

Their grades were better than expected; my class averages for final grades were 81 and 82, up from last semester's 78 and 76, I think. Part of that, I'm sure, is the fact that this was my second time teaching the course, while another part of it was that we made the exams as simple as possible. That's not to say that they're actually easy, as the several kids I failed or gave low grades to can attest, but they're not designed to trick you like some exams I remember from college classes. As I've told several people, teaching AWW is like being on a constant search for the lowest common denominator. When we're writing the exams, someone will say, "Ask what narrative moment Bernini chose to represent in his David," and someone else will say "Narrative moment? Ha! Try 'what part of the story is this?'" No lie, though--that will still confuse some kids.

For the last two exams, we also purposely did a practice compare-contrast exercise in section using the same artists (though not the same artworks) that we were putting on the exam (the compare-contrast is worth 20% of their grade, but that never seems to stop some kids from giving me a single paragraph). The last class day before an exam is always a TA-led review, and I tell my students flat-out that while there are no guarantees, whatever we covered in the review was very, very likely to be on the exam. So you can see that we're not trying to make this really difficult! All you need to do is show up, take notes, read the book, and memorize some stuff, and you can get a decent grade (the definition of "decent" being very different for most of my students than it would be for me; mainly, they just want to pass, and they only need a C- for that).

Despite all our best efforts, of course, you will always have that student who looks at the slide of the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial and tells you that it is made of steel poles and nylon fabric, or that Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People was a reaction to WWII, or that one of the unconventional materials used by Jackson Pollock was "dreams." These are indeed the times that try [wo]men's souls.

Something that I didn't truly understand about grades until I became a teacher, though, is the amount of subjectivity that goes into deciding grades. It's actually rather difficult to decide whether to take eight or ten points off an essay, for example, or whether to give a "meh" paper a B- or a C+. Quite often it comes down to my impression of the student: their effort level in class, their attentiveness, whether they've ever fallen asleep in section, whether I spot them on facebook during lecture, etc. Basically, it can come down to: do you piss me off, or do I like you?

The same thing applies at the end of the semester. Although most things are determined by what I put into GradeCenter, attendance and participation is really entirely up to me, and that's 10% of the final grade. Obviously, if you missed ten classes you're getting a low grade --even if you participated those times you were in class--but I will be more lenient toward a kid who's there every class but never talks, versus one of those kids who is also there every class but is clearly doing something besides taking notes on his computer. If you sass me, or fall asleep, or send me rude emails, or spend your time passing notes, or give me that "you are so beneath my notice" look when I tell you to take notes, then yes, I will give you the lowest participation grade that is ethically possible. Perhaps most critically, this principle comes into play with final grades when I'm deciding whether I will give a student who is on the cusp between B/B+ that extra half-point nudge of goodwill, or give them exactly the grade indicated by GradeCenter's calculations. Again, I will do it if they've made a positive impression on me, while I will refrain from doing it if they're a slacker or have pissed me off in some way.

It's not that I would only do this for good students or smart kids, either. One of my kids, nice though he seemed to be, totally fit the stereotype of "big dumb lug." He could not wrap his mind around the concept of paraphrasing, even after I sent him a tutorial website; in fact, he wrote back to ask if he should include the original quote when he paraphrased it. *facepalm* He also got fairly low grades on the first two exams, and basically flunked the quizzes; yet, he was always willing to raise his hand in section, even though his answers were frequently wrong, and while his emails made me want to strangle something, they were always polite. So when GradeCenter told me his numerical grade was a 76.3 (a C) I bumped him up to a 77 and gave him a C+. Not for being intelligent, but just for trying.

Of course, this was not a principle that I fully understood when I was in college, and it's obviously not something you could ever tell students without risking accusations of unfairness. But all my friends who are teachers agree that there is always a level of subjectivity in grading decisions. When we tell kids to accept responsibility and act mature, it's for their own good. Really.

ETA: I just got this email from the kid I mentioned above:

Mrs. DiMarzo,

I saw the grade. I had a good time with your class and just wish I would have done a little better on the first two tests, but its my fault. Thanks for teaching and you did a great job.
Best of luck with your future plans.

See what I mean? So polite!! (Even if he did call me my mother.)