Identify! Withdraw! Eliminate!
R&R has been bombarded, barraged, beset and besieged (I took a Creative Writing class) by people who do not want to grade some of the students on their grade rosters. Rather than replying to all the emails and phone calls in this column I am writing a book instead. Deadly Dull and Dry Press is publishing it. They gave me a $5 advance!
Now, as promised, how to have a squeaky-clean grade roster/115 screen. And it's still FREE!!! Just follow these three easy steps.
STEP #1: Look at your current class list. You can use either the most recent daily attendance roster or, for the most up to date information, your 107 screen. The students listed here are the students who will need to be graded, every single one of them, regardless of whether you have ever seen them before or not.
STEP #2: Identify the students you can't identify. These are the students who will mess up your grade roster and annoy you on the 115 screen. These are the students who require essays. These are the students we will hound you about until you go insane.
STEP #3: Grade the students you don't want to grade. Before May 7, if you fill out a Faculty Initiated Withdrawal form and withdraw the students you do not want to grade, YOU WILL NOT HAVE TO GRADE THEM. They will appear on your grade roster and 115 grading screen already graded with a W. You will not need to write an essay. You will not be sent numerous missing grade letters. You will not have to put a JJJ on the 115 screen. Giving them a W before May 7 is as close as you can get to making them disappear from your class list. It's easy. It's simple. It doesn't require AA batteries. And it's legal.
We recognize that withdrawal is the student's responsibility just as grading is our responsibility. If we don't want to take on the students' responsibility of withdrawing them, we DO need to accept the responsibility of grading them, regardless of whether they were ever in class. If we don't want to withdraw a student, then we have to grade him. It's one or the other.
It's so easy! Just look at your most recent class list. If you see students on there that you don't want to give an F to because you have no idea who they are, you need to withdraw them by May 7. If you don't want to withdraw them, you will need to give them a grade. Students, faculty and R&R staff need closure on the semester.
Coming soon: Pulling the Plug on Grading Rumors That Won't Die
Deborah Benjamin
Registration and Records
04/22/2004 |