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| EDLT 485: Grading |
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In order to ensure consistency across markers and to alert you to the relative
importance of each part of the assessment tasks, where relevant I have attached
percentage weightings to each part, as indicated in the section setting out what you
have to do to complete the tasks. You may find, however, that you spend more
time doing some tasks than others, regardless of their percentage weighting. So the
percentages are not necessarily a good guide to how long a task should take to
complete. I have selected the percentages based on my judgement of the
complexity of the task, but whether or not you agree with my judgement depends
on your individual experiences and background. With increasing experience and
learning, tasks which once seemed complex become easier and quicker to
complete.
The following relationships exist university-wide between grades and marks. Note
that I do not grade using a normal (bell curve) distribution of results — if you earn
a High Distinction, you will be awarded it no matter how many other students also
earn it. (When you read Chapter 9 you will learn that we assess using a criterion-referenced system rather than a norm-referenced system.)
85%–100% = HD = High Distinction
75%–84% = D = Distinction
65%–74% = C = Credit
50% 64% = P = Pass
below 50% = N = Fail
An indication of the criteria used to determine grades is in the Appendix.
For the first time, this year you will be given a mark as well as a grade for each
task. Some markers try to distinguish between, say, a borderline Credit and a high
Credit by writing C— or C+. Students in the past have found this confusing and not
specific enough. Most students like to know whether their Credit was just a Credit,
a good Credit, or almost a Distinction. They particularly like to know such
information when several tasks have to be aggregated to get the final mark. I am
sympathetic to the argument that knowing where in the Credit range your
assignment falls is helpful information and so this year we will include it.
I do not believe that marking is so precise that 73%, say, can always be sufficiently
distinguished from 72% or 74%. Apart from this lack of precision with marks,
most people do not ‘think’ in marks. When I read your work, for example, I can
usually form a judgement quite easily as to whether I think it is worth a Pass or a
Credit (or a Distinction or a High Distinction). I can also judge whether I think the
grade should be a bare Pass or a strong Pass, a mid-range Credit or a high Credit,
and so on. Once I have decided that a particular task is worth, say, a strong Pass,
then I will select a number in the 60–64% range.
The standard of literacy in your assignments will influence your grade. We do not
normally grade a portfolio as a Distinction if there are serious errors in grammar,
spelling, punctuation and referencing. The mark sheets included in this Unit
Outline are included so you are clear about our marking approach.
In terms of our marking time, we work on the rough guide of 30–45 minutes per
portfolio submission. Obviously typed portfolios make it more likely that we can
read your work in the time available.
Below is my explanation of how I arrived at the percentages for the tasks. (Once
you have read the section on Bloom’s Taxonomy in Chapter 6 you will see how I
have used it for guidance and tried to reward higher-level thinking.)
Task 1: Preliminary task to be completed before you begin your reading — 0%
Since these responses represent your current (possibly ‘uneducated’) views and I
do not want you to do any research before writing them down, then I think it is
unfair to assign a mark to them. But it is compulsory to complete and submit this
task and your responses will be used in later tasks.
Reflection exercises — 0%
The two reflection exercises are described in Chapter 1 (rather than in this
Outline). Your responses here will also be based on your experiences and your
current views. You are not required to submit these reflections but I urge you to
complete them because I think it is a valuable exercise for you to articulate your
beliefs.
Task 2: Sorting out the terminology — 20%
This task is an important one for helping you to sort out the terminology and
theoretical constructs which underlie everything in the chapters that follow. I
expect you to find that the terminology takes some ‘absorbing’. I have only
allocated 20% because of the structure and nature of the task — there are 20
multiple choice questions. By their nature, multiple choice questions do not allow
for justification and elaboration. I do not want to penalise unduly any answer
which cannot be justified.
Task 3: Using planning frameworks to design a series of varied lessons — 50%
Effective planning is one of the most important skills a teacher will ever learn. In
order to complete this task you will need to think about the purpose of teaching a
particular topic and of many different ways to achieve your purpose. Many
students will not understand something the first time you present it or after they
engage in a particular learning activity. As a teacher, you then need to try a
different approach in order to give such students a second, third or fourth
opportunity to learn. Through completing this activity, you will gain valuable
experience in thinking about different ways to teach a topic, differences in learning
styles and how to cater for them, differences in complexity of tasks, and the way
different question structures either stimulate or impede learning.
Task 4: Developing an initial philosophy in relation to classroom and behaviour
management — 30%
There are a lot of ideas presented in the reading for this task and the process of
evaluating them and constructing your own philosophy is not easy. The role of
student–teacher relationships is one you need to investigate, and the role played by
a teacher’s questioning style in developing positive relationships is explored. I
believe this task is one of the most useful you will do in your teacher education
course (and incidentally will be good preparation not only for practicum but also
for your employment interview).
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