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Show lessons Volume Five, Number 1 www.lib.utah.edu/epubs/lessons DIRECTOR & CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Stephanie Richardson EDITOR Jessica Durfee ART DIRECTOR PRODUCTION MANAGER Christopher Gino Dean CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Jessica Finlayson Jodi Gaylord Marie Hendrickson Vanessa Sorenson CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Becky Jensen Kira Jones Sarah Leymaster Sarah Plummer Amy Schofield Lyndsey Scull Spencer Sutherland Ruby Wang CONTRIBUTING FACULTY WRITERS Robert Breault Caren Frost Stephanie Richardson Emily Swan CONTRIBUTING COPY EDITOR Doug Hageman FACULTY ADVISOR Jim Fisher CTLE ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Doug Hageman CTLE ITA TRAINING COORDINATOR Diane Cotsonas EDUCATION SPECIALIST FOR TAs Kimberly Welch Center for Teaching & Learning Excellence University of Utah #136 Sill Center 195 S. Central Campus Drive Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0511 (801)581-7597 http://ugs.utah.edu/ctle/ contents High Grades: What is all the Hype About? Grading the University Grading Policy Do Grades Even Mean Anything? Voices The A Balloon: Grade Inflation at the U Paying the Price of Late Grades Tricks of the Trade for Determining Grades Editorial: I Before E (Except After...) Under Pressure: TA's Face Unique Grading Challenges Grading for Success in the Workplace To Give or Not to Give: Is Extra Credit Necessary? Crew Perspectives on Grading 2 4 7 9 10 14 16 18 19 23 27 29 30 letter from the director This issue of lessons is one of the longest ever produced. What a wonderful consequence of choosing one of the hottest topics we could think of! The issue of grading can be a sobering one, particularly at ages 1 8 - 22. To achieve a reasonable perspective on grading, we must understand what grades stand for and what they do not. In this matter, context may be all, as the importance of a grade to one earning it can be markedly different from the importance to the one recording it. Fifteen years later, I still squirm with discomfort remembering a dispute I had with a faculty member over my grade of A-minus. Deeply invested in getting an A as a graduate student, I argued at length for a few more points, not understanding how little that "minus" ultimately mattered. From a faculty perspective, grading and evaluation are activities that require absolute fairness from flawed humans, and sometimes courage when we are not feeling so brave. At the best of times, we hope that the grades we record inspire and reward. At the worst of times, we suspect that grades become badges of dishonor, disheartening the student. Somewhere in between, on some occasions, grades inform, direct, and encourage. |
