1114 GRADING |
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This page explains the 100 X's (or 100
points) grading system. It also gives you the steps you can use to
figure out your own grade.
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What are the basics
of grading for the semester?
The grading for the semester is divided as follows:
The overall
grading is based on a simple point system. For attendance and for your
weekly papers and drafts, each "X" you receive is worth one point. There are 100 X's or 100 points (1 X is the same
as 1 point) for
attendance and writing. Then your participation and improvement grade may
add or subtract points, depending on how much you have participated and
improved.
Writing: up to about 67 points/X's
Attendance: up to about 33 points
Participation: + or - up to one letter grade after the above is totaled
Extra Credit: You may earn additional or make up points/X's
You need to build up at least 60 points/X's to earn
a "D" in the course. You also must do a number of drafts of papers.
There are five Draft 1 papers (five different kinds). You'll then pick two of
these and expand them into two different Draft 2's. With 60 X's/points in
the course, and two Draft 2's completed, you can earn a "D."
If you want a "C," you must earn 70 points/X's,
write two Draft 2's (as above), and expand one of them into a Draft 3.
If you want a "B," you must earn 80 points/X's,
write two Draft 2's, and expand one of them into a Draft 3.
If you want an "A," you must earn 90 points/X's,
write two Draft 2's and one Draft 3, and expand the D-3 into a Draft 4.
For a better understanding of this, please examine the chart below. It
explains the three major activities you must complete to get a grade in the
course, and what you much do for each activity to get the grade you want.
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CHART:
REQUIREMENTS FOR
THE LETTER GRADE YOU WANT
You must satisfy all
three of these requirements! |
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(1)
Earn 70+ points for a C (or 60+ points for a D) out of
100+ points total.
90-100+ points earns an A
80 - 89 points earns a B
70 - 79 points earns a C
60 - 69 points earns a D
0 - 59 points earns an F
See "Table of Grades" below for more details.
Earning extra credit also is possible.
Warning 1: The more you procrastinate, the less chance you will have to
earn a sufficient number of points to pass.
Warning 2:
If you do not get the Minnesota Transfer Curriculum ("MnTC") or a two-year
degree from Inver Hills College, then a "D" may not transfer elsewhere.
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AND
(2)
Write the following "Drafts" for the following grades:
D =
3 Draft 1’s + 2 Draft 2's* (& 60+ points)
---
C = 4 Draft 1’s + 2 Draft 2's + 1
Draft 3 (& 70+ points)
---
B =
4 Draft 1’s + 2 Draft 2’s + 1 Draft 3 (& 80+ points)
---
A =
5 Draft 1’s + 2 Draft 2's + 1
Draft 3 + 1 Draft 4
(& 90+ points)
Warning: Even if you have enough points for a higher grade, you
cannot get it unless you also have the correct number of
Drafts for that grade.
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AND (3)
Attend regularly and turn in assignments.
Weekly attendance and completion of homework
is a must to do well in this class.
Warning: If you miss two weeks in a row, you will receive an
automatic "F" in the class (which you may then ask to have changed to a
"W" or "Withdraw").
Note: This course transfers to
the University of Minn.-Twin Cities as a “Writing Intensive” course
requirement.
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What is my grade? - How do I figure
it out?
GRADING OF HOMEWORK (WEEKLY PAPERS and DRAFTS):
Up to about 67 Points/X's
This portion of your grade will be determined by how many of your weekly,
rough-draft, non-graded assignments you turn in. You will get X's rather than
letter grades once your work is sufficiently completed. The total point
value is high--100 points/X's or half of your total grade--partly because this
is a course in learning how to write better, and partly because there are no
graded papers. Instead of graded papers, there are X's for a series of
rough drafts in four stages: Draft 1, Draft 2, Draft 3, and Draft 4. There
are several of each of these. See "HOMEWORK/Weekly Papers" for more details.
For more details, also see the chart of assignments and the X's they are worth:
this chart is in your "Course Packet" you must buy from the bookstore for this
course. The chart there shows you how all 100 X's/points are
distributed.
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ATTENDANCE GRADE: Up to about 33 Points/X's (more w/extra credit)
Attendance is very important. Why? Most of the course will not be lecture (and
when it is, I'll try to offer something not in the textbooks, or bring
together parts of the textbooks in ways the books themselves do not).
Instead, the course will have more of a practical workshop format: you'll
actually be doing something much of the time--writing or practicing writing as
a class, in small groups, or individually. Everything in class is
designed to draw together the writing and homework for the course, so it's
important to be there every time (or do significant makeup work--see below).
You need to attend every time. For each full attendance day, you'll
receive one X (1 point). If the course has bulletin boards, then this
all includes bulletin board attendance, too--the bulletin boards are part of
attendance, not homework.
You also should know about four
other important elements of attendance:
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You get only half credit
for attendance if you are 10
min. late/early, or if you are late/early for even five or ten minutes on
a regular basis.
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Some days may only be
worth 1/2 credit later in the
term, in the last half of the course. This will be true only in some
sections. If so, they'll be marked as
1/2-credit classes.
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If you miss 2+ wks., you
can automatically get an F for the entire course.
It is a school policy that instructors may automatically flunk a student
who does not attend class for two weeks or more. I carry out this
policy in my classes because I have found that people who do nothing for
over two weeks, not even contact me, almost never pass the class when
given an additional chance, and they also take up about twice as much of
my time as an average student, thus keeping me from spending enough time
with other students who are doing the work. So, if you run into a
problem, please get in contact with me immediately and do attend before
your two week period is over. School must come first, like a
professional job; if something so overwhelming happens that you need time
off, then you should withdraw from your classes (or choose one or more of
them to drop). Call or email me if you're not sure what to do, and
I'll be glad to help you decide in a balanced way. I, myself, have
withdrawn from one or two classes in my own college years.
(If I drop you during the first two-thirds of the term - or you decide to
drop - then you should apply for a "W" ("Withdraw"). A "W"
does not count against your GPA. (But it does count against your
fail-to-finish rate.) However, to get the "W," apply for it during
the first two-thirds of the course. Otherwise you may be too late,
you will receive an "F," and the "F" will be counted as part of your GPA.
It is possible to do
make-up work for missing attendance,
and to also to get extra credit (extra X's or
points) in the same way - by doing additional attendance make-up work.
In this way, you actually can increase the number of total points you earn
for the semester. For a list of all the different types of
make-up/extra-credit work available, see the "Attendance" page (in the
navigation bars at the top or to the left in every page in this website).
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REVISION, PARTICIPATION, IMPROVEMENT, ETC.:
+ or - Your Other Points/X's
Is this an area in which you can coast? Nope. You'll have to
actually work at this, too, even if writing is easy for you. Your
participation/improvement can add or subtract points from your point total,
depending on how well or poorly you have performed and acted in the course and
class. If you have performed and acted unusually well, they'll be
higher. If you've performed or acted unusually poorly, they will be lower.
Here is what you can do to make your participation/improvement points be as high
as possible:
Positive Performance/Action
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(a)
Participate very verbally by talking in the face-to-face class - or in
written form on the bulletin boards in online classes - and in your
small-group sessions and class trips, and/or in seeking me out for questions
and help before/after class, in my office, or by emailing or telephoning
me,
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(b)
get 1 hr. or more of tutoring help from tutors (or me) when you are
revising and editing your drafts (more time counts for more credit),
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(c)
form and work in study/writing//editing/help groups of two or more people
outside of class, and report the time you spent working together, a sentence
or two about what you did, and the person/people with whom you worked,
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(d)
show significant extra effort on assignments--by extra length of writing
or, clear for me to see, extra time,
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(e)
Attend the individual consultations between you and me that are planned
as part of this course, or otherwise get help from me when you need it in my
office, and
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(f)
demonstrate significant attention to and good attitude about
learning--not just to me but also to others in our class.
Can this
part of your grade go lower? Yes. Here are some behaviors you can demonstrate to
make your total participation/improvement point count go lower:
Negative Performance/Action
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(a)
keep quiet in class (or give few, poor, or overly short or overly simple
answers and responses),
-
(b)
avoid me,
-
(c)
avoid consulting with me or with Writing Center tutors,
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(d) be
negative or cynical about learning or about other students,
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(e)
leave work unfinished,
-
(f)
have poor attendance,
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(g)
have a poor turn-in rate for your weekly papers.
You may figure how well you are doing in reaching the grade you want simply by adding up your points.
Recommendation: Try figuring two times--once for how many points you
actually have, and once for how many points you expect to get.
Here are four simple
steps to help you:
STEP A:
Add your attendance points
(using the attendance chart passed around at each class).
STEP B:
Add your weekly-papers points
(using the weekly-papers chart passed around
regularly).
STEP C:
Add "A" and "B" above
so you have a total.
STEP D:
Add or subtract points
for improvement and participation. To do so, look at the two lists
above--the "Positive" and the "Negative." For each positive, give yourself
an extra point. For each negative, subtract a point. If you fall
between positive and negative for a given quality or action, then do not add or
subtract anything for it.
When you are done,
simply see where your total
fits into
this scale.
90-100 points earns an A
80 - 89 points earns a
B
70 - 79 points earns a
C
60 - 69 points earns a
D
40 - 59 points earns an F
0 - 39 points earns an F-
This will not show
you what grade you have at present. Instead, it will show you how
close you are to your goal, and how many points you still have to go.
Then you can look at the remaining assignments and see how many more
points you will probably be able to earn. (If you want to figure out what your
actual grade is likely to be, then figure out what assignments and
attendance you plan to complete by the end of the course: total those to
see what your grade will be.)
Another helpful hint: Plan what grade you will
earn. Develop a reasonable,
rational goal. Be honest with yourself and ask yourself what grade you
can actually achieve, given how much time you can put into the course and how
much work you would actually like to do. For example, if your goal is
simply to pass the class, then you should aim for a "C"--70-79 points/X's.
If, however, your goal is to get a full A, then you need to plan on earning
90-100 points/X's.
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