Reply to "I thought 50% for no work was okay and I was wrong"

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to ""I thought 50% for no work was okay and I was wrong""

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]For those saying that their kids are receiving zeroes in FCPS.....is that class/school using a 4.0 scale?  If so, they absolutely can receive a zero.  The 50% rule only applies to those schools using a 100 point grading scale.  It is very difficult to recover from a zero when using 100 point scale.  That is a lot to overcome and will destroy any motivation to try.

Not saying this is a perfect solution but as others have said, the A students are not getting hurt by this policy and it gives the lower students a fighting chance and a reason to keep trying.

-FCPS teacher[/quote]

I honestly think it helps the A student. A smart kid can do the math and decide to skip homework that will have little impact on their grade and spend the time on essays or projects that will. That's how I dealt with a packed schedules in high school and I still managed to graduate third in my class. I think there is value to teaching kids to prioritize strategically- [b]it's a skill that they will need to learn at some point. [/b]The guaranteed 50% makes it even easier to take that approach.  [/quote]

Previous college professor...this is exactly what I am saying. But in spite of all the bellyaching, a lot of people like grading everything because 1. they don't find value in doing work unless it "counts and 2. Grading those assignments inflates grades. A student who bombs a test or essay can do better if every assignment counts for something. But that doesn't mean they have learned anything,[/quote]

High school students are not college students. They NEED the incentive of the homework “counting”
so they will actually do it and learn. This is pretty basic behavioral psychology. Making the entire grade contingent on one high-stakes test or essay also seems sort of the opposite of good pedagogy, and rewards a certain type of learner. [/quote]

Homework "counting" is an example of extrinsic motivation.  We need to move toward intrinsic motivation for students.   [/quote]

do we? lol. how about your job move towards intrinsic motivation and stop paying you?

what we actually need to do is figure out how kids gain mastery, and do that. [/quote]

Personally, I do not think that school equates to a student's "job."  I think school should be about learning and trying to instill a desire to learn.  But with all that said, ultimately, inflating grades with highly weighted homework and classwork assignments is not good educational practice.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics