Frequently Asked Questions About Grading

• Question: Why isn't the homework worth more points?

  Answer: I've done the grading for this course in several ways, and this one is basically a compromise. I'll try to explain how I settled on it.

  The most important thing is that students learn something from doing the homework. For this reason, I think that the real part of your grade that comes from doing the homework is not the portion for turning it in, but the homework quizzes, and the quiz-type questions which will make up about half of every hour exam. I say these are the ``real'' part of your grade because they measure not just whether you did the homework but whether you learned something from it. Since the questions on the quizzes are taken directly from the homework (exactly the same or with the numbers and equations changed), it's a very good test of how well you really learned the homework material. (And very unlikely that you'll do well on them if you don't do the homework.) So you shouldn't think of the homework as being worth a small amount; it's really worth quite a bit.

  I hope that explains why the homework isn't worth more than it is. That leaves the question of why it's worth anything at all, and why I collect it. (Believe it or not, I knew a professor once who collected the homework but made it worth 0% of the grade.) One of the things I've tried is not to collect the homework at all, and that makes things a lot easier for me. However, students at Rose complained that with all of the other homework they had to do, homework that didn't get collected didn't get done. So I started collecting it and now almost everyone does the homework. The grade for turning it in is just a little added bonus to make sure it comes to people's attention.

• Question: What good are the reading questions, especially if I can do them just by skimming the reading?

  Answer: The reading questions have several purposes. These include:

  1. Encouraging students to read the textbook before class.

  2. Encouraging students to be aware of the topic for the next class.

  3. Encouraging students to think about class frequently outside the normal class hours.

  4. Encouraging students to look at the syllabus frequently.

  5. Encouraging students to learn how to follow directions.

  6. Encouraging students to learn how to read carefully.

  7. Encouraging students to communicate with me about how the class is going.

  Obviously some of these are more important than others, but all of them are important. Most of them could be achieved by just asking students to do the reading. However, as I noted in the previous question, students tell me that assignments that are not collected and graded don't get done. The grade for reading questions is once again just a little added bonus to make sure it comes to people's attention.

• Question: How can I keep from forgetting to do the reading questions?

  Answer: This is just me personally, but I find that when there's something I have to do every day it really helps if I do it at the same time every day. You might even try setting an alarm of some sort that goes off every day and reminds you to send in the reading question. If that doesn't work, I'm sure the Learning Center people will have other ideas that might help.

Please let me know if you have other questions that you think belong here!