Reminders for Those Concerned About Grades

Some of you are concerned about your blog and/or participation grades. These grades, as you know, are determined by fixed points: completion of weekly blog entries as well as assigned course calendar blog entries, class attendance, participation in group workshops, and submission of homework assignments (for example, peer feedback from Friday). So on one hand, these grades indicate your success in completing daily and weekly work. On the other hand, they say very little about your effort on your major assignments.

Your portfolio is your opportunity to demonstrate to me how you understand your work as a whole this semester. If you feel that your blog and/or participation grade does not entirely, reflect your effort in the class, that's fine. Daily work is only 40% of your grade. Now your task is to demonstrate what isn't demonstrated in that 40%.

Some of you have wondered throughout the semester why I can't give you grade estimates on written assignments. I could, in fact, look at each individual piece and give you a grade based entirely on the quality of the finished product. However, these estimates would really say nothing about your grade in my class. As you should realize by now, I'm more concerned with your ability to make decisions as a writer and be reflective about your own writing. These are the things that will allow your writing to continue to develop after you walk out of our classroom on Monday.