Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ya-ta Boy]

Point 1: You decide how you will teach the lessons.

Point 2: You make the test.

Point 3: You decide how you will assess the results of the test.

Isn't it just a phoney attempt to satisfy parents and anal co-teachers who want to pretend that there are objective ways of measuring a subjective subject?

'Teachers' (I use the word loosely) who are jealous of the hard sciences in a kind of pen*s envy kind of way, try to immitate the researchers in those fields so they can hold their heads up at the bar on Friday night and are unwilling to just admit that a student gets the grade you decided he/she will get the first minute he/she walked in the door.

We are working in a field where perfomance is the thing that matters. If you agree with that, but insist that 'objectivity' is possible, please tell me objectively who is the superior artist, Michaelangelo or Leonardo.

[yingwenlaoshi]

I don't see the point in grading It's a waste of my time and it's the waste of the students' time. I test my student's everyday, but not on paper.

[jdog2050]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[yingwenlaoshi]

[shifter2009]

Grading is pretty sad here. I can't say anything for the public school crowd but I got the typical hogwon model where I write tests, grade kids, and then am told to give them A to C on a A-F ratio. I do it, cause I am a team player but I want to say,"Hey, why don't you handle it all director guy since you want artificial grades anyway." Then I remeber, I am on the downside of the contract and in another six months I'll have a fresh ass to kiss and this will all be unimportant.

[The Cosmic Hum]

hmm... not sure if you are just playing the devil's advocate here Yata...but I take grading fairly seriously...it is the part of my job that consumes a fair bit of my nervous energy...designing the course...tests...exams...homework...participation...attendance...there is a lot involved in the process...and to top it all off...if my classes are over 30 students...I am forced to follow a bell curve...which s^cks huge...especially when the students have been working hard...only to end up with a "C"...some of these kids are very competitive, and I feel for them.
I feel like I have the greatest job... 7 years at the same university...but grading is still not an easy task for me...at the end of every semester, when I finish the final grading reports, I feel drained...oh well... hey...something about taking the good with the bad.
I often tell myself that I teach for free...I get paid to grade.

[yingwenlaoshi]

[thegadfly]

Well, Yata, assuming that you aren't just trolling (and it really really seems like you are), let's start at the beginning....

You either design or follow a curriculum with specific educational goals in mind for a particular unit/month/term/whatever you call it at your place...

...then you decide how you will teach the lessons....

...then you decide how you will design the test to check for student familiarity/mastery of the skills you taught....

...then you design the test...

...then you administer the test...

...then you record the grades....

Grades in English classes are no more nor less "phony" than grades in any other class. English is far less subjective than you apparently think -- I have designed rubrics to be used to assess various tasks and assignments...at one hakwon where I worked, 15 different teachers (native-speakers) independently assessed the same 4 sample essays. It was a workshop ABOUT using rubrics to help standardize grading...the point is, after explaining how to design and use a rubric, then asking 15 different people to assign grades, the grades on each essay differed by at most 3%, most were within a point or two of each other....

Unfortunately, since the workshop was supposed to show the value of using rubrics for standardization, I tried to demonstrate the wider range of scores that might exist...so there were also 4 essays as a "pretest." The teachers simply read the essays and gave them a percent score...biggest gap was one essay with 7% difference, and the other 14 teachers all gave grades within 5% of each other....

5% is one question on an "objective" 20 question quiz...science teachers choose what to ask, just as English teachers do...subjectivity plays a role in ALL grades, and I would argue, approximately the SAME role in most subjects.

Make up a scoring guide for evaluating artists, and I will tell you which artist is better.

If you know what you are looking for, and communicate what you are looking for to your students, and they understand what you are looking for, then your grades should reflect your students' abilities to produce the desired results within that particular field...which is what grades in any field ought to do, right?

[thegadfly]

Ying,

Grades are primarily for motivation. They are used to rank students, but that ranking (especially in Korea) is also for motivation. In many classrooms, motivating the students is a big part of teaching. If students feel that grades are arbitrary, they are often demotivated. You imply that Cosmic Hum could have better spent his/her time on something else...I would counter that if you do NOT spend your time doing just such, then you are wasting the time you have with your class, because you do not have a clear idea of what the students' needs are, nor whether or not you are doing something concrete to address those needs. I would guess you are a proponent of free-talking, and if your kids can give you a high-five when they win at one-card, you feel their lessons are complete?

[kimchi story]