What a Grade Experience

Stop! Giving everyone an A is not the answer. Here’s how to quantify the unquantifiable.

Let’s face it. Grading students on a publication staff is a pain in the assessment. Writing, editing, photography, layout, graphics, advertising sales: who’s doing what when? How do you compare the person who wrote a super investigative piece on the fire alarm system with the person who created a super graphic of the baseball team’s record? It’s an intimidating process. Some teachers just give up and say: everyone on the staff gets an A. But by ditching true evaluation of work, you’re also ditching student motivation.

“Our yearbook staff is very small, and I’m the only one who does any work. No one seems to care, and it gets me and my adviser so mad!” This was a complaint I heard from a girl in middle school.

“What grades do the other kids get?” I asked her.

“Oh, everyone gets an A in yearbook,” she said.

I understood why. The teacher knows who’s not working, but how do you explain that to an angry parent in a conference? How do you show or prove that a bad grade in yearbook or newspaper class was warranted? The answer is: Make each student entirely accountable for demonstrating his or her work. It’s as easy as two forms that I use in my class.

Form 1: Weekly Self-Evaluation Log
At the end of each day, students fill in a journal-type entry describing in detail what they accomplished that day. Whether they worked before, during or after school, it all goes on the log. At the bottom of the page at the end of the week, they answer a series of yes-or-no questions that require self-reflection.

Samples:
Have I accomplished something this week?
Have I helped create a positive atmosphere?
Did I let socializing get in the way of working?

Create a set of questions that makes them think, and always emphasize that honesty is of utmost importance in all areas of class. Give them two points per day as long as they’ve used their time productively, and always write comments challenging statements that seem to be dishonest or tweaking the truth.

Form 2: End-of-Issue Point Sheet
After the issue is put to bed, it's time for the overall grade. All of the previously graded logs get stapled to this cover sheet that is a rubric of all things newspaper. Make a maximum point value for each category: writing, editing, photography, graphics, layout, ad sales, ad design, proofreading, distributing – anything that could ever possibly be done on a publication staff. This system will cause some students to wind up with, oh, a billion points. But, more importantly, the students who are lagging will see all that they have not done. They can see a concrete way to improve. But if they don’t improve, you can show their parents what is lacking. There’s nothing more effective than saying to a student with a low grade: Show me where you think you should have received points.