Total number of Ds and Fs earned: 35 (31% of my students)
Total number of Fs earned: 14 (12% of my students)
With at least one F in other classes: 10
With at least one D in other classes, but no other Fs: 1
With Cs or higher in other classes: 3
Total number of Ds earned: 21 (18% of my students)
With at least one F in other classes: 9
With at least one D in other classes, but no Fs: 6
With Cs or higher in other classes: 6
Yikes, that looks grim. I don’t like that 31% of my students are below average and not performing at a level that makes them ready for the next course. Several of those students (most notably those 3 who are only failing my class and those 6 who are only earning a D in my class) will get their grades up by the end of the semester. I also know that these grades are not based on as much writing as I’d like them to be. It’s mostly vocabulary quizzes and blog entries for this grading period. I evaluated my seniors on a 3rd writing piece this time, but it wasn’t as formal a piece as I want. They’ll turn that next week. I’m still sitting on top of a stack of essays from them that should have gone into this grading period, but I didn’t get through them all. My juniors have been working on an essay pretty much this entire grading period, but I don’t collect it until tomorrow, so there was nothing to mark down in their writing grade this grading period.
Bottom line is that I need to collect more writing and be quicker about turning that writing back to the students. I started what I’m calling the Weekly Writes this past Monday: students pick one daily they’ve written so far and expand their ideas into a self-sustained paragraph. I expect to be able to turn those back to students by Friday, but I’ll probably have them all back by Monday, just in time for Weekly Write #2.
We have a small grant on our campus and I’m thinking about pushing for my students to have access to Criterion as a way to get quick feedback. I’m also eyeing CSU English Success, though my 2 previous attempts to email the contact person have resulted in a bounced back message. StudyBuddy’s free essay feedback has been perched on the back of my mind since August; I need to show my students that resource, too.
How about you? Any observations to share at this point in the year? We’re about 1/3 of the way through it. What’s happening where you live?