AF: Grades and descriptors

In this class, you will often be asked to self-evaluate, meaning you have to look at your own work critically and place it on a spectrum.  Often, I grade things without your input.

What I look at by myself is primarily your performance grade which includes test scores and essay scores. For this assignment, this will be your Brave New World essays and your Postman summaries.  

Another part of how your grade is calculated looks at the level of effort, care, and work you put into an assignment.  This is your participation grade.  Obviously, I can infer your work ethic when I am looking at the work, but in this category I will ask you to self-evaluate, using a rubric, especially looking at those aspects of the assignment that I do not see or cannot judge. For example, although I can usually tell if someone rushed their work, only you know for sure how badly you procrastinated.  For this assignment, this will include the notebook and the blog.

Another part of your grade is your progress.  As you can plainly see by reading the blog, not all of us are starting at the same place; however, everyone is expected to grow.  You and I have to work on this during first quarter -- establishing where you are, and then setting some goals for growth.

This grading process -- which is also used by Mr. Phinizy and Ms. Colln -- is called 3P Grading.  I use it too, and it takes some getting used to, especially for those of you who are used to tracking your grades every day (or every hour), and calculating grades based on a future test score.  This is what we might call "fun with math," which has nothing whatsoever to do with the quality of your thinking or writing.  So if you are an obsessive grade checker, I am sure this new system will be a challenge for you to work with.

Here is some language to help you think about performance.  There will be more language and discussion of this of course, especially as we get into AP essays and the 9-point rubric, but this is a solid start.

The A represents superior work.  By definition, it is reserved for the best of the best.  There are just a few As because this grade describes work that is above what most people can do.  The work is well developed, thoughtful, original, superior, utilizing sophisticated language and excellent organization; the writing is clearly superior and has few or no errors, and communicates ideas clearly and concisely.

The B is above average work; it is good, clear, thoughtful, well-developed and clearly organized; B work shows some originality; the writing is good and the errors are few.  This is a very good grade, and carries the grade point of a 4.0 in an AP class.

A C describes satisfactory work; it is college level work.  The ideas are satisfactory, but show little originality or depth.  The writing is satisfactory.  Think about what "satisfactory" means:  the work fulfills expectations.  Some students have the idea that C work is not acceptable, but this is exactly what a C is: acceptable.  It denotes work that represents what most people can do.  ("A C is not an acceptable grade in my house -- my parents do not agree that a C is acceptable."  This sentence does not describe the work that has been submitted; it describes the family.)

A D is work that is below college level work; it is underdeveloped, poorly organized, and the writing is weak.  There are many errors.  The brain seems to have been absent as the work was being completed.

The F shows that the assignment has not been fulfilled; the F is poorly developed and the ideas are insufficient.  The work is marred by frequent, repeated errors that are distracting.  Students who earn Fs on any part of the summer homework are generally not ready for an AP class, and I recommend that they be transferred to College Prep English 11.