Grading Papers

[digitS']

We have teachers on TEG. I wonder if the US had no public schools, no "barefoot school kid" laws, if I would have ever have been in a school building. But, it does and I was ... along with many others. So! We have all been students.

What did a check mark on your test mean?

I've noticed it more and more. Check marks have become a positive. We have had "checking things off" fer an awful long time ... It meant "it's counted" or "I got it dun." I think that in my classrooms back in the Pleistocene, it might have meant "I see where you've got it wrong!"

Looked on Wikipedia and it says a check mark is an affirmative in English speaking countries but a negative in Scandinavia. Were all my teachers Scandinavian??

Steve

 

[so lucky]

In my world, a red check mark = Wrong! on a test or homework.
But a check mark on a to-do list means this item is done.

 

[Nyboy]

Funny Lucky here in school check- correct x- wrong on test

 

[canesisters]

Me too. I don't recall getting check marks, but an x was a wrong answer.

 

[digitS']

So, was there a difference in East Coast classrooms?

Amazing that something so basic would be different in the same country. Or, that it would change over a few years?

And, that I would not notice it for so long a time!?

Steve
did the world turn upside down while i was distracted by something unimportant?

 

[ducks4you]

Former Private Teacher/PS Teacher (Science and Drama,) who spent 10 years taking part time classes to be certified to teach, then burned out in two years. BUT the health insurance paid for my DH's heart attack, triple bypass and recovery, so I'm not complaining.
In my current job I am always being told to study up and take quizzes and tests. I believe that the whole idea of "one year older, matriculate to the next grade" is useless. I believe that you should be able to take quizzes and tests and get 100% before you move on. There is a short term memory loss. If you test 100%, you will retain maybe 80%. Do you want your plumber to operate like that? No!! Repetition is key, and the PS system has belittled it, yet they do not teach comprehension. With repetition comes understanding. It's all about the I.ndividual E.ducation P.lan for every student to make them FEEL GOOD ABOUT THEMSELVES, even if the answers to the questions are wrong.
I believe that you look for a student's strengths and allow them to feel good about doing well in those areas, EVEN IF it is in sports. Then you must teach the value of tackling the subjects that they do poorly in and use animal training skills to encourage "baby steps" and little successes, reward the slightest try, correct the incorrect answers, and let them know that adults are always learning and nobody has perfection every day or ever. To keep striving to learn is what it important and to not settle for failure or mediocrity.
We also need to realize that some subjects are concrete, like Mathematics. The answers to math problems are almost always the same, until you enter the world of Calculus, but even then you calculate incorrectly if you "estimate," which is the "core" of "Common Core."
Some subjects like English and other language skills evolve and children need to realize that it might seem to be silly to learn spelling, but every adult knows how to spell the words that he/she uses in their everyday job and that to misspell vocabulary with your work peers gives the appearance that you are not skilled. I, for instance, use the word, "omission" and most people don't know how it is commonly spelled. I have to own "Errors and Omissions Insurance", there is an "Errors and Omissions/Compliance Agreement" in every refinanced loan package and somebody that hires me won't believe me when I tell them that I have performed over 1K closings if I repeatedly misspell it. THEREFORE, the concept of proper spelling is important, even if you are not a highly skilled speller.
Before you suggest that I get back into teaching, I got tired of the bad attitudes of some students and the overpaid administrators who would send back the ~3/30 disruptive students that prevented education in my room. Also, the politics of two of our local school districts is aging my good friend, a H.S. Biology teacher, who cannot express her beliefs to anybody in her H.S., despite tenure.
Maybe I'll teach piano lessons, again.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I assume you are talking about a single check on the entire paper, not the checks and X's on individual answers for homework or on a test?

Different teachers used different methods. Some might put a check on a required homework assignment to show it was done, then return it to me. A check simply meant the homework was done, not necessarily done perfectly. I don't remember any teachers using a check on a test paper to mean 100% for the entire test though they certainly did on individual problems. Do you know how many decades that's been though? My memory isn't always as good as I sometimes wish it was. I certainly don't remember in detail first or second grade.

So for homework a check wasn't unusual, especially on essay type homework. A lot of the time I did get a numerical score on some homework, like answer the questions at the end of the chapter or especially math. For a test I remember getting a numerical grade, not just a check.

 

[Carol Dee]

Back in the day....a check mark on my school test meant I got it WRONG.

 

[Nyboy]

We had x for wrong and always in red. Only ink colors we could use where blue or black never red or green. 2 years a ago Judge without a sense of humor made me take written test for drivers licence. Each answer was marked I got all checks so 100% correct. I felt very cocky going back to court showing Judge my test score.

 

[digitS']

A check mark on returned homework to note that it was completed? I don't remember that there was anything but numerical grades. Some teachers used 0 - 10, some used a percent. Were we asking our teachers to do too much homework, themselves? I don't know but it wasn't until college that I ever coasted along with only a mid-term and a final, or whatever. Plenty of homework but Oregon was noted for some sort of educational excellent - we were told.

It may have contributed to some extra and excessive competiveness but I remember the first "standardized" test that we took in the 8th grade. I can still remember how it bothered the bejebbers outta me that I was just average in vocabulary. That I was also just average in math meant little other than that I wasn't below average ...

There's a real problem with student motivation. Even in the 8th grade, I could hardly see that there was a single adult outside of my teachers who used anything but the most basic math - adding, subtracting, maybe a tiny bit of multiplication & division. I knew nothing about jobs using higher math skills. Nooothhing. Along in there somewhere, I realized that becoming a veterinarian was going to require lots of science and some higher math skills for those classes. Oops. Oh well, I really didn't like the idea of always being around animals in pain and had already lost myself in reading ... words, you know. Mom & Dad buying a set of encyclopedias when I was 14 made a big difference in my interests & world view.

There's a problem. No, not that there aren't enough encyclopedias out there. It's that kids don't feel that some subjects have any relevance. Goad them all you want, set up all the tests and competitions you want - if a kid isn't aware of a wider world than his street with working-age adults all in that 37% who are not in the workforce - what do those kids think they are doing in school? Shoot. Unless we are going to have them replace the machinery that does our work for us in the 21st century, unless we want to replace the low-income workers in other countries, unless we want them to shoulder arms and head off into combat ... we are leaving them to their doorsteps and in jails. We need to have an interest in better quality of life issues. A protected and clean natural environment should be huge! Not "resource exploitation" for more machinery or built environment or to move us more quickly from one place to another. What will these "places" look like, what resources will be left for our grandchildren?

Steve
briefly on a soapbox