The students grades are weighted thus:
A student can’t take course D.
What is the fairest way to re-distribute that 15% amongst her other courses, or will it always be unfair to her?
I teach English, not math, so I have no idea how to be fair to this student.
TomlovesyouforyouranswerHill.
if course d is not so different from courses a-c, then you can just take the average from the first three, and give a grade for d that (approximately) equals this average. of course, if the courses are very different, or if the student has wildly fluctuating grades over the first three courses … then you may need to think about it a little more.
Course A is grammar. Course B is writing. Course C is word comprehension and Course D is ‘English Club.’
Course D is therefore a ‘fun’ club, which is why the student wishes to go to a buxiban at that time instead of playing games, doing drama, watching movies etc.
Guess that means that courses a-c are very importanat and course d isn’t. My feeling is that by spreading the missing 15% amongst the ‘core’ courses this student will be punished if they don’t do well.
you can tell them that english is more than a testable subject … it is a language that people actually do use to communicate in many countries around the world … but good luck with that.
from your post, it suggests that the student is willingly skipping the “easy credit” to go elsewhere to “memorize” more english. (s)he may need to be told the above. of course, many people are not concerned with being able to function in english at all, as the grade is much more important. this is, of course, a product of the system that they are brought up in …
on top of that, most (all?) bushibans have a “no fail” policy to “protect” their students from poor teachers who don’t know what they are doing. so do the grades matter in the end anyways?
sorry if i am morale-sapping - just sems to reflect what i’ve seen in the better part of a decade spent teaching here …
Basically the English club is an “easy A” that pads their grades and by electing to not take that part of the class the student will be held to a somewhat higher standard?
How about this:
Calculate her grade based on 85 points.
Also calculate the class average based on 85 points as well as 100 points.
Give her the difference it makes in the class average.
Example:
Her: A=53, B=12, C=8
Class Average: A=55 B=12 C=9 D=15
Student X: A=57 B=13 C=10 D=15
Student Y: A=49 B=11 C=5 D=15
The class average would be 91, but would only be an 89 without the “fun” section. On average the class would get just 2 points by attending the easy part.
Student X’s average would be 95, but would only have been a 94 without the fun part.
Student Y’s average would be 80, but would only have been a 76 without the fun part.
Her average would be an 86, but she gets a two point adjustment to her average to compensate for the easy section she isn’t taking, leaving her with an 88.