No Day But Today...

I just finished marking all my students' letters from before the break...yeah I know I'm a bit behind; don't get me started.  I love marking (although many people tell me this will change with time I don't think it ever will - I love seeing how their minds work, or sometimes not seeing...I love reading their work.) and most times for me it is fun and reasonably stress-free.  Except when I have to dish out bad marks.  Believe it or not, teachers DON'T like giving students bad marks! We don't have a personal vendetta against students, we aren't "out to get them" and we don't get any pleasure out of failing a student.  Trust me.

[photo credit]

Their assignment, after an in-depth, interactive, fun, and hands-on lesson on how to write a friendly letter (aka an informal letter or personal letter), was to write a letter addressed to me, the teacher, describing the worst Christmas present they ever received.  They were given a hand-out with the exact breakdown of what we discussed and worked with in the lesson, the 5 parts in-detail of a friendly letter, and a rubric of my expectations.

Marks would be assigned thus:

I think this is a pretty comprehensive rubric and my expectations were clearly explained in the instructions.  The students understood the lesson well and proved it to me in discussion.

Most students, thankfully, did really well and I marked them accordingly.  However, there were a few, who definitely could have done better.  Here comes the hard part.  Two of my students received failing grades, as in under 10 marks (total assignment is out of 20 if you were adding up the total).  Although handing out the grade itself isn't all that difficult, it's more the matter of who those students are in combination with their poor grade. I know that these kids are struggling and are not strong academically, however, no matter how hard I tried, there was nowhere that I could find to "give" them marks to at least have them pass...the material just wasn't there and there was nothing to give a mark to.  I know these kids will take their mark poorly.  Almost guaranteed one of them will cry.  I know he "gets" it.  He was active in the discussion and he understood the material.  His issue was that he didn't take it home over the weekend, and thus had to write his letter during a 30 minute detention after school because it was due on Monday, no exceptions (we're trying to prepare the kids for Jr. High...teachers aren't going to hound you for work; you don't get it in on time, you get docked marks and you deal with the consequences).  Therefore he did a crappy job because it was rushed, and it was completely off topic and rambling and barely made sense, so I gave him the marks I could, and that's all I can do.

All of that being said, I know that kids have to learn, and in essence, this is for the kid's own good because they have to learn that their actions have consequences blah blah blah.  I know the deal.  It doesn't make it any easier to give a floundering, sensitive kid who just can't catch a break a failing mark, yet again.  Trust me, we've worked with him. We've given him the tools and routines.  There's no support at home (at least not much) and he apparently doesn't get it.

All in all, no matter how much of a learning experience receiving a bad mark can be, it's still tough to get a bad mark.  We've all been there.  It's just as hard having to write it in your mark book as a teacher.  First time I failed a kid on an assignment, I cried....not kidding.

So believe it or not, teachers don't like giving bad marks...no matter how much you think we secretly enjoy it.  Secret is out! Tell your friends.

xo