Angel Sabino

Engl-1102

Professor: Rebecca Weaver

April 13, 2022

There are a great number of practices that students can do to get over a bad grade. The evidence provided in this project is to help students overcome a bad grade on an assignment. Much of the evidence is supported by professionals in the field of education, books about bad practices students can have, and a survey that was given to college students. The amount of students that let themselves get put down by a grade increases, and the number of unprepared students for this situation is hurtful to the education field. A student’s standpoint on what is believed to be a good or bad grade is important in order to overcome a bad grade, as well as what methods to overcome an assignment, also demonstrating an understanding of the assignment is crucial. 

In the article “ Schools Are Facing a surge of failing Grades During the Pandemic — and Traditional Approaches Like Credit Recovery Will Not Be Enough to Manage It” Betheny Goss claims that “ In New Mexico, more than 40 percent of middle and high school students were failing at least one class as of late October” ( Bethany par. 2). This data taken in 2021 underline the clear amount of student unprepared for classes. Bethany also states that “Nearly 40 percent of grades for high school students in St. Paul, Minnesota were Fs,” and how this number has doubled in the recent school year( Betheny par. 2). The amount of failing students goes way beyond a state. Betheny also states that “ In Fairfax County, Virginia, the biggest drop in grades came for students whose primary language is not English: 47 percent are underperforming in math, 53 percent in English.” (Betheny par. 11). The first step in overcoming a bad grade is understanding what a good grade is to a student.

 Most often students do not know where to start when receiving a bad grade. One of the best places to start is understanding what a good grade looks like. The article “College students’ categorical perceptions of grades: it’s simply ‘good’ vs. ‘bad,” was written by Boatright-Horowitz and Chris Arrudaon. Is a survey that was taken by 561 undergraduate college students(Boatright and Chris sec. participants), and its aim was to show what a good “numeric grade, alphabetic grades, numeric non-grades, and alphabetic non-grades” is to a college student. Boatright and Chris want students to understand what a good grade means, this is proven to be true by the statement that“ratings for letter grades were significantly lower than those for non-grade letters for most low grades,”(Chris and Boatright sec. Ratings of grades) and “ratings for numeric grades were significantly greater than non-grade numbers for high grades” (Chris and Boatright sec. Ratings of grades.) The section on Rating of Grades suggests that students prefer a higher grade. Boatright and Chris also suggest that students categorize grades in two tears, which is either good or bad grade. Understanding what is considered a good grade is the first step in overcoming a bad grade. It helps students understand what they did to recvice that grade. 

When the student has understood the reason for receiving a bad grade. They can ask for feedback, but the feedback should be constructive. Zenobia Chan states in “Good and bad practices in rubrics: the perspectives of students and educators.” that a constudtive feedback has “ several levels of quality is a more visible approach for students  “ ( Chan sect. Implications par. 2). This quality of feedback is very benifical to the students becasuse it allows them too  “achieve a desirable level of performance and establish learning goals” (Chan sect. introduction). With this feedback and startagies student can overcome a bad grade. Kathleen talks about developing skills and awareness as a student in college. Kathleen states that the method “ Supplementary Materials, “  is a very practical method because it “can be assigned for working on out of class and therefore do not take class time away from content” (Kathleen page 57). All this is beneficial to the student but it would not work if the student does not understand their learning style. 

In the book Teaching Unprepared Students: Strategies for Promoting Success and Retention in Higher Education the author Kathleen states that for a student to successfully get the grade they desire, the student must figure out their learning style. Learning styles can be categorized in four ways, “active or reflective,  sensing or intuitive, visual or verbal, and sequential or global.”Kathleen states that active learning works “by trying things out and working with others [but ]reflective learners learn by thinking things through, and working alone”( Kathleen page 60).  Kathleen also states that Intuitive learners want information that is conceptual, innovative, and oriented toward theo-ries and meanings(Kathleen page 61). While “Sensing learners prefer information that is concrete, practical, and ori-ented toward facts and procedures” (Kathleen page 61). Visual learners remember best from pictures, diagrams, flowcharts, timelines, films, and demonstrations. While Verbal learners are the opposite and prefer written and spoken explanations. Sequential learners are linear, orderly, and learn in small incremental steps. Whereas “global learners are holistic, systems thinkers and learn in large leaps.” By understanding what the students’ learning style is they can get closer to success. 

The large amount of students failing classes or assignments in recent years has increased. To decrease this large increase, students can use strategies to help them receive a better grades. What is a good grade also matters and it is important for them to understand that. All this is useless if the student does not know what their learning style is. Overall there are options for decreasing the students failing classes or assignments.

Work sited: 

Acadicllu journal:

Boatright-Horowitz, SuL. College students’ categorical perceptions of grades: it’s simply ‘good’ vs. ‘bad’.“ Wiley Blackwell, Medical Education (MED EDUC), Mar2015; 49(3): 307-320. (14p). CINAHL, 10.1111/medu.12659.

Chan, Zenobia. “Good and bad practices in rubrics: the perspectives of students and educators.” Taylor & Francies, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. Jun2019, Vol. 44 Issue 4, p533-545. 13p.Sociological Collection, 10.1080/02602938.2018.1522528.

Ebook:

Gabriel, Kathleen F.  “Teaching Unprepared Students: Strategies for Promoting Success and Retention in Higher Education.” Bloomfield: Stylus Publishing. 2017. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), 9781579222307. 9781579222291. 9781579229412. 9781620367957.

Popular website: 

Betheny Gross. “Schools Are Facing a surge of failing Grades During the Pandemic — and Traditional Approaches Like Credit Recovery Will Not Be Enough to Manage It” The74million. www.the74million.org/article/analysis-schools-are-facing-a-surge-of-failing-grades-during-the-pandemic-and-traditional-approaches-like-credit-recovery-will-not-be-enough-to-manage-it/.