So, I have been letting my Latin students do corrections on quizzes (for half their missing points) if their original grade is below a B. Self-correction can be a good learning experience, and I don't want this class to continue on to intermediate Latin in a state of cluelessness.
Despite the great generosity of this policy, today I started to see grade creep. People were handing in quizzes on which they originally received Bs, with their self-corrections attached.
Background: I tend to be afraid of ticking students off. As a woman I am keenly aware of the sexism of student evaluations. I also had my first job at a small liberal arts college where I went in unaware of the amount of hand-holding I was expected to do. I also had two aggressive older colleagues constantly breathing down my neck (to the point of quizzing students at department gatherings oh-so-subtly about the quality of my classes).
But. Self-corrections are supposed to be about learning, not grade-grubbing. So my new policy is that they may be done by anyone gets below a 60. And of course, test and exam grades are (and have always been) immutable.
The dance between "student-friendly" and ridiculous pushover is indeed a subtle one.
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