teaching office doesn't like me.

[SymmetryOfImperfection]

The TA manager at my school says I'm grading too easily.

 

When I go by the rubrics, what I see is that the students are following the directions and not deviating from the rubric. Other TAs are nitpicking things that aren't appearing on the rubric or are very very strict interpretations of the rubric, almost to an extreme. Is this what I'm supposed to be doing?

 

On one hand, I want the best for my students. On the other hand, I want to at least not be hated by the office. It is hard for me to be too harsh, because I know what ppl go through to learn this stuff.

[fuzzylogician]

This is a tough one. I understand your reluctance to grade in a way that feels unfair to you. However, you need to follow the primary instructor/TA manager's lead on this one. It's not fair to the students that points get taken off for the same issue by all but one TA. If this is how the other TAs are doing things, and the instructor is happy, there is very little you can do. You can ask about the rubric and specific issues you encounter, but if you're instructed to pay close attention to XYZ, you can't just decide that it's too nit-picky or not worth your attention. While you may see things differently, and you may very well be correct in how you see it, you are not in charge. One day, if and when you are in charge, you can instruct your TAs to grade however you see fit. For now, you need to conform to what is requested of you, unless there are very extreme circumstances (like, someone is asking you to given a B to someone who is doing F-level work), which doesn't seem to be the case here.

[SymmetryOfImperfection]

This is a tough one. I understand your reluctance to grade in a way that feels unfair to you. However, you need to follow the primary instructor/TA manager's lead on this one. It's not fair to the students that points get taken off for the same issue by all but one TA. If this is how the other TAs are doing things, and the instructor is happy, there is very little you can do. You can ask about the rubric and specific issues you encounter, but if you're instructed to pay close attention to XYZ, you can't just decide that it's too nit-picky or not worth your attention. While you may see things differently, and you may very well be correct in how you see it, you are not in charge. One day, if and when you are in charge, you can instruct your TAs to grade however you see fit. For now, you need to conform to what is requested of you, unless there are very extreme circumstances (like, someone is asking you to given a B to someone who is doing F-level work), which doesn't seem to be the case here.

 

There have been no explicit instructions on what to pay attention for other than "reduce your average". This doesn't tell me where I'm being too lenient at all.

[TakeruK]

This sounds very frustrating. I am also in the "we should always grade according to a rubric" camp because I think it's extremely unfair to grade students on things they are not told they will be graded on. I experience this a lot in physics when grading lab notebooks, there seems to be a lot of "unwritten rules" that no one tells you about and then you just "learn" them by failing a lot of assignments until you make all of the mistakes possible.

 

But I do agree with fuzzy that you do have to follow the head TA / instructor's lead on this one. If you believe the grading practice to be unfair, the right thing to do is to bring this up to the other TAs and instructors and maybe even take the initiative in creating change by writing up a more detailed rubric to include the aspects that others are deducting points for.

 

I think consistency is important because although it might seem like you are doing what's best for the students by grading more leniently, it's not fair to the other students with different grading styles. Also, if students rotate between TAs, then this will just confuse them more because some of their assignments will lose points for X but others won't.

 

In order to get your grading in line with the norm for the course, maybe you can ask for more direct guidance from the instructor / other TAs? Perhaps you can take a look at how they are grading and compare? Maybe for the next 1 or 2 assignments, you should grade them together with another TA and discuss what you are doing. If the other TAs are willing to do this with you, this could potentially achieve both goals of consistent grading and allowing you to give input on the grading practice. That is, maybe the new "norm" can be somewhere in between your interpretation of the rubric and theirs? If sitting down together to grade is too much of a time constraint, maybe just a short meeting (15-20 mins) to discuss your interpretation of the rubric?

 

I am also interested in what you mean when you say other TAs have "very strict" interpretations of the rubric. I think rubrics need to clearly state what the expectations are, but at the level appropriate for the course. Like you have noticed, one downside of rubric grading is that some students will just follow it and not deviate from the rubric, which might limit what they could learn. 

 

I have been fortunate that in all of my TA experiences, I have been given freedom to create my own rubric. I try hard to make rubrics at the level appropriate for the class. For example, a freshman physics lab notebook grading rubric might say something like "Ensure all graphs are drawn with a ruler, numbered, have labelled axis, a legend, and proper units." But for students in sophomore or higher levels (i.e. those who will be physics majors), I might just write "Graphs and Tables must be well annotated" and provide an example lab notebook writeup, because as physics majors, I would expect these students to either: 1) already know the expectations or 2) be able to figure it out from my example and ask me questions if they don't know. 

 

Finally, unless your instructor / head TA tells you otherwise, you can still do what's best for your students and meet their grading expectations. Find out what they are grading for, get confirmation from them that this is what they are looking for and then communicate these expectations to your students. You can do this by providing more details in the rubric and/or creating a sample assignment showing them what an "A" assignment would look like. The other TAs/instructor cannot fault your section for having a high average if they are actually meeting all of the expectations of the other TAs. This would be more work for you though!

[SymmetryOfImperfection]

This sounds very frustrating. I am also in the "we should always grade according to a rubric" camp because I think it's extremely unfair to grade students on things they are not told they will be graded on. I experience this a lot in physics when grading lab notebooks, there seems to be a lot of "unwritten rules" that no one tells you about and then you just "learn" them by failing a lot of assignments until you make all of the mistakes possible.

But I do agree with fuzzy that you do have to follow the head TA / instructor's lead on this one. If you believe the grading practice to be unfair, the right thing to do is to bring this up to the other TAs and instructors and maybe even take the initiative in creating change by writing up a more detailed rubric to include the aspects that others are deducting points for.

I think consistency is important because although it might seem like you are doing what's best for the students by grading more leniently, it's not fair to the other students with different grading styles. Also, if students rotate between TAs, then this will just confuse them more because some of their assignments will lose points for X but others won't.

In order to get your grading in line with the norm for the course, maybe you can ask for more direct guidance from the instructor / other TAs? Perhaps you can take a look at how they are grading and compare? Maybe for the next 1 or 2 assignments, you should grade them together with another TA and discuss what you are doing. If the other TAs are willing to do this with you, this could potentially achieve both goals of consistent grading and allowing you to give input on the grading practice. That is, maybe the new "norm" can be somewhere in between your interpretation of the rubric and theirs? If sitting down together to grade is too much of a time constraint, maybe just a short meeting (15-20 mins) to discuss your interpretation of the rubric?

I am also interested in what you mean when you say other TAs have "very strict" interpretations of the rubric. I think rubrics need to clearly state what the expectations are, but at the level appropriate for the course. Like you have noticed, one downside of rubric grading is that some students will just follow it and not deviate from the rubric, which might limit what they could learn.

I have been fortunate that in all of my TA experiences, I have been given freedom to create my own rubric. I try hard to make rubrics at the level appropriate for the class. For example, a freshman physics lab notebook grading rubric might say something like "Ensure all graphs are drawn with a ruler, numbered, have labelled axis, a legend, and proper units." But for students in sophomore or higher levels (i.e. those who will be physics majors), I might just write "Graphs and Tables must be well annotated" and provide an example lab notebook writeup, because as physics majors, I would expect these students to either: 1) already know the expectations or 2) be able to figure it out from my example and ask me questions if they don't know.

Finally, unless your instructor / head TA tells you otherwise, you can still do what's best for your students and meet their grading expectations. Find out what they are grading for, get confirmation from them that this is what they are looking for and then communicate these expectations to your students. You can do this by providing more details in the rubric and/or creating a sample assignment showing them what an "A" assignment would look like. The other TAs/instructor cannot fault your section for having a high average if they are actually meeting all of the expectations of the other TAs. This would be more work for you though!

what I mean by very strict interpretation of the rubric is, for instance, subjective things like organization, neatness, etc. this is an intro level class based on the guided inquiry approach, so I'm supposed to lead students to the answer on their own too, not give direct answers, and we are supposed to grade for argument, not correct answers(though trends have to be right ) so sometimes they'll try to justify something, but I know it's wrong, so I err on the side of caution and don't take off more points than necessary.

the projects whose rubric I had insight into had averages closer to the whole class average as well as the ones with the old 50pt rubric but the ones with the new 100 pt rubric were too high.

thanks for the tips.

Edited July 7, 2015 by SymmetryOfImperfection

[sabq]

I had the same problem. I noticed that other TAs let students go home without fully understanding the lab so that they can deduct points and hence have a lower average and make the TA manager happy. I told the manager that I don't work this way and our goal is to teach and the students to learn. Yes, I explain every thing (spoon feed as some may call it) and I don't hide anything. I have seen TAs refuse to help with lab questions so that they can give lower grades because the students could not answer the questions correctly. Is that our goal?

The manager can observe every section and decide. The only trouble is that the manager him/herself can be a terrible teacher and want you to follow his/her way.

Also, it may be unfair for students who produce the same quality work and get a lower grade because they happen to be in a different section. However, that being not fair is not necessarily you being an 'easy' grader; rather it may be because other are terrible teachers or unfair graders.

Bottom line, I would say to the manger that I'm not grading lenient, rather, I are following the rubric and show them a few labs and how I graded them.

[Between Fields]

I had the same problem. I noticed that other TAs let students go home without fully understanding the lab so that they can deduct points and hence have a lower average and make the TA manager happy. I told the manager that I don't work this way and our goal is to teach and the students to learn. Yes, I explain every thing (spoon feed as some may call it) and I don't hide anything. I have seen TAs refuse to help with lab questions so that they can give lower grades because the students could not answer the questions correctly. Is that our goal?

The manager can observe every section and decide. The only trouble is that the manager him/herself can be a terrible teacher and want you to follow his/her way.

Also, it may be unfair for students who produce the same quality work and get a lower grade because they happen to be in a different section. However, that being not fair is not necessarily you being an 'easy' grader; rather it may be because other are terrible teachers or unfair graders.

Bottom line, I would say to the manger that I'm not grading lenient, rather, I are following the rubric and show them a few labs and how I graded them.

 

So are you teaching your students to fish or are you giving them a bucket of fish? I very much doubt that your fellows are trying to get students to walk away from their labs without understanding key concepts in order that they might (purpose) dock them points. Rather, a method that helps students figure out the answers instead of "spoon feeding" them the answers often leads to (natural result) homeworks that aren't perfect. But is that the goal? To get perfect scores on the homework, or to actually learn the material? It sounds like you're teaching to the test, essentially.

[TakeruK]

I had the same problem. I noticed that other TAs let students go home without fully understanding the lab so that they can deduct points and hence have a lower average and make the TA manager happy. I told the manager that I don't work this way and our goal is to teach and the students to learn. Yes, I explain every thing (spoon feed as some may call it) and I don't hide anything. I have seen TAs refuse to help with lab questions so that they can give lower grades because the students could not answer the questions correctly. Is that our goal?

The manager can observe every section and decide. The only trouble is that the manager him/herself can be a terrible teacher and want you to follow his/her way.

Also, it may be unfair for students who produce the same quality work and get a lower grade because they happen to be in a different section. However, that being not fair is not necessarily you being an 'easy' grader; rather it may be because other are terrible teachers or unfair graders.

Bottom line, I would say to the manger that I'm not grading lenient, rather, I are following the rubric and show them a few labs and how I graded them.

 

Sometimes the lab manager/professor is indeed a bad teacher but it could also be that you and the teacher just have two different styles. And since the professor is the boss and you are the "employee", you do what the boss says. For example, if I work at Subway and the boss says to layer double cheese on top of one another but I think it's better to tesselate the cheese so there's more coverage, I still do it the way the boss says because the boss is the boss!

 

To address your lab specific example, I also worked as a lab TA (for sophomore students) for a year. I also tried to very rarely directly answer the student's question, at least the first time around. This is not because I want them to get it wrong so I can deduct points, but because I want them to figure it out for themselves. This was an electronics lab and a sample interaction might be:

 

Student: "Hi, could you help us? Our oscilloscope display is showing wonky things?"

TA: "Okay, that does look weird, could you describe to me what it should look like?"

Student: "I am expecting something round and smooth but this is very sharp and jagged."

TA: "Yes, so where is the signal coming from?"

Student: "The function generator."

TA: "Okay, what are the settings you've set on the function generator and why did you choose that?"

Student: "It's set to 1.250 KHz because the lab manual suggests that. Oh, the manual said something about the sinusoidal wave setting but I didn't know what that meant so I just pressed this button here."

TA: "Okay well this set of buttons here determines the type of wave being generated. Why don't you try the 4 choices and tell me what kind of wave they make. I think one of these four is the right setting!"

 

In these lab situations, I try very hard to resist the temptation to just tell them what to do to fix it. Sometimes it's very clear that they just need to press a certain button or turn a switch, but I always try to answer their questions with leading questions so that they can figure out the answer, either by causing them to think about a point, or by teaching them how to determine an answer by experimenting with parameters (after all, this is a lab course!). This takes way longer but I think it's worth it in the end. If I told them what to press each time, they might get to the end of the lab but might not actually learn very much since they would have just been following my instructions. I would prefer to see them figure out the lab on their own and get through 75% of it than not learn anything but finish 100% of it.

[quirkycase]

In these lab situations, I try very hard to resist the temptation to just tell them what to do to fix it. Sometimes it's very clear that they just need to press a certain button or turn a switch, but I always try to answer their questions with leading questions so that they can figure out the answer, either by causing them to think about a point, or by teaching them how to determine an answer by experimenting with parameters (after all, this is a lab course!). This takes way longer but I think it's worth it in the end. If I told them what to press each time, they might get to the end of the lab but might not actually learn very much since they would have just been following my instructions. I would prefer to see them figure out the lab on their own and get through 75% of it than not learn anything but finish 100% of it.

 

This.  I believe this is the best method for all disciplines.  Although I've yet to be a TA, as a college tutor, this is the method we were taught to use.  We were never allowed to simply give students the answer.  We would prompt and guide students to answer their own questions, essentially.  It could be frustrating at times and you feel like you're going in circles, but ultimately, students will learn not only the material better but the skill of finding solutions on their own.  They also feel more accomplished and gain more confidence when they realize they can often solve problems themselves if they learn how to walk through the process and identify the issue.  Nothing made me happier than when a student didn't need my help anymore

[sabq]

I am with you TakeruK. I hope I didn't imply that students should just be handed the answer to the question. What I mean is we have to guide them enough to figure it out; I would sometimes make up a similar example and show them how I reason to answer it. This method in my opinion is the best way to teach: check how udacity, edx, and Coursera teach, simply awesome.

Besides, a freshman physics or chemistry lab should primarily reinforce what was taught in lecture. It should illustrate the main concepts. There is a reason why it is usually worth only 10 to 20% of the total grade. That is why each experiment is designed to take a total of 2 hours (at least where I was).

Now when students take the major/upper level labs then I am very critical about everything. This is why in those courses each lab takes a couple of weeks of experimental setup and data collection instead of couple of hours.

Finally, I am happy to say that in the Department I used to be they did have lab exams where test scores from all sections can be compared: the performance of my students was a major factor in me earning two awards. So I don't think I'm a total failure.

[TakeruK]

sabq: It sounds like we are doing the same thing. I wouldn't say that is "spoon-feeding" at all (you mentioned that some might consider you're doing that). To me, spoon-feeding means that students are just handed the answer to the question, so that's probably where the confusion happened