How to Handle “End of Marking Period” Grading With Style

My favorite day of the marking period when teaching is always the same: Appeals Day.

As a high school teacher I had to constantly deal with the expectations and assumptions of our current grading system. Students want, and feel they deserve, the highest grade possible. Most of the time they understand why they received a particular grade, but in English (a very subjective subject) there can be times when students feel they deserve better.

When my students complain, I always come back with the same retort: “Complaining is like a rocking chair, you can do it as much as you want but it won’t get you anywhere”.

Unfortunately, as many years as I’ve said that line, it has increasingly become true that complaining does get you somewhere in our current system. In fact, this has become an issue for teachers all around the world (not just the US), and I think I have one solution that may work for some of you.

It’s called Appeals Day.

To combat some of this complaining I began to offer an “Appeals Day” to students once a marking period, typically towards the end of the quarter. Appeals day is a chance to “make a serious or urgent request by applying to a higher court (me) for a reversal of a decision (the grade)”.

This definition is much different than complaining, which is to “express dissatisfaction or annoyance about a state of affairs”, which doesn’t lead to any resolution.

If we lived in a world where the students were graded on achievement only from say NWEA Map scores, then maybe Appeals Day wouldn’t be needed. But we don’t. Most of us have teacher created assessments, subjective grading practices on writing assignments, labs etc.

At the end of Appeals Day, the students feel like they’ve at least had a chance to speak their mind and prove a point. They also are empowered. That is why it is so important. That is the goal.

Below are the rules.

Appeals Day Overview

First and foremost, “Appeals Day” is a not a classroom “right”. Remember this as you can lose an Appeals Day at any time if the rules are broken or disregarded.

During “Appeals Day” you have the ability to give reasons or cite evidence in support of an answer with the aim of persuading me to change your grade. There are no guarantees, regardless of how impressive your argument may be. That being said, Appeals Day does present a real opportunity to improve your grade, if you follow the rules and expectations.

Expectations:

- You will be respectful.
- You will come prepared.
- You will be patient.
- You will accept my final decision.
- You will follow the rules.

Rules:

1. The first 10 minutes of class will be a time for you and your classmates to organize your appeals.
2. The rest of class I will hear your appeals.
3. The largest appeals (amount of people appealing) will begin first, and work down till there is only individual appeals remaining.
4. When appealing you must present the following information in a respectful manner: the assignment/paper/assessment, the question/area of concern, your given grade, what the problem is with your given grade, supporting evidence for your claim, what you believe your grade should be changed to.
5. After you present your appeal, I will provide my ruling. You will have one more chance to retort before the final verdict is made. Once the final verdict is made you must accept the decision and make room for the next appeal.

I hope you all enjoy appeals day as much as I do, and we can continue this end-of-the-marking period tradition throughout the school year.

The Real Change That Happened In My Class

Appeals Day changed my classes forever. For starters, I could open up the school year letting students know that they have an opportunity to argue for their grades at one specific point of the marking period. At any other time, I’d typically say, “Can’t wait to hear that argument on Appeals Day”.

But, the thing I did not expect was the collaboration between students outside of school to prepare for an Appeal’s Day. They would meet, go through appeals, get organized, plan their process for the day—and spend a lot of time reading, writing, speaking, and listening outside of the school day. I figured they hit all kinds of standards just in this process.

It also got me some backlash from colleagues. Which I didn’t understand at the time but do understand now. My classes were a bit better suited for this type of Appeal’s Day process than some other subjects. I get that. It was a bit out of the comfort zone for some teachers to do this as well. Also get that.

My goal was to have students own real arguments they had and be empowered to create a case with evidence. This lined up perfectly with my curriculum, and their developmental stage. I’ll continue to do this process in any class I teach, but with a caveat that I’d better explain why to colleagues and peers beforehand.

Has anything worked for you during this “end-of-marking-period” crunch? Would love to hear about it!