Subjective grading and unresponsive teacher

Being “confusing and non- creative” could affect the score IF these two criteria were on the requirement list.

I agree

Yes. “Creativity” is subjective; being “ clear and concise” could be up to interpretation.

I suggest that you not listen to your daughter’s peers on whether or not the criteria was met. Instead, your daughter should have asked how the presention could have been more clear and get the teacher’s input on how it lacked creativity.

I was specifically asking that question - the teacher was vague on what it was - this is what we were trying to get from the teacher - to meet with us so she could show my daughter what is meant by the presentation being confusing. I read the presentation and from what was written I could understand the material. There was also a quiz given at the end to quiz the students to see if the students learned the material and understood - no one got under 80% - so there is documentation it was clear and not confusing. I did however tell my daughter I cannot make a judgement on how you presented the material and maybe that is where the teacher felt it was confusing.

Your daughter may not have a talent for presentation, OR the teacher may be a vindictive bitch. In any case, this won’t be the worse thing your daughter hears in her school experience.

I also told her - whatever the outcome is you will learn something from this. Sometimes things are not fair and sometimes you have to deal with a bad or unfair teacher or boss in life.

She needs to find out how to make a better presentation. You can’t or should not do that for her. Make her find out how to do better - just like when she asks her coach how to improve her basketball skills.

again read above - I did all this. However, yes there are times when parents do need to step in. I let them handle this first - give them guidelines to help them. However, sometimes when the odds are stacked against them - you need to step in and help. You don't leave a toddler alone to fend 100% for themselves, but you do allow them some room to start toddling and learning to walk. A student you guide them and let them stand for themselves but you also step in when they have tried this tactic and someone bigger older with more authority is ignoring them - you step in.

She did -- she did this first - she went to the teacher and presented why she felt she deserved a higher grade. That is when the teacher just said you were confusing and it wasn't creative enough. The request to meet was to go over why it was confusing and wasn't creative enough.

I might have been confusing in my presentation. Because what many of you have said I agree with and we did do this. Also first off she was never given a rubic to follow. She was given instructions and I read them she did do more work than what was outlined on the instructions. She had an additional activity for the class - all she was supposed to do was a presentation to teach the chapter and then a quiz. She did a quizlet which is a fun game that is interactive with students as a review of the material.

So it is clearer this is follow up to the teacher:
I did look at her slide show and do not understand what was confusing or why the picture did not seem related to the subject. I want to let you know this is not just about the grade but the fact that she feel below expectations and needs to learn why so as not to repeat in her academic future. The need to meet face to face is to explain and show why her project was confusing or did not make your creative expectation. I have had another daughter in this high school and neither child had ever been turned down to go over a project or test or similar to walk through where they feel short.

Please let me know when you available to meet and I will make time in my schedule.

And I reached out to the director in the department:

I am having an issue with a teacher that seems unwilling to meet with me. She has not directly said she would not but certainly implied that she done with the matter. As a little background my daughter is a freshman and in honors English. She had a project on which completing, the teacher did not give any comments just smiled. For many of the other students she gave some constrictive feedback. I can attest that my daughter did put in a good amount of hours on the project and she felt confident that she had done well, so when she got a low grade she was in tears.

I had first tried to reach the teacher via email and my daughter did speak with her but just a few minutes after class. I asked the teacher then if we had further questions if she would meet with us on Monday and although her response was not a direct refusal, it sounded like she would not make any more time for us.

I am sorry to bother you, but I am unsure where to go from here – I have never experienced a teacher turning down a time to speak with either daughter of mine or me as well. How is a student to learn where they fell short?

I have also been of the mind set if after two emails and there is still confusion that it is necessary to have a face to face discussion to avoid further confusion and to be clear this is why I ask for the meeting. I did make one last attempt to see if she will meet with us.

If it helps I have attached the series of emails.

I attached the emails so she could see for herself why it would imply that she didn't want to discuss any more.

I took this as an implied refusal that she didn't want to talk to me after I had asked if I could meet with her Monday:

I spoke with your daughter today and felt she understood what I was saying. I will give her the rubric to the project on Monday.

The director got back to me over the weekend and said she would discuss it with the teacher. Long story short - the entire class (talk about a TEAM PLAYER) now got their presentations re-graded. It was determined that the teacher was unfairly grading because she was requiring the students that gave presentations later to do more work and were being graded much more strictly than the earlier presenters.

"We looked at the project and she stated she thinks I made it sound like students, who went later in the project assignment, were graded more stringently. That is true. It was her feeling that this is not what should be done, as it doesn't create an equal assignment for all students. I do see her point, and I will change the assignment for next year to make it more equal to all."

Persistence rewarded.

I'm glad things worked out well for you.

This is a great lesson for her.

I will tell you that you need to fight these things out. If you think the teacher is wrong then you need to have the teacher explain, in detail, why the grade given is what it is.

In 10th grade, my son had an English teacher that was not very good. She gave my son a poor grade and I unleashed hell because I looked at what was assigned, compared to the rubrick and it was obvious she missed the correct answers. My son ended up being Valedictorian by .1 on his final avg. Had we just accepted that grade, it's possible he may not have graduated at the top of his class.

These things matter for students seeking high success. They have to know that their parents have their back when they are right.

Good to see that you had the issue resolved.

Thanks - it is tough to decide where you step and where you let your child handle this themselves.

But after reading it did not make sense - not for how low the grade was and especially after my daughter felt so confident about it. I just figured the teacher made a mistake and hit the 6 instead of the 8 or 9 when keying in the grade.

It was very nice - the director reached out and called me today. She agreed that the grading did not seem fair across the board. In one way I probably helped out all those other students as well as she went back and regraded everyone with the same parameters.

She is not in the position of valedictorian but she is a strong student and has voiced interest in going to the same university as her sister. With her grades she should be capable of making their honors program (which also helps mom and dad as should should get even higher academic scholarships).