How do you decide whether to grade an assignment using a letter grade scale (A, B, C, etc) or a numerical scale (percentage, points, etc)?

First, decide what the learning goals are for your assignment. Mastery of content, knowledge of specific concepts, articulation of degree of understanding? It’s a good idea to have some specific criteria in mind before you hand out the assignment, and to share those criteria with the students in your class. Here’s a great website about developing grading criteria: http://cft.

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I had searched everywhere. My desk at home, combing carefully through the four piles, at least a foot high each, that left barely enough surface for my laptop. Searched the even larger piles, numbering how many I don’t know, maybe ten, in my office at least five times.

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Here’s a kind of assignment that can work for intermediate level and advanced level courses. The huge advantage of this kind of assignment is that there’s a lot more variety in what you grade. Another advantage is that students will often learn new things, both about the course material and even about themselves, as a result of completing a portfolio.

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There is a lot of writing in science courses, from lab reports to essay-style exams to research papers. There are different audiences for the types of writing and so different styles of writing are required. There are also different goals for writing assignments in science courses.

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Some of my best learning experiences happened while I was struggling with an assignment: hitting my head against a calculus-wall homework, screaming aloud in frustration while taking a physical chemistry take-home exam. I also remember learning new biological concepts while taking exams. Ideally, all assignments you give to your class should not only examine mastery of concepts and material, but should also contain an element of new information, new material to learn.

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