Without my forcing the issue, the overall average at mid-term in my two sections of English 111 happens to be exactly 2.0 or "C," a reasonable outcome for a first-semester college course, one that includes several failures by students who simply quit coming to class and submitting the assigned writing projects. Overall, 30 students …show more content…
I regard this an average, acceptable record of performance at the first-term college level.
Students who earned D's at mid-term have accumulated 318-342 points (about 58-62%). This is marginally satisfactory work according to the standards that I try to apply in judging your work.
Students who earned F's at mid-term have accumulated 266 points or fewer and are performing unsatisfactorily. Most students with a failing mid-term grade in English have over-cut and/or have failed to turn in all of the assignments.
In general, your earned grade at mid-term tend to correlate with your best representative work in the course to date. Strong records of daily performance, which tend to indicate serious efforts at reading assignments and staying current, obviously help an overall record.
At this stage in the term you are in a good position to assess outcomes in all of courses and, if necessary, to make mid-course corrections. Please let me know if I can be involved in your personal efforts in English 111. As I've said, your goals and mine are the same, but the initiative has to be yours. Some of you have patterns of errors or of bad writing habits that you can modify if you decide to be pro-active. As with any skill, guided practice moves you toward improvement. If writing well is an important goal for you, the course gives you a chance to move toward that