Have you ever gotten to the end of the quarter and realized you didn't have the grade you wanted so you did some extra credit work to get your grade up? Depending on who you are, that may have happened to you. But some teachers don't allow extra credit, they don't think we should be able to do work that gives us extra points. So, I asked some teachers what their thoughts on this topic were, here is what some of them said:
Mrs. Lewis is against traditional extra credit; she believes that extra credit is not a reflection of what your real grade should be. In her eyes "extra credit" would be re-doing an assignment to show you understand the topic. But you should never have above a %100.
Mrs. Noeth doesn’t give a lot of extra credit. Overall, she is for and against giving extra credit. In her opinion, she gives lots of in-class participation points. We do lots of work throughout the quarter to where we as students should have enough points.
Mr. Bruns used to be against it, he used to say, “Do it right the first time.” But, throughout his years of teaching, he learned that not everyone loves history. So that could affect their ability to learn, comprehend, and remember it. But if people are willing to do extra work, they will find success. So, his rule is if it relates to the topic we’re working on, then he sees no problem in giving extra credit for extra effort.
Mrs. Nelson believes that extra credit is a double-edged sword, in her opinion it is good for kids who take advantage of it. But normally the kids who need it don’t do it, and the kids who don’t need it just boost their grade from an A to a higher percentage A. Mrs. Nelson doesn’t like project-based extra credit, she likes partial extra credit opportunities where it shows extra effort on the part of the student.
Mrs. Noethe said, “I absolutely, 100% never give extra credit unless all of the regular credit has been attempted.” She thinks if you don’t give effort throughout the semester, quarter, or year. Whatever fiscal period you are looking at, if you don’t give a good effort, you shouldn’t be given the opportunity of extra credit. Her courses specifically have many opportunities not for extra credit but for revision and corrections. Showing that you now understand the topic to the point of getting full credit.
Mrs. Hamilton doesn’t believe in extra credit, she feels that the grade you have should reflect how well you understand the content you have been learning, quizzing, and testing over. In our talk, she referenced “Bloom's Taxonomy”, which is a tool that teachers use to see how much a student understands the topic we are being educated on. Looking at the highest level of” Bloom's Taxonomy” you would be creating, making connections, making arguments, and critiquing others based on the content. If you get %100 you are demonstrating, you know the content at those levels. She believes it is on the teachers to provide students opportunities to show that they know what we have been learning at those levels. Lastly, she talked about how if you don’t demonstrate that level of understanding you can retake quizzes and exams to get to that point that your grade would reflect how well you know the contents of your learning.
Throughout this whole interview process, I would say I learned a lot about what teachers think about extra credit. But also, what teachers believe about kids' efforts in school. One thing would be teachers believe that your grade should reflect how well you know the subjects you’re learning. Another is that it seems that kids that do the work to begin with, aren’t going to be the kids that need the extra credit. But they are going to be willing to do the extra credit.
Sources:
Mrs. Lewis, Mrs. Noeth, Mr. Bruns, Mrs. Nelson, Mrs. Noethe, and Mrs. Hamilton. Thank you all for helping!!
What do you think about extra credit?
Are you for or against getting extra credit opportunities as a student?
Which teacher’s extra credit opportunities do you like the best?
Replies
I see where most of the teachers are coming from. Extra credit is not refecting your true grade. I do agree with thise, although, especially at the end of a quarter or semester I don't see a problem with extra credit. Some students may be at a B+ and just want to get that grade up to and A-. Plus, extra credit isn't just free points, it's still work that students can get done for extra points. All in all, I don't really see a problem with extra credit.
What you said about students still doing work for their points is very true. They aren't just giving us those points for free, although they are giving us extra points we are doing extra work for those points. I like what you said about having a B+ and getting it to an A- with extra credit.
I think it's a good chance for kids to bring their grades up. The way I look at it if kids want to spend their free time on bringing their grade up they should be able too. Extra credit is also a good thing for people who aren't good test takers.
I think that it is a good chance for kids to bring their grades up as well. But it is also more work for the teachers, so they have to be willing to accept the extra work that extra credit would put on them. I think the point about bad test takers is really good. Some people just don't take test well and they need the extra points to help their grade.
I think it is a good chance for kids to boost their grades up if it is offered to them. I am for extra credit because of the grade boost, having a lower grade gets you worried about your extra curricular activites. I like the extra credit opportunites on tests, because some of them you may know, and also can take away a point you may have missed on the original test.
It is a good chance for kids to boost their grades. I didn't even think about your extracurricular activities. But that is true, unless you have a good enough grade you won't be able to participate in that activity because of your grades. So you need to make sure your grades stay at Ds or above.
I think that each teacher should give some extra credit opportunities. I get that your grade is supposed to be reflection of your understanding, but there are some people that actually understand the topic, but aren't good at taking tests and quizzes. Personally, I like Mr. Bruns' extra credit opportunities. He gives us a variety of different things to do for extra credit, and it's mostly easy too.
Your point about some kids not being good test-takers is important. Although their grade might not reflect it they could very much understand the topic but get very nervous when they are about to take the test and this could make them receive a bad grade.
I don't think the ability to get anything above 100% is necessary, but I do think a chance to get the points you missed back is worth it. People can sometimes simply misread a question or misunderstand the assingment. This can result in them not even being graded over their understanding of the topic, so a chance to get points back would be far in that scenario.
I think that is also what some teachers are thinking when it comes to extra credit. They don't feel the need for students to get above 100%. I'm interested in why a student wouldn't want above 100%. Do you have any grades above 100%?
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