We are not doing vocab next week.
The weights of the vocab quizzes have been adjusted to reflect the importance of vocabulary (in sections 2 and 3 so far). Vocabulary is part of the class, not the focus of the class. When I put all the assignments in a spreadsheet and looked at how much each counted, I saw that the vocab quizzes counted more than they should. So I made those quizzes count for .5 weight instead of 1.
What was the outcome of the change? Surprisingly, not much at all- .5% or less. There are few students for whom the change dropped them to a B, but they were on the edge anyway. However, I will talk to those students to see if there is a missing assignment they need to make up.
I hope you appreciate the honesty of this blog post. I wanted to make you aware of the changes I needed to make. This is the first year I have not been able to simply make vocabulary worth 15% or classwork worth 50%. A vocab quiz should not count anywhere near what an essay counts. I want my summative grades to truly be a measure of a student's mastery of the skills taught.
If you have any concerns, let me know.
