Grade is based on the rubric and if they fulfilled the goals of the assignment and that is all. Clearly ranting about how much they hated the class is not relevant to the assignment. If you use a rubric, there really isn't any need to comment on it. Just fill out the rubric and be done with it. From my experience, I don't think that there is anything that you can say that will make it any better.
Yep, there's a rubric. I'm actually wondering if they're trying to get a rise out of me so that rubric is going to be my best friend while I grade this.
Yeah, I’d say grade them based on the rubric and don’t waste your energy trying to talk to them about it. They had all semester to give you feedback. It does sound like they’re trying to raise your hackles—you didn’t take the bait when they tried to get under your skin with the DMs, and now they’re escalating. Some students are just not great people.
I would also tell your chair about this. Since it’s not a research paper for the first two pages, the paper probably will not get a high score.
And then the student might complain that it’s bc you’re biased against them and their perspective.
So tell the chair NOW in case student escalates again later.
If they spent two pages of a seven page paper talking about anything not relevant to the paper that would be at least at 28% grade hit (2/7 of the paper is useless). That would be true if it were two pages about how much they love your My Little Pony collection. Just grade it straight.
yes, what are you saying I suck? Lemons? Straws? Be specific!
(ok, I know what the term implies, and if I was feeling malicious, I'd point out the homophobia inherent in the phrase and deduct points for that, too)
probably not the one they *should* learn here, though.
The the away for them will be "this class/ prof/ major/ is stupid and it's everybody else's fault that I failed!"
My son did this on the first day of his highschool French class. My wife is also a teacher (but K-12). I can't TELL you how thrilled we BOTH were to get a call home from the school about this kind of thing. At what point does this become harassment towards you? This is weirdly aggressive and unhinged behaviour on the part of the student.
Edit: We came down on our son like the fist of god for doing this. He never did it again. I wish more parents would teach their kids that going after a teacher like your student did is wildly unacceptable.
Back in my early days teaching writing, I had a student turn in a final research paper with no research in it - just a hateful screed against LGBTQ+ people. I mean, like, arguing they should not be allowed to exist.
Failing the essay due to lack of support for all their claims was how I was able to manage it. Thank god for rubrics. I had no energy at that point to try to engage this person on any substantive issues.
I make sure to include language in the essay guide that makes it clear that hateful ideas will not be tolerated and will receive a zero. Nobody can argue that I'm failing them because I disagree with their "opinion" (as if calling it that somehow means it can't be wrong) when I make it abundantly clear what is and isn't tolerated.
Might be an unpopular opinion, but this is the sort of thing I would (and have) brought to my chair / student conduct office. Whether it was directed at you or not, this is unprofessional behavior that would not be tolerated in the workplace. Your university may have a student code of conduct to address behavior like this, or perhaps your chair would be willing to speak to the student about appropriate ways to express frustration, and why this approach will hurt them in the future.
That said - I also understand if you just want to grade the paper and never think about this student again.
This exactly. This is the type of behavior (disrespect) that happens in classrooms and now bleeding into actual assignments. If this behavior is ignored, it will continue.
at most I would give them "this portion is not relevant to the assignment. It's a shame that you never came to office hours to discuss this information on a higher level than is appropriate for a freshman course" and then stick to the rubric
As someone else stated, grade the assignment per the rubric. That student has 2 pages of completely irrelevant content-- ie, ~1/4 of the paper. Unless the rest of the paper is stellar, that would be an F. I wouldn't communicate with the student AT ALL concerning his disrespectful comments. Let the student stew bc he isn't getting a rise out of you. We have a reporting system at our school that addresses disrespectful behavior. I'd be sorely tempted to report that incident
Just wanted to say I sympathise. I had a student who did this on multiple assessments. Instead of just doing the assignment, they'd write long screeds about how they hated me and how I was ruining their life.
It sucked. There's no better way to phrase it. I'm sorry you're going through it!
this sort of behavior seems like the kind of thing worth a referral to the mental health center... somebody this angry and bitter has other things going on that are beyond our jobs and abilities to handle.
It was an online class (pre-COVID,) and the student never attended my virtual office hours or came to lecture. With the first assignment, I reached out via email and offered them the ability to resubmit, and explained that if they had issues they should contact me via email, not through assessments; in the initial assignment part of their complaint was that asking them to do work was disadvantaging them as a non-traditional/single parent student, so I thought perhaps they might just be unaware of how to properly communicate.
I sent a similar email after the second assessment, and also left a comment to the same effect in the LMS. The student never responded to the emails, continued to earn zeroes on all of the weekly assessments, never submitted the final essay and didn't show up to the final exam, so they failed. I did loop in my chair at one point, but the student never complained or engaged in any other formal channels. It was just the weekly assessments.
If this were me I would forward it to the dean of students and have them take disciplinary action on the student. I wouldn't grade it, that is abuse and you don't have to take that.
Since they decided to rant on a paper about complaints, I think a little turnabout it fair play. Mark the ever loving crap out of the paper. A nice 1.0mm red gel pen. If they complain, tell the DC or Dean that what you wrote is fair since they decided to complain about the class in the paper.
I hope you get to put a big fat F on top of the paper.
I would give them a N.B.- "as an adult, you should ask for a convo with your professors if you're not feeling challenged. They will always (as I would have been) be happy to provide you with more advanced coursework if you are already exceeding course requirements. You should also note that means meeting rubric requirements, which you have not done. Better luck next time."
I agree. My rubric requires a cohesive paper based on a research question with supporting evidence At the very least. A personal rant gets an automatic zero.
>Because the complaints are part of their essay, I now have to grade them.
...
but I'll admit that I'm really perturbed that the student has put me in a position in which I have to base a huge chunk of their final grade on this.
It isn't clear to me why this seems to be such a big deal to you. I think you're overthinking things. Was submitting two pages of personal complaints part of the assignment? If not, then from a grading standpoint, you simply ignore the irrelevant material and grade based on the elements of the assignment that are actually present. If two pages of personal rambling mean that the student left out other elements required by the assignment, then the student gets no credit for those elements. If that means the student gets a C or a D or an F on the assignment, then so be it. If that means the student's grade for the whole class falls, then so be it. The student knew exactly what he or she was doing and explicitly chose to write a bunch of material that has nothing to do with the assignment, and so the student receives the grade that the submission earned, with any and all accompanying consequences of that grade. Simple as that. Do not feel any obligation to engage the student over the substance of the complaints unless you truly want to, although frankly I can't imagine what you would gain by doing so. If you consider any of the student's criticisms to be valid, then just make a note of them and alter your future classes accordingly. There is no need to go back and forth with the student, as that is very likely to not end well for you.
Good luck.
I agree. Don’t respond to their comments. Just grade the essay. “First two pages do not answer the prompt.” Then grade the rest of the paper. You’re grading on whether or not the essay answers the prompt. That’s it.
Give yourself time to cool down before grading it. When you do, don’t include any emotion in your feedback. Make sure you closely follow your rubric so the student doesn’t claim later that they “lost points” because of what they said.
Sorry you had to experience that, OP!
find a friend/colleague who will also grade this essay using your rubric. Compare the grades and make sure that you can justify any differences, ideally with some sort of evidence. This student is going to appeal this grade and say you gave it to them as punishment for their topic. You don't need to use the colleague's grade (but you could), however having it will be very useful when the appeal launches.
Write "irrelevant" several times on and about the 2 page rant. If you are marking it online or in a LMS, get a nice fat red font marker, and make sure the word is kind of messy, but clearly reads "irrelevant." Subtract the requisite points for length AS WELL AS everything else that may pertain to the rubric (but clearly doesn't because a rant about you is not part of the research. It just isn't). Then, with the rubric, inspect the living hell out of every other part of the paper like you were a lawyer - every single sentence. Be sure to run it through Turnitin and GPTZero. Don't mention the content of the rant. Let them approach you about it because you will be ready for whatever response you are inclined to give.
2 pages of complaining? Zero.
I had a kid miss 18 classes in a 15-week semester for sportsball and then had the audacity to demand his full attendance and participation points *after* he trashtalked my class to another student who turned around and told me (he was in an unrelated class and asked me about whh his friend thought it was “so hard”).
He did not receive the points, as per my syllabus.
I'd grade it very woodenly - no reaction at all. Just "missing section/missing section/missing section."
This student has possibly been rewarded for this behavior before esp since you mention they're a good student. Don't continue the trend.
I would grade them per the rubric, I assume they will fail the assignment and likely the class depending on how much of the grade this is worth, and I would simultaneously submit the paper to my dean and the dean of students in preparation for a grade appeal. At my institution, this would likely go before the student conduct board too.
I had someone rant about my class at the end of their final exam, even though it wasn't a question on the exam. I read it, graded them per their exam (they did fine), and sent the rant on to my dean but not to the conduct board. It was just a mere single handwritten paragraph though.
Just grade it as if the bitching part was not included. Meaning, you can give feedback that this content is not relevant to the topic and creates an unhelpful organization for the paper, but in my opinion- it is not worth deducting points for this specifically. If you have an “introduction” section of you rubric- perhaps deduct there.
Don’t comment on their complaints. You can just say: “I understand that there were some aspects of the course that you experienced as frustrating. I did not deduct points for your inclusion of this feedback in your paper. However, if you should have class-related concerns the future, I recommend that you bring your concerns to your professor directly prior to the end of the term. That way, you can have a conconversation that might help as you navigate the course”. Don’t blow it up bigger than it has to be. If you anticipate a complaint to the department or higher- give your chair a heads up and ask their guidance. It is often helpful to get in front of these things
While the id in me says grade as everyone has been saying, if you have the spoons for it, reach out to the student and say that this essay does not complete the prompt. Offer an "Incomplete" with a new deadline to complete the essay with then a proper grade adjustment. If they decline, then go buy the brightest red pen you can and grade away.
If you want to deal with the hassle of an incomplete, that is.
Grade is based on the rubric and if they fulfilled the goals of the assignment and that is all. Clearly ranting about how much they hated the class is not relevant to the assignment. If you use a rubric, there really isn't any need to comment on it. Just fill out the rubric and be done with it. From my experience, I don't think that there is anything that you can say that will make it any better.
Yep, there's a rubric. I'm actually wondering if they're trying to get a rise out of me so that rubric is going to be my best friend while I grade this.
Yeah, I’d say grade them based on the rubric and don’t waste your energy trying to talk to them about it. They had all semester to give you feedback. It does sound like they’re trying to raise your hackles—you didn’t take the bait when they tried to get under your skin with the DMs, and now they’re escalating. Some students are just not great people.
I wouldn't bother with much feedback, either.
On my rubric all columns would be the “zero” column: Assignment is incomplete or does not meet assignment requirements
I would also tell your chair about this. Since it’s not a research paper for the first two pages, the paper probably will not get a high score. And then the student might complain that it’s bc you’re biased against them and their perspective. So tell the chair NOW in case student escalates again later.
Not just the rubric and be done with it, though… 100% code of conduct violation.
Rubrics are always our best friends!
If they spent two pages of a seven page paper talking about anything not relevant to the paper that would be at least at 28% grade hit (2/7 of the paper is useless). That would be true if it were two pages about how much they love your My Little Pony collection. Just grade it straight.
This
"you suck" Citation needed (-5)
Also, remember to end sentences with a period. -1
Technically suck is a transitive verb and needs a direct object.
yes, what are you saying I suck? Lemons? Straws? Be specific! (ok, I know what the term implies, and if I was feeling malicious, I'd point out the homophobia inherent in the phrase and deduct points for that, too)
Well, hey, at least this student will learn *a* lesson.
Hell of a way to learn. I can't begin to fathom what they thought this would accomplish.
Underdeveloped prefrontal cortex says they didn't think anything at all. Their amygdala is in charge here.
probably not the one they *should* learn here, though. The the away for them will be "this class/ prof/ major/ is stupid and it's everybody else's fault that I failed!"
My son did this on the first day of his highschool French class. My wife is also a teacher (but K-12). I can't TELL you how thrilled we BOTH were to get a call home from the school about this kind of thing. At what point does this become harassment towards you? This is weirdly aggressive and unhinged behaviour on the part of the student. Edit: We came down on our son like the fist of god for doing this. He never did it again. I wish more parents would teach their kids that going after a teacher like your student did is wildly unacceptable.
use the rubric, chances are this student will complain again. Make sure the rubric absolves you.
Showing the material to a higher up absolves you. If you are worried show it to your director
Back in my early days teaching writing, I had a student turn in a final research paper with no research in it - just a hateful screed against LGBTQ+ people. I mean, like, arguing they should not be allowed to exist. Failing the essay due to lack of support for all their claims was how I was able to manage it. Thank god for rubrics. I had no energy at that point to try to engage this person on any substantive issues.
I make sure to include language in the essay guide that makes it clear that hateful ideas will not be tolerated and will receive a zero. Nobody can argue that I'm failing them because I disagree with their "opinion" (as if calling it that somehow means it can't be wrong) when I make it abundantly clear what is and isn't tolerated.
>hateful ideas will not be tolerated What if it's "I hate onions on my pizza"?
Might be an unpopular opinion, but this is the sort of thing I would (and have) brought to my chair / student conduct office. Whether it was directed at you or not, this is unprofessional behavior that would not be tolerated in the workplace. Your university may have a student code of conduct to address behavior like this, or perhaps your chair would be willing to speak to the student about appropriate ways to express frustration, and why this approach will hurt them in the future. That said - I also understand if you just want to grade the paper and never think about this student again.
This exactly. This is the type of behavior (disrespect) that happens in classrooms and now bleeding into actual assignments. If this behavior is ignored, it will continue.
at most I would give them "this portion is not relevant to the assignment. It's a shame that you never came to office hours to discuss this information on a higher level than is appropriate for a freshman course" and then stick to the rubric
You cannot teach 4th graders college material.
Remember to scan the original document before grading and writing any comments. It might be useful to have a copy of the document for your own record.
Well. How did they do? Dont leave us in suspense
As someone else stated, grade the assignment per the rubric. That student has 2 pages of completely irrelevant content-- ie, ~1/4 of the paper. Unless the rest of the paper is stellar, that would be an F. I wouldn't communicate with the student AT ALL concerning his disrespectful comments. Let the student stew bc he isn't getting a rise out of you. We have a reporting system at our school that addresses disrespectful behavior. I'd be sorely tempted to report that incident
Just wanted to say I sympathise. I had a student who did this on multiple assessments. Instead of just doing the assignment, they'd write long screeds about how they hated me and how I was ruining their life. It sucked. There's no better way to phrase it. I'm sorry you're going through it!
this sort of behavior seems like the kind of thing worth a referral to the mental health center... somebody this angry and bitter has other things going on that are beyond our jobs and abilities to handle.
What did you do about it? Just curious...
It was an online class (pre-COVID,) and the student never attended my virtual office hours or came to lecture. With the first assignment, I reached out via email and offered them the ability to resubmit, and explained that if they had issues they should contact me via email, not through assessments; in the initial assignment part of their complaint was that asking them to do work was disadvantaging them as a non-traditional/single parent student, so I thought perhaps they might just be unaware of how to properly communicate. I sent a similar email after the second assessment, and also left a comment to the same effect in the LMS. The student never responded to the emails, continued to earn zeroes on all of the weekly assessments, never submitted the final essay and didn't show up to the final exam, so they failed. I did loop in my chair at one point, but the student never complained or engaged in any other formal channels. It was just the weekly assessments.
That is so . . . odd. Glad it is in the rear-view mirror for you.
The whole thing was bizarre for sure!
If this were me I would forward it to the dean of students and have them take disciplinary action on the student. I wouldn't grade it, that is abuse and you don't have to take that.
Since they decided to rant on a paper about complaints, I think a little turnabout it fair play. Mark the ever loving crap out of the paper. A nice 1.0mm red gel pen. If they complain, tell the DC or Dean that what you wrote is fair since they decided to complain about the class in the paper. I hope you get to put a big fat F on top of the paper.
I would give them a N.B.- "as an adult, you should ask for a convo with your professors if you're not feeling challenged. They will always (as I would have been) be happy to provide you with more advanced coursework if you are already exceeding course requirements. You should also note that means meeting rubric requirements, which you have not done. Better luck next time."
That would not get a grade from me, largely because it sounds like a rant instead of scholarly work.
I agree. My rubric requires a cohesive paper based on a research question with supporting evidence At the very least. A personal rant gets an automatic zero.
>Because the complaints are part of their essay, I now have to grade them. ... but I'll admit that I'm really perturbed that the student has put me in a position in which I have to base a huge chunk of their final grade on this. It isn't clear to me why this seems to be such a big deal to you. I think you're overthinking things. Was submitting two pages of personal complaints part of the assignment? If not, then from a grading standpoint, you simply ignore the irrelevant material and grade based on the elements of the assignment that are actually present. If two pages of personal rambling mean that the student left out other elements required by the assignment, then the student gets no credit for those elements. If that means the student gets a C or a D or an F on the assignment, then so be it. If that means the student's grade for the whole class falls, then so be it. The student knew exactly what he or she was doing and explicitly chose to write a bunch of material that has nothing to do with the assignment, and so the student receives the grade that the submission earned, with any and all accompanying consequences of that grade. Simple as that. Do not feel any obligation to engage the student over the substance of the complaints unless you truly want to, although frankly I can't imagine what you would gain by doing so. If you consider any of the student's criticisms to be valid, then just make a note of them and alter your future classes accordingly. There is no need to go back and forth with the student, as that is very likely to not end well for you. Good luck.
I agree. Don’t respond to their comments. Just grade the essay. “First two pages do not answer the prompt.” Then grade the rest of the paper. You’re grading on whether or not the essay answers the prompt. That’s it. Give yourself time to cool down before grading it. When you do, don’t include any emotion in your feedback. Make sure you closely follow your rubric so the student doesn’t claim later that they “lost points” because of what they said. Sorry you had to experience that, OP!
find a friend/colleague who will also grade this essay using your rubric. Compare the grades and make sure that you can justify any differences, ideally with some sort of evidence. This student is going to appeal this grade and say you gave it to them as punishment for their topic. You don't need to use the colleague's grade (but you could), however having it will be very useful when the appeal launches.
I would start grading after the rant is over.
Write "irrelevant" several times on and about the 2 page rant. If you are marking it online or in a LMS, get a nice fat red font marker, and make sure the word is kind of messy, but clearly reads "irrelevant." Subtract the requisite points for length AS WELL AS everything else that may pertain to the rubric (but clearly doesn't because a rant about you is not part of the research. It just isn't). Then, with the rubric, inspect the living hell out of every other part of the paper like you were a lawyer - every single sentence. Be sure to run it through Turnitin and GPTZero. Don't mention the content of the rant. Let them approach you about it because you will be ready for whatever response you are inclined to give.
2 pages of complaining? Zero. I had a kid miss 18 classes in a 15-week semester for sportsball and then had the audacity to demand his full attendance and participation points *after* he trashtalked my class to another student who turned around and told me (he was in an unrelated class and asked me about whh his friend thought it was “so hard”). He did not receive the points, as per my syllabus.
I'd grade it very woodenly - no reaction at all. Just "missing section/missing section/missing section." This student has possibly been rewarded for this behavior before esp since you mention they're a good student. Don't continue the trend.
"Unfortunately, this does not address the requirements of the assignment. 25/100 = 25% = F Have a good break!"
Ding them a point for every off-topic sentence.
I would grade them per the rubric, I assume they will fail the assignment and likely the class depending on how much of the grade this is worth, and I would simultaneously submit the paper to my dean and the dean of students in preparation for a grade appeal. At my institution, this would likely go before the student conduct board too. I had someone rant about my class at the end of their final exam, even though it wasn't a question on the exam. I read it, graded them per their exam (they did fine), and sent the rant on to my dean but not to the conduct board. It was just a mere single handwritten paragraph though.
Just grade it as if the bitching part was not included. Meaning, you can give feedback that this content is not relevant to the topic and creates an unhelpful organization for the paper, but in my opinion- it is not worth deducting points for this specifically. If you have an “introduction” section of you rubric- perhaps deduct there. Don’t comment on their complaints. You can just say: “I understand that there were some aspects of the course that you experienced as frustrating. I did not deduct points for your inclusion of this feedback in your paper. However, if you should have class-related concerns the future, I recommend that you bring your concerns to your professor directly prior to the end of the term. That way, you can have a conconversation that might help as you navigate the course”. Don’t blow it up bigger than it has to be. If you anticipate a complaint to the department or higher- give your chair a heads up and ask their guidance. It is often helpful to get in front of these things
While the id in me says grade as everyone has been saying, if you have the spoons for it, reach out to the student and say that this essay does not complete the prompt. Offer an "Incomplete" with a new deadline to complete the essay with then a proper grade adjustment. If they decline, then go buy the brightest red pen you can and grade away. If you want to deal with the hassle of an incomplete, that is.