I took exception to the value placed on subject matter, and in fact felt it was somewaht irrelevant, or at the very least, should be at the bottom of the list.
Not to mention, who exactly determines which subject matter is worth 25% and which is worth, say 10%?
Mrs. Ook insists that I’m way out of line on this…
It’s my opinion that you might want to e-mail a moderator and ask that this thread be moved to IMHO.
Regarding the grading: It depends.
That is not a cop-out. You have not clearly identified the course and its intent. If one purpose of the course is to select and explicate serious subjects, then presenting a speech on the difficulty in lacing a shoe with a broken aglet does not qualify as a serious subject.
P.S., a low grade will probably not keep the child out of Harvard.
It sounds like Speech, in which case “subject matter” is important, as otherwise, besides the “how to tie your shoes” subject matter, you get giggly/silly stuff like, “Should dogs smoke dope?” and “Is our teacher a Nazi?”
So Teach understandably gives “subject matter” 25%.
Is that solely the choice of subject for the exam? Like, if ooklet picks a subject not worthy of the exam, he loses some or all of that?
Or is it the content of the speech, meaning how much info ooklet communicates during the exam? If so, I think 25% is perfectly reasonable. If you’re going to talk, it has to be about something. As long as the teacher is reasonable in its assessment of said subject matter. You can’t expect Demosthenean soliloques from a sixth-grader.
And from a cynical point of view, let me suggest that the 25% may be a way to make sure that those who try–even the horribly inept who stumble trough their speech, keep their hands in their pocket the whole time, and manage to get a gramtical error into every sentence at least get SOME credit: “Well, Johnny DID have a subject!”
As a former teacher, it sounds like an okay breakdown to me. I would interpret subject matter to mean how much information about the topic was conveyed and was it accurate. Giving 25% to this part ofthe assignment means (to me) that the teacher expects some level of research, not just an opinion. A speech on how to tie shoelaces could work–a straight presentation on how to do something is a mainstay of public speaking classes. I’d be a bit more concerned over the difference between ** effectiveness of speaking** and manner. I guess manner could be posture, use of the hands, eye contact, standing still and appropriate facial expression, where effectiveness of speaking would be clarity of speech, no pauses or space-fillers, vocal pitch, and the ability not to be too boring. it’s a bit hard for me to break those two apart, but the teacher may well have some sort of score/gradign sheet that she or he uses–I know I did when I graded oral presentations. That made it seem like I used something other than “did I stay awake during this speech?” as a standard for grading.
Marc, first remember that 15% isn’t insignifigant: that turns a low A into a C pretty fast. Second, when you are teaching, it isn’t effective to grade for everything all of the time. The precious little darlings that fill a classroom have the attention span of a sixth month old puppy on crack, and they simply can’t focus on five or six things at once. So if whta you want to focus on is presentation and orginization, you make htat most of hte grade and you give grammar and vocabulary a token 15% so that the child dosen’t forget that they do exisita n dthey do matter. Then you give other assignments where the grammar and/or vocabulary are the major components of the grade.
IANAT, but my mom’s been teaching sixth grade for over 20 years. She uses a similar breakdown when grading certain writing assignments. Replace effectiveness of speaking with, say, organization, and so forth, but that breakdown seems reasonable to me.
Subject really does matter on a lot of assignments. For example, she has her kids write newspaper or magazine style feature articles for their portfolios, and usually ties them to a thematic unit. If, say, they’re doing animal books, the assignment may be to do an article on some aspect of animal rights. Part of the grade is directly related to how well the chosen subject conforms to the assignment, and rightly so. The “let me instead tell you of the Sermon on the Mount” thing doesn’t wash, believe me.
And yes, doing research and using it effectively usually figures into either the subject matter or effectiveness category. How much it figures in tends to vary by the point of the assignment.