Many East are expressing their opinions on how the English department is using WITS more often. This includes the teachers putting grades, homework and upcoming assignments on their pages. There have been many different beliefs on why grades were not posted before, and on why they are all of a sudden being posted.
Students have different reactions to the fact that the English department is using WITS as a resource. One anonymous source claims, “‘It won’t really benefit me because we always get our papers back, and based on that grade we can decide if we need to do better or not.’” Her opinion mirrors how most English teachers felt about putting grades on WITS in the past. Mr. Huber states, “‘It was a department philosophy that students should learn how to track their own progress and learning and to communicate with the teacher, rather than having a numerical representation.’” Based on those two statements, they both agree that students should be in charge of keeping track of their own assignments and how well they are doing in that course.
Other students on the other hand, are finding that having their grades on WITS is a huge benefit. “‘My teacher puts on grades like any other class and I’m really glad about this because I can check my progress,’” says junior Lauren McGuire. Certain students enjoy the fact that they can see how well they are doing in the class, whereas other students do not seem to mind discovering their own progress. Some students are eager to see how well they are doing on their assignments. Junior Omkar Pratapwar claims, “‘I’m anxious that they are putting grades on WITS, I want to see what I got on my assignments.’” Each student and teacher have a different view on this new update.
Some students are also concerned with how teachers plan to use WITS as a valuable resource, beyond putting grades up. They have the opportunity to put up upcoming assignments and other tools such as links to websites. “This marking period I am using WITS only to update homework and participation with satisfactory or unsatisfactory grades every fourth and eighth week. Some other teachers are updating in different intervals. We all have to wait and see how this goes. I have been using the calendar, notes, and documents section on WITS for years. Even though the homework is on WITS all the time, students still claim they don’t know what it is,” says Mr. Huber. Each teacher has a different method or way of using WITS; overall, though, they are all somewhat similar.
Why were grades for English never posted before? The answer goes back to how some teachers and students believe that students should keep track of their own progress and communicate with their teachers. Sophomore Rielly Hennessey also claims, “‘I was told we do a ton of revisions meaning the grades would not remain the same.’” In English most of the time, you are given the opportunity to revise some of your papers in order to improve your grade. With that said, the grade would not remain the same for very long. “‘Certainly there was an urging to do it by the administration; however, the English department is not like math or science. English grades for us are not averages; therefore, posting everyday averages does not make sense,’” says Mr. Kryder. With that being said, it is easy to understand that certain English assignments, such as essays, take more time to grade. “‘Colleges do have updates similar to here at East…often when graduates return they claim they have gotten a grade back a month later. They had enough time to revise it and did that much better,’” states Mr. Huber. In a sense, the English department was preparing students for receiving grades in a different format in college.
“‘ELA or English Language Arts is an arts course, not just a science course. You are learning the art of language, not just the rules of the language,’” says Mr. Kryder. Art is viewed differently in everyone’s eyes. The art of a language may be different from drawing or a photograph, and although they are very similar, different arts are viewed quite differently. Opinions on having English grades put on WITS varied throughout each student and each teacher.
by Steph Wetzel
