Soooo... How Am I Supposed To Grade A Yearbook Class?

are expected to put more time into the editing process. And just like in traditional classrooms, not every student succeeded. Burke hated the handful of times she had to fail or “fire” students. “It is just the worst thing, but I can’t give a kid a grade if they’re not going to do the work. That’s what it is to me – giving. You earned an F, so I can’t give you a C. You get the quality that you put in.” She always tried not to fail someone, starting with a personal conversation as soon as she saw a student missing a deadline. If the behavior didn’t improve, she’d call in their parents for a meeting. That usually worked, but a very small number of students just didn’t improve from there. She said it was one of the worst parts of yearbook, but she couldn’t compromise on product. “The more As I had in the class, the better I felt about the end product.” PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTHS Burke acknowledged that her organized, detailed method of grading may not be right for every adviser. She operates in a highly organized manner, and not everyone is good at that level of detail. Her advice is for each adviser to find what works for them, so long as it is objective. “Kids really like structure. They act like they don’t, but they like to know what’s expected of them and they do like structure.” Having structure also helps whenever parents ask about their child’s grade. “Whenever I had a parent conference for a yearbook or newspaper kid, I would just bring in the deadline folder and show them why their kid had that grade. And parents respect that. They appreciate it and respect it.” But at the end of the day, the adviser needs to have a system that works for them. Try borrowing another adviser’s system and tweaking it to make it work for you. “Things I do won’t work for everyone. And other advisers, the way they grade won’t work for me because it’s not as structured as I need it to be. We all just have our own quirks, but we should play to those to find something that works for us and works for our kids.”

Photo by Madison Tenorio

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