Encouraging Students to Take Responsibility for Their Own Grades: A Systematic Pedagogical Approach

Students often asked, “Can I do extra work to bring my grade up?” If I said “No,” I would wonder, “Where is my redemptive compassion?” But to say “Yes” could be allowing the students to circumnavigate the consequences of not doing their best from the start. So I instituted a system that required the students to earn a preset number of points to achieve a specific grade. Points were assigned to each grading opportunity: pop quizzes; tests; term papers; book reports; etc. And there were minimum scores set to gain certain opportunities. This paper describes the process, and its results.