Week 1 Comment 2 -Robert Sean Emslie

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In our week 1 reading I was struck by the chapter “Giving an A” where the students were given an “A” at the beginning of the 2 semester music class and then had to write a letter from the viewpoint of the future, the next May and explain why they earned an “A” in the class. I think that this is important in that it relieves the stress off the students from the outset over getting “A’s”, especially which would be seen in a competitive environment like a music conservatory.

I think that this is something that we have all gone through in this program, especially given that we need a “B+” average to graduate. A’s are not as much an option but a necessity to just get through this program and also to make up for stumbling on classes like Music Theory that could easily stumble a non-musically backgrounded student. I recall the stress for our group on one of our first projects when we got a B+ on our final project (87%) because of a 3 point deduction for not listing references in proper APA format on our group website which was based on my design choice to make the References page on the website blend with the site design. I did include a properly formatted APA reference page as an PDF attachment on the page, which was overlooked in grading. The day with us getting a B+ was traumatic for us all until the course director noticed the PDF file and revised our grade to a “A”.

I think that grades are important and think that students should earn their “A’s”, but learning may be done in classes where the students may not produce or demonstrate “A” work.

Sean,

I have experienced some similar panic over a grade because it was not an A. It's funny how this grade will mean nothing once we are finished with this program. We will all have our work to symbolize our accomplishments. I don't think there is really a way to measure our learning in this program. We are each going to be using our learning in different scenarios, and that the productivity is impossible to measure.