Anatomy of a Learning Opportunity

a. You really HAVE to do it. I cannot have you just take a pass on it because, as you point out above, all of the assignments really depend on the previous ones to put the final pieces of the puzzle together. What my proposal does is takes off the pressure for you in terms of getting graded. b. You get a "strong" grade which values your effort you have already put into something, you also get the full benefit of my commentary and suggestions for improvement on the Winter term assignment, which is important for you in your continued progress without sweating negative consequences. (I wish ALL of our assignments could be like this and we could just ditch grades all together) This is different from what you propose in that I hear you talking about "extra" points or something like that--you use the term "bonus" assignment. I guess I hesitate to give you a bonus assignment because it requires you doing more work, my proposal requires no additional work on your part--you simply get credit for past efforts. Also, in my proposal, you simply exchange points, rather than having to chase more points that, quite frankly, would not be as many as the original points you were already chasing, i.e., An optional assignment might only be worth 5% or so. I cannot really justify a "bonus" assignment that is worth 20%.

The key issue I see you bringing up may be restated in a few key points: 1. I did my work and followed the rules while other people didn't 2. I am not being given credit to acknowledge my hard work 3. They are not being penalized (or suffering "consequences") for not following the guidelines.

4. I get no points (neither do they), but my efforts deserve recognition.

In my reaction above, I hope you can see that I tried to address this by: 1. Emphasizing that we really do need to see this as a process that is incremental and not like tiny individual tasks that are not related. Therefore, I think your argument focusing on not wanting to "forget about it" isn't very strong from this perspective as it fails to address the substantive goals and interrelatedness of how I see all of the assignments. However, from a purely instrumental perspective about grades and points, I see how your position can be defended.

2. I think you offer an interesting opportunity to achieve both substantive and instrumental goals brought out in point 1 above. My recommendation would have you exchanging one set of points for another--sort of like a bank. You still have to do all of the work because it is all related and doesn’t really help you by skipping something, but you don’t have to do it for points (or worry