I'll explain my situation a bit to clarify things.
Short essay = 15%
Final essay proposal = 15%
Final essay = 30%
Final exam = 15%
Participation = 25%
I did
fine on the two essays, receiving C and C+ as grades.
The problem with my grading, is with my proposal and participation.
The proposal was broken down into 3 sections. proposal, annotated bibliography, and primary source analysis.
Each section was worth 5%.
The proposal I did well on, receiving 4/5
The bibliography, I forgot to annotate (as I know
many in the class did as well) so I received a 0. This is where I think I was wronged, to me a 0 would mean I didn't even do the assignment. I think I should receive 1-2 pts or something...
Then I received 1/5 for my primary source analysis. The analysis was supposed to be 1pg. I went over a bit, but felt that was fine. She stated that I only went in to the positives of the source, and didn't bring up any negatives... I think my work was definitely worth 2-4 pts.
Now participation is were I'm extremely angry. I spoke with her outside of class fairly early in the semester about this grade, as 25% is quite a bit. She essentially informed me that she uses it as a "grade leveler" and that I shouldn't really worry as long as I show up and contribute fairly often.
It was a 3 hr long once a week course, which I showed up to 10/13 of the classes. She told me that I only was present for 8/12 discussions. She missed one class, so there wasn't a discussion that day (I showed, a movie was played).
My original grade that I told was 3/25. I immediately emailed her about this thinking it must be a mistake. A day later I got a response saying it was, it should have been 8/25.
I truly believe that she took a day to response and she was grading my final exam then. So she then "boosted" my participation grade so that I pass the class with a D instead of an F which my original participation grade would have left me (possibly knowing that a F would make me appeal)