Maybe you were half-asleep on the day of the test and fell asleep on your essay. Maybe you were playing games a whole period instead of working on an assignment. Whatever the case, you now have a D-. Now, there’s an easy way to earn it back: extra credit. But is that really something that we should rely on? And should all teachers decide to either provide it or not, or should each class be different?
The first thing we must consider is the obvious: it’s helpful. When you have a grade you are unhappy with, you can just fix it with extra credit! This makes things so much less stressful for the student. School is all about learning, and making mistakes is part of it. It feels much better to have a failsafe for when you mess up.
Also, it’s usually pretty well earned. For example, in my Spanish class, my teacher has extra credit that awards 2 points per every 30 questions. If you get 100 points, you skip part of the test, but doing the math, that’s about 1,500 questions answered! Most extra credit is hard to get, with some teachers rewarding if they see a student being helpful or being nice to others. This makes some extra credit rarer than others, but most teachers make extra credit hard to get.
Despite these positive outlooks on extra credit, many people find that the idea of getting points back without repeating the curriculum is unreasonable and gives people grades that they don’t really deserve. One of their main arguments in this is that most extra credit does not correlate with the curriculum or does not help students learn in the way that the class was designed for.
A lot of teachers actually award extra credit for menial tasks such as cleaning or showing adequate school spirit. Many people believe that this is an inadequate way of teaching, as students’ grades would no longer reflect their effort or understanding of the subject, but instead their willingness to do uncorrelated tasks for a few points. Understandably, this can create many problems with peoples’ GPAs and overall grades reflecting that they are exemplary students, while they actually do not understand the content whatsoever.
Another reason why extra credit might not be such a good idea is that many people think that extra credit just creates more labor for the teachers. Teachers should be paid for doing their job; teaching their students. But when pupils are turning in random assignments that they have to grade and score on a different rubric than the rest of their classes, their attention is being taken away from their actual job. As a result, their lesson plans or class structure might be altered and changed for the worse, as they are so focused on providing the opportunity for extra credit. This also means that they have to do twice as much work, as they technically have to make double the amount of assignments they’re supposed to on a regular basis.
In conclusion, there are upsides and downsides to extra credit. On one hand, it’s useful and challenging for students, making earning back your points easier than ever. On the other hand, the children might earn it when unreasonably and cause more work for the teacher. Now, should we have extra credit? I’m not sure. But if you vote in the polls, we might have your answer once and for all.
Works Cited:
https://study.com/blog/should-i-offer-extra-credit-in-my-classes.html
