Ugh, how can she do that?

[Ppufi]

Ah, group projects. The very bane of every intelligent teen's exsistence. A mish-mash of randomly chosen people of all levels, forced to collaborate to make it work. I hate them so.

It all started with my English teacher's idea of a project. Create 3 healthy, completely original candies, create a skit where a creative candymaker character makes them, then have another creative costumer character give their opinions on them. Already, it sounds like something off of the Apprentice. Then, throw in a 5-person group. Let one on these people be me, three others hard-working, smart girls, and the last, an "I-don't-give-a-damn" type of boy. Oh no.

I immediately came up with a skit idea and the candies. Said boy was silent. The girls and I began devying out tasks. He doesn't offer to do any, so we assign him the job of making one of the candies. Bad sign numero uno.

I wrote the script, making sure to inculde everyone in it, including giving him a line and a 'non-lame' part. Said boy is then absent or in a seperate all-day detention for most of the time. Whenever he is there, we ask how he is doing on his candy-making. He says he'll start soon. He doesn't need help. Okay, fine.

Performance day rolls along. Boy is not there. ne of my group members fills in for him. Luckily he brought in his candy the day before.

Now, we have received our grades. 100 from the guest judges who watched us perform, 100 on self-evaluation, 93 from our teacher.

93? I thought to myself. Why?! Our group worked so hard, and we performed so well!

My teacher left a comment, saying that although our skit was superb, she felt that said boy should've had a bigger role in the group.

We -tried- to include him. We gave him every stinkin' opportunity to step up. But he didn't. Why should we have our grades take that? We can't force him to participate!

My teacher says we should've presented him with things he would've enjoyed doing. Hell no! We can't sit around and cater to what he wants to do!

I'm pissed. I'm really pissed.

 

[MickeyisBeast]

thats seriously wrong. Did you really try to explain it to her? I'm really sorryyy

 

[mikeyandscoobyx2]

Did you try explaining the whole story to her?
We have a similar kid in our class.

Because of him, our project came down to a 79.

 

[BabyPiglet]

Talk to your teacher about it! I hate hate hate group projects because of this! I ALWAYS get stuck with the slackers.

In 8th grade, we had to do a project on the planets and a powerpoint in groups of 2. No big deal, right? I go ZERO help from my partner. He sounds exactly like your boy. He was either in detention, absent, or silent the entire time. I did every single thing myself.

Thank goodness my teacher (who I didn't even like, lol) realized this and gave me 100% of the credit and him none.

I always get stuck doing everything.

 

[Ppufi]

Sadly, I did try explaining to her. She was firm. A 93 isn't bad to most, but I have a 100 average. No more.

It's just irritating that even while we included him as much as humanly possible, we still get points off.

It poses an even bigger question. Should students be graded by the productiveness, or lack-thereof, of their peers?

 

[StitchfansJr]

Sadly, I did try explaining to her. She was firm. A 93 isn't bad to most, but I have a 100 average. No more.

It's just irritating that even while we included him as much as humanly possible, we still get points off.

It poses an even bigger question. Should students be graded by the productiveness, or lack-thereof, of their peers?

Some teachers, like my bio teacher, do a separate grading system where you can give your peers what you think they deserve and why. If the other students think that one student is slacking then they don't get as good grade as the others.

 

[MickeyisBeast]

my teachers mainly grade us on the effort we put forth, and final creation too. But mainly how well we as an individual work. I think thats fair.

And your teacher shouldnt have lowered your grade and the other girls' grade either. She should have realized that you and the other girls worked hard on the assignment and that she should have just lowered the boys grade. But, teachers all have different opinions on everything.

 

[imabrat]

Actually, you're wrong. Any and ALL classes involving mathematics are the bane of my existence.

Anyway Sarah, I'm sorry. I'm exactly like you, a 93 isn't good enough when I could've gotten 100.

I probably wouldn't push it this late in the school year. Any other time, I would demand she reconsider. Next time, if you are grouped with this guy again, refuse to work with him and demand a group change. If you can't work to your potential in a group with a deadbeat, what's the point of even doing the project?

 

[Ppufi]

Yeah, I've pretty much made a resolution to never allow teachers to pair me with deadbeats. I don't need that added stress, and I don't like giving easy grades to them.

Ugh, it'll be hard to let this go.

 

[disney100666]

I'm sorry.

I had to do a group final project for science. Remind you my science teacher didn't do anything with us this whole school year. I can honestly say I spent everyday in that class sitting at the table and the class all had off topic discussions for 45 mins. Anyway, our project was to create a secret society and make clues and artifacts and "hide" a treasure. I worked with my 2 best friends and me and 1 of my friends did ALL the work while my other friend basically didn't do anything. She yelled at us for taking a 20 minute break while we were working for 3 hours while she sat on the couch the whole time writing songs. So yeah, random story of the day. haha.

 

[Joanna71985]

Ugh. I really hate group projects! I totally feel your pain.

 

[Sparx]

you should have told your teacher up front that boy wasn't contributing. the squeakiest wheel gets the oil, and from the begining your teacher would have known to watch that boy extra close and grade him accordingly.

 

[froggy5657]

Oh My Gosh, That is ridiculous. I hate when I get the slackers because they don't care if they fail, but I don't want my grade to go down so I end up doing all of the work.

 

[meeshheartsdisney217]

I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE group projects.

like literally!!!
because you know i'm one of the "good kids" so i get stuck with all these slackers.

and last semester we had to do this group project where we could pick and there was this girl that I DIDN'T WANT in my group. so when we were picking groups she was there, but then she didn't even MOVE to pick a group. then came up to us (since we conveniently didn't have enough people) and was all pouty and like no one wants us so we couldn't be mean to her and say no. but then she made excuses why she didn't have her chapter in (it was rewriting the history book) and THEN TO TOP IT ALL OFF. she almost plagerized. giving us all a zero. i basically flipped my you know what on her. i didn't even care that she was "sick" or that she "didn't have internet" (WHICH SHE DID). so we talked to our teacher MULTIPLE times and he ended up giving her like a C or a C- i can't quite remember and we all got A's.

that made it all worth it. but whenever i think about that i want to just like scream.

 

[Babyjustrun]

Personally I would be irked by this, but not overly upset. Group presentations are meant to be fun and an easy grade. But maybe I just don't get people who have to have 100 in everything. If you knew you did your very best, and in your mind you got 100, then that's good.
The 93 is a group mark, while your partner did suck, someone could have stopped 'offering' and made him do something.
Anyways, something should have said long before presentation day.

 

[MrsSparrow..]

Just to add, I get this all the time too.

In school, as part of our English exam, a percentage is based upon oral presentation on our own and within a group. Part of this is to do roleplays, and in one of our roleplays, one girl is extremely shy and didn't speak at all. We get absolutely killed by our teacher and my grade suffers as a result. That seems hardly fair.

But I know what you mean, it is extremely frustrating. However, to be fair to your teacher, they don't know whats been happening and do not know whether your in fact lieing about what has happened within your own group during preparation.

 

[katief_madhatter5]

I'm not a fan of group projects too and I think it was wrong of your teacher for marking off points on the entire group if one person didn't feel like doing anything.

Good thing I'm a bossy Bertha and make slackers do work... : )

 

[Princess Sarah 92]

oh man that sucks, but you still got a good grade

and i have to say, i have a kinda similar story.

omg i couldnt believe this. we had partners in biology and had about a week to work on the project. my partner was sick in the beginning of the week so we didnt get to work on it much. i didnt really care, it really wasnt a big deal to me, but i tried to work on it alone. anyways my partner and i agreed to work on it on that thursday. well i woke up the next morning and i couldnt talk or move. i couldnt move because i was sore from a brutal soccer practice and i couldnt talk because i had come down with a BAD case of strept throat, my throat was like firey red. anyways, so of course i stayed home sick and my partner got MAD at me! it was the beginning of freshman year and she went on telling me how she NEEDED good grades to get into college. she then went on saying we had plans and i shouldnt have missed it, and she would have never backed out on it. sure she missed some days, but since we didnt have PLANS that day, it was alright. in my mind i was like HELLO this is STREPT THROAT. its contagious and im sure my school would have kicked me off the property asap until i was healthy, and there was NO WAY my mom would have been stupid enough to let me go. so anyways, i was able to get back to school like the day the project was due and i was trying to glue things on to the posterboard and my teacher who was a total b-word wouldnt even let me do that 'because it was supposed to be done'. ahh it was just all terrible. i dont remember the grade i got, but it probably wasnt good, my teacher hated my guts.

but i seriously couldnt believe the girl i mean its strept throat, not just some common cold