HIV pen pals papers (grading)

[Cliff]

Does anyone have suggestions for the reviewing the pen pal papers?  I believe we are suppose to give a grade for the papers, but I'm not sure what to base this grade on or have something to compare it to.  Any guidance?

[angels4kelly]

Cliff,
Would you mind explaining to me what the "HIV PEN PALS" is please?

Peace

[ACinKC]

And why they are graded?  I dont do well in school.  Im always better at the tests I SWEAR!!! 

OH MY GOD, im panicing, is there a test today?  Did I study enough?  SHIT am I going to get into college?

Seriously, whats wrong with me?  I know I can do better, is there extra credit?

MELI I may need some tutoring!

[david25luvit]

Yes Cliff...

                  You're grading them on content.  They were suppose to write a paper about YOU.  Was the information correct?  Did they manage to capture you and your life's story?  Was the information they offered accurate and correct?   I gave mine a 98.  I actually teared up at my own life's story........I'm such a wuss.  I also contacted Teach and Linda....sharing my "thoughts" on their papers.

For those who don't know what Cliff's talking about...see my thread" Volunteers Needed...Pen Pals Are Fun"

[Trish]

Hey Cliff,

According to Teach (Sharon) we are to give a grade up to 100%.  She said that we are to base this grade on how well the student captured "us" in their paper from what we have written in our emails to them.  Also, we are base it on how long the emails were, whether full emails or half emails, and if they shared anything about themselves in their emails to us.

This is what I did... my penpal sent me much info about her, as well as asked me many questions about my life, most relating to HIV and my experiences of living with it.  I answered her questions as best I could and from her final paper she captured me very well.  Her emails were full ones, for the most part.  After reading her paper, I suggested a few things that she left out and pointed out typos.  But all in all, her paper was on the money.  I graded her with a 95.  She deserved it and I felt comfortable giving her that mark.

I understand that it is not easy to grade something like this, but I guess it depends on your comfortability in the grade you give.  Did your penpal's paper capture you from what you wrote?  Did he/she share their life with you?  And did they send full or half emails?  Coming up with a grade was difficult, but like I said, I felt comfortable giving the grade I did based on what Sharon told us to do.  Hope this helps.

Maybe someone else will have something more for you... this is the best I could do.

Good luck,

Trish

[kcmetroman]

Kelly,

The penpals are students at the University of Central Florida in a Health class.  Many of us joined as penpals and communicated with a student.  It was very interesting, AND I made a friend

[angels4kelly]

Thank you, kcmetroman
That sounds really interesting and I am so happy that you made a friend!
We certainly can use as many of those as we can get!

Peace
your friend,
Kelly

[Ann]

The first semester I participated in this, I gave the student 100% because she really deserved it. This semester, the student I was assigned broke her leg and had to drop the course. I'm eagerly waiting my next pen pal.

I posted where you can find more details about this pen pal program in David's thread, so if you're interested, check it out!

Ann

[cph9680]

That's a very cool idea.  Hopefully the students were able to learn something from the people they wrote to.

I'd be interested in doing this, but I don't know how beneficial I'd be.  I've been POS for 5 years and am still as healthy as I've ever been, am not on meds or anything, so I don't know how much I could help teach someone without having actually been through everything that most people have been through.

[Ithaca_Nights]

I also had a great time doing this.  I gave mine 100%, she really listened and wrote a paper from the heart that did capture me.  I think this is a great thing to do and hope others on here will share with a student about HIV and there lives.  I truely made a good friend doing this and will be doing it again in the future.

[Cliff]

Thanks!  This helps me a great deal.

Cliff

[kentb]

I enjoyed this project too!   unfortunately my pen pal became pregnant and dropped at the very end.  But I have signed up for another student this fall.

Kent

[jkinatl2]

I have not received an essay about me . Had some pleasant emails though, but my pen pal honestly seemed to run out of stuff to ask early on. Not sure how I should grade.