Grading

All of the teachers I have had and professors that I have had have used the grading, A B C D F, scale. There has been one professor that I have had that used the check or check minus system for small assignments. Because of the article, Ranking, Evaluating, and Liking:Sort Out Three Forms of Judgement by Peter Elbow I have changed my perspective of grading. I thought the A B C D F system was the only way to grade. Now that I am thinking like a teacher and have been in the shoes of a student, that grading system, for a lack of better words, sucks. I hated getting graded on papers and assignments like that. I can see how it discourages students. Students will begin to focus on getting a good grade rather than benefiting from the assignment.

I also strongly agree with the idea of "liking". There is a lot more to grading and liking than I ever thought before. I had no idea that liking my own work or not would affect how I grade my students' work. Also, I love the idea of the portfolio. The idea was brought up in class that student would possibly put the easiest papers to correct and or write into their portfolio rather than put in ones that are more appropriate. A solution that was conjured up was that the students are required to put in at least one paper from all types of writing. For example, one persuasive paper, one argumentative paper, one creative paper, and so on. This gives the students an opportunity to gain more confidence in themselves and their writing.

With this same concept of confidence building, having no evaluation zones are genius! As a student, I have always been self conscious about my writing. By having chances to write without having judgement and evaluation, students can gain more confidence and have more chances to correct their own work. This is just the peak of learning how to grade, and I'm excited to continue!