1. Straub
Straub listed a few examples of how feedback is given. We can always say we won't be a harsh critic, or we'll go easy in the classroom, but that is not always the case. In the classroom, do you think that you will be a harsher critic than most or more positive, or even a mixture of both?
2.
Belanoff states that "such reliance on grades presumes that the student who gets an A has learned more than the student who gets a B and so on down the line. I have to disagree with this statement, as a number of factors come into play when grades are concerned. Do you agree or disagree?
Hi Farrah,
ReplyDeleteI'd like to be casual with my students, but my experience in creative writing workshops has taught me that I can be very vocally critical when it comes to the writing of others. I do think finding a balance is a good idea because I don't want to sacrifice all of my authority (especially if a student's essay has serious issues) but I don't want to intimidate or discourage my students from seeking to improve. Hopefully I can straddle that line gracefully.
HI Farrah,
ReplyDeleteThe question of Belanoff's position on grades is an interesting one. While it makes complete sense for class grades to be made of a multitude of things I wonder if we can apply his idea to individual assignments or papers. While papers clearly have a combination of things that are part of their make up (as can be seen in rubrics) the design of a rubric is largely to allocate points on the basis of testing if a student has learned what you want them to. That's why in literature classes I have seen rubrics that offer much more points for analysis than an essay's structure or mechanics combined. In that case, I think that its safe to say that I've designed an assignment in which I offer more points to students who are able to prove that they have learned the things that I want them to.
However, I think you are also right when I consider that my own grading practices tend to privilege growth when awarding those points over pure execution. I'm much more interested in seeing my students improve than I am punishing them for not living up to arbitrary standards from the beginning of class. In that case you could consider their grad to be a combination of performance and expectation.