Inoue asserts, "The weight of the teacher's feedback always trumps a student's, even an entire class of students," and while I agree that this is not really and ideal model of a writing community, I'm not sure reading 40 explanations about why a student should receive just-below-perfection as a grade changes this dynamic. I agree with Anne's post about this model possibly working for a more established professor, but in my current position I'm not sure my students would be able to take away what they would need to take away in order to make this kind of activity meaningful and worthwhile. Basically I don't want all of them to argue they deserve an A- and then feel somehow tricked when they don't end up with that grade if that is not in fact the grade they earn.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Teacher's Trump Card
I feel like my post is going to be fairly similar to those already published on the blog...but I'll try to add my own piece to the conversation...
I attempted to utilize student self-assessment in my Freshman Writing Seminars at Boston College. I went into the activity with hopes similar to those expressed by Inoue. I didn't want my comments to be the only ones my students took into account, but I knew that the act of grading (and student obsession with grades) would lead to this being the case. So I asked my students to reflect on the grade they thought they deserved at the end of the semester. When they turned in their portfolios they were to include a brief piece of writing in which they graded themselves and defended that grade. I received 15 reflections on why each student deserved an A- in the course.
Inoue asserts, "The weight of the teacher's feedback always trumps a student's, even an entire class of students," and while I agree that this is not really and ideal model of a writing community, I'm not sure reading 40 explanations about why a student should receive just-below-perfection as a grade changes this dynamic. I agree with Anne's post about this model possibly working for a more established professor, but in my current position I'm not sure my students would be able to take away what they would need to take away in order to make this kind of activity meaningful and worthwhile. Basically I don't want all of them to argue they deserve an A- and then feel somehow tricked when they don't end up with that grade if that is not in fact the grade they earn.
Inoue asserts, "The weight of the teacher's feedback always trumps a student's, even an entire class of students," and while I agree that this is not really and ideal model of a writing community, I'm not sure reading 40 explanations about why a student should receive just-below-perfection as a grade changes this dynamic. I agree with Anne's post about this model possibly working for a more established professor, but in my current position I'm not sure my students would be able to take away what they would need to take away in order to make this kind of activity meaningful and worthwhile. Basically I don't want all of them to argue they deserve an A- and then feel somehow tricked when they don't end up with that grade if that is not in fact the grade they earn.
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I had my students grade their own exam and to judge whether they had answered the question fully or not. We did this together. I found I had to change some of their assessments because I felt it was wrong to give credit for an incomplete answer especially when some of the students answered the question fully. So what does this say about grading? Are always judging against a norm. Sometimes their answer was good enough even when it did give me what I was looking for. Should I have graded it correctly? Because some students gave me exactly what I was looking for I felt I couldn't give both students the same grade.
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