Making The Grade

Now maybe I’m a little bit bitter (noooo), but I seemed to find some contradictions within Dornan tonight. She states right off the bat that grading “is labor-intensive work without much of a payoff other than one more grade in a grade-book.” Now who’s the bitter one? If you ask me, although I know no one did, that means you’re doing it all wrong my friend. Now I can’t imagine that any teacher truly has a simply outstanding time grading papers, unless of course you’ve been hanging out with Jago at one of her grading parties, but I do think that once you’ve reached that final page you should have more than a grade to jot down; you should have a better understanding of your students as writers. You should be able to determine student strengths and weaknesses, you should be able to decipher a plan as to how to become a better writing instructor based upon what your students just taught you with that paper you just had an awesome time grading…at the very least. I thought it was our goal to help students become better writers Ms. Dornan? If you look at your job, your chosen profession, as labor-intensive work without much pay off…I bet the Gap down the street is hiring…there’s fulfillment. Are we going to like everything about our job? Absolutely not. But I also guarantee, with all my educational expertise (ha), that if you take on the grading task with that type of boourns attitude, your students are going to be the ones that take the fall..and then you’ll just be a jerk that no one likes. Ever. Jerk.

Whatever happened to the means to the end? What about the process, how ya got there? The long strange trip, if you will.

I am sincerely becoming a colossal fan of the writing workshop notion. While some people honestly like surprises, I on the other hand, enjoy that work shopping manipulates the “surprise ending” of our student’s writing. We know what we are getting for the most part. With a writing workshop we are there guiding, supporting, coaching, etc. the whole way through. Now for you party poopers…the surprise is still there, not to worry, it’s just not “this is it..this is your final paper? Ugh.” You’ve seen the progress, the hard work. Honestly, even if the final paper SUCKS (whatever that means), you at least know that growth, development, thought and God help us critical thinking has taken place.

Surprise!

Amen.

Rubrics. I have mixed feelings about rubrics. While I completely understand, acknowledge, and appreciate their helpfulness, I also cannot help but feel a little 5-4-3-2-1 boxed in. They are hard to create, their contents are tricky, they are difficult to master. However, I know I must also acknowledge that this is not essentially about me (damn), it’s about my students. They are potentially helpful to me because they are potentially helpful to my students. I know as a student I perform better at tasks when I know exactly what is at stake. Funny huh. Perhaps practice is not only how you get to Carnegie Hall, but it also makes perfect.


I heart portfolio assessment. I agree with Dornan here, the portfolio assessment can be a much more meaningful assessment of a student’s achievements than simply calculating the average of papers written. However, I can also see the downfall if simply anything and everything is contained in one’s portfolio. Then it’s less like a portfolio and more like a garbage can. This defeats the purpose. A portfolio should be a place for students to put their most prized work. Here’s your intrinsic motivation ladies and gentlemen. Not only do you as the teacher get to see your students evolve as writers, but so do your students. This could be a very powerful and undeniable tool. Who doesn’t like to see physical proof that they grew two inches over the summer? Who wouldn’t own that?