I’m avoiding end of the semester grading for a moment, just a moment.
Evaluating final projects, papers, and portfolios creates a certain amount of anxiety in me. The anxiety arises from a series of contradictions and tensions:
1. It’s unnecessary: I’m confident I could assign final grades based on what I’ve already seen student drafts and presentation with 98% accuracy.
2. It’s a waste of time: few students care about the details of my evaluation beyond the grade.
3. I’m constantly seduced by the thought that when I’m done grading, I’m completely free for a few days: but no matter how hard I try (timing my readings, setting goals, etc.) I can’t ever seem to just check the damn things off.
4. Often I sense I’m dedicating more time and mental effort to student work than they have given it themselves but, on occasion, some student work demands I do much more than merely record its (its!) score on my little sheet; it demands I email them, point out their amazing improvement, encourage them to submit their work to our student journal, and ensure they will continue to write like this in other courses.
5. And finally: what the hell does this mean anyways? Who am I kidding? This is an authentic evaluation of student effort, intelligence, and skills? It’s all a farce and we all know it, yet if I don’t keep evaluating, everyone (students, administrators, colleagues, family) will question my sanity and competence.
Back to it. I judge each paper, each person, each 3 month’s worth of effort, boiling it down to 80 minute classes and my silly little construction of a "final" project.
3 comments:
Don't be cynical, counterintuitive! Like most everything else we do that has to do with other people in our lives, the effects are, literally, incalculable. I think for myself, I grade the way I grade because I must, because to me it feels ethical and right. I don't say everyone else has to grade like me, but I really can't do it differently, or I would feel wrong.
Well, you chide me--maybe I deserve it, but then again I don't necessarily see my attitude, be it cynical or not, as a negative. I think I'm realistic about what I can really help students do. And I do think we can create rich opportunities for *some* students but not most.
I'm going to resist what I see as your move to construct teaching as cynical(!) or conversely deeply aware of the "incalculable" effects. I don't think it's that simple (and you'll probably agree; still I think your comment does construct it this way). This type of bifurcation would then have me simply work harder at being an optimist--and that's not something I am willing or able to do. I would feel....wrong.
Hey Ron,
I tell my students a story about a guy who travelled across the country to see if BB King would teach him how to play the Blues. When he got there, BB said: "I can teach you everything I know about the Blues in about 10 mninutes ... then if you practice for 10 years you'll start to understand." I feel the same way about writing.
I also struggle when someone pours his/her heart out about their father committing suicide, or being molested as a child, and then saying, "well, you've got a weakly stated thesis, your second point is undeveloped, you've got several run ons, and a dangling modifier in the last paragraph. C-.
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