1) In the article about grading, Belanoff seems to make a really compelling point in favor of portfolio style grading. As future teaches who have (presumably) come from a grade-by-project background, how do you all feel about portfolio grading? What do you imagine are the pros and cons?
2) Perhaps this is a rudimentary comment and question, but how do you all feel about the distribution of praise v. critique for composition classes? I personally would rather know how I could improve than be needless complimented, personally. How do you all feel?
RE: 1. Portfolios
ReplyDeleteMany of my creative writing teachers have used portfolios as the primary substantive contributor to the course grade--alongside attendance and completion. Pros: I could experiment, concentrate on my work, allow the text to fail without worrying about failing the class. The liberty to write poorly is pertinent to learning. I learned to write better. Cons: If I didn't want to work on my writing, I could have done poorly on assignments and might not have seen enormous punishment for that. But, at the end of the day, my abilities will get my hired or not--not my grades.
I feel like portfolio grading can be seriously beneficial, as it takes the pressure off of students a bit as they're composing to submit for the assignment due date, which allows for more play in the composition process, and it definitely encourages revision and reflection. I feel like it can potentially backfire though, as that lack of pressure might also encourage some to not take assignments seriously and/or students might be unpleasantly surprised with their final grade. (Also, as a teacher, I feel like the sheer amount of work to have to grade within that last week would be brutal!) I feel like the best method might be somewhere down the middle, with a final portfolio of revision comprising the heft of the grade, but also counting each individual project as a smaller percentage and giving feedback on each throughout the semester!
ReplyDeleteI am 100% with you on wanting critiques over empty (or even not empty) positives; however, I also found myself thinking back to the moments that made me feel most confident in my abilities as a writer, those moments that made me go "Yeah, I like this and I am good at it," and they are all universally full of positive feedback from instructors and peers. I think now that I have a handle on myself as a writer (at least somewhat...most of the time) I value critiques and constructive feedback to help me hone, but I think when people had positive and specific things to say about my writing was incredibly valuable to forming my identity as a writer and encouraged me to play with my words. However, empty praise had the opposite effect and made me feel gross, so...yeah, only specific and constructive positive feedback.