The Rhetoric of ASSessment and Exposure

For your video pleasure today and since we are all teachers, I have included Taylor Mali's "What Teachers Make." The first time I heard this was several years ago and I fell in love with it, but now I am seeing it a little differently (and perhaps with a more critical lens) and I thought it may spark your minds to wonder too...

Now on to the post:

I cannot believe that we are in our final week of the Summer Institute! It really does seem that it all started yesterday...until I look at the increasing obesity of my daybook and then I see all the work that we've done. Today, I took away some big ideas from the amazing demos and our lunch conversation on assessment. What I've mostly been thinking about is how to make rhetorical awareness a part of every conversation that we have in the classroom and how those conversations can tie into the way that I assess my students or give them grades. I have had such a hard time figuring out the best way to "grade" my students because I really do feel that numeric grades are about the worst way that we could possibly assess writing. I hate that I am giving in to a system that I don't believe in and that I essentially argue against in class, but sometimes it feels like a necessary evil. I would love any feedback if you guys have a less confusing or better way to approach this--I welcome any and all advice!

Currently I have my students operating on a weighted category system with homework/small stakes writing assignments (10%), daily participation/daily writing/classwork (15%), 3 major writing assignments (15% each), and the final e-portfolio (30%). Within the first two categories, I grade them along the way and they can get three grades: awesome! (100), meh (80), not so much (60), or zero. Then with the major writing assignments, they get a few grades. When we are in the drafting stages, they get a completion grade (100 or 0) if they have their first draft for peer response. When they turn in their revised draft to me, they get two grades: a completion grade (100 or 0) and a projected grade that doesn't go into the gradebook, but lets them know where their writing stands at the moment. At the end of the semester, they get a final grade for the pieces that have to do with the final piece as explained/defended in a writer's reflection. Finally, they have an e-portfolio that is worth thirty percent of their final grade and contains their reflection on all their writing as well as some new writing and playing with emergent genres.

So here's what I'm wondering: What kind of message am I sending to my students with that system? What is the underlying message behind it? How could I improve or simplify my system? How could I move away from a number model, but still be able to keep the students satisfied that they are receiving "grades" for their work? If I move away from a number model, would letters just re-codify into those numbers? How could I grade more holistically, but still be able to report to my students? I have tried to withhold grades until the end or make everything dependent on the portfolio in the end, but I often have students who are hostile to that system. HELP ME!!!

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Confession Time: As promised, I am putting up some of the writing that I have done recently. Please keep in mind that all of my confession writing is rough and may not be ready for public consumption. However, here it is:

I'm not sure if it was during the spin cycle or the rinse that I realized I had become a cliche. I wouldn't have felt so bad since it's one of my normal routines: watch the day's General Hospital, do some laundry, pop a Lean Cuisine in the microwave, but what made tonight especially pathetic was that not only was it February 14th, but that I was over 30 (gasp!) and alone (what's wrong with her? stare). I know. I know. You think I should have gone out with some other single girlfriends (my two or three who remain outside the confines of marriage), but isn't that more pathetic? I tried it last year and never have I felt more alone than signing my individual bill while staring at the endless tables set for two with two people holding two hands staring into two eyes and looking too happy...needless to say, it was too much.

So that's why I opted to stay in tonight, catch up on my stories and my laundry, and ward off St. Valentine and maybe my loneliness.


And here is my poem for democracy in my daybook today:

Democracy becomes a four-letter word
When people are represented rather than heard.
They're told that they have some kind of power,
But it's really all held in some ivory tower.
Only when it's given back to the people,
Will we be living among the free and the equal. 

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OKAY, IT'S OUT THERE AND I HAVEN'T 

SPONTANEOUSLY COMBUSTED. HOORAY!!!