Re: Eric and Fred's ideas on grading

[Neal Lerner <nlerner@acs.bu.edu>]

On Tue, 2 Jan 1996, Lynne Belcher wrote, in part:
> If there are no grades, how are those hard decisions made 
> about who is really to move on and who isn't?

Lynne, I just finished up a semester teaching a writing class in such a 
program.  The idea is that students are fulfilling various 
"competencies," several of which are writing related.  In my class, 
students were to produce a single research paper by semester's end, which 
I then evaluated in terms of whether the paper met a certain level of 
achievement.  While I always have some fears that my own standards are 
products of ideosyncratic judgment or unexamined ideology, I did sit down 
with a senior colleague beforehand to get a sense of "norms."  If 
students' papers haven't fulfilled the competency, they keep working on 
them, resubmitting until they've met the standard.  Perhaps not a perfect 
system, but one I found much better than the usual carrot and stick.

	Neal Lerner (watching the New Year's snow pile up in Boston)
	nlerner@acs.bu.edu
 
> If peer tutors can be good tutors without being great writers, why 
> can't writing teachers be good teachers without being great writers?
> 
> Lynne Belcher
> Southern Arkansas University
>  
> 
>