Re: students grade themselves

[kdavis@mailclerk.ecok.edu]

I found a whole lot of words this morning, from people who are
supposed to be on break.  Don't you folks ever rest?

Just had to speak up on the grading issue.  I turned primary grading
responsibility over to students about ten years ago.  There were
several reasons:

1. Philosophy.  Piaget said so.  One of the higher stages of
learning, if I recall, is self evaluation.  So why shouldn't we shoot
for the highest?

2. Reality.  Students graded themselves anyway.  Anytime they receive
a surprise grade, they say "Old so&so gave me a C!"  Which implies,
of course, that they would have given themselves something else,
which means that they had already "graded" themselves.  I merely ask
them to tell me first.

3. Practicality. As a writer of everything from articles to poems to
e-mail to committee reports, I have to self monitor.  I can't wait
for an evaluation and then go on.  Student writers have to develop
this metat-cognitive awareness, too.

4. Learning.  I reasoned, as Eric has, that grades cause desperation,
which causes cheating.  A grade-free system promotes learning.

5. Process.  If writing is truly a process, then students have to
have the freedom to work through drafts as they see fit.  Sometimes
this means a single draft; sometimes it means dozens of drafts. 
Other times, it means discarding a draft of "unworthy" or "undoable."

6. Freedom.

In a final self evaluation, students analyze each of their portfolio
pieces, putting a number grade on each piece.  When I read the
portfolios, I score the pieces one at a time, saving the self
evaluation for last.  Then I compare my scores.  In the last five
years, 96% of student-applied numbers have been within 3 points of my
own numbers.  When there's a greater discrepancy, the self evaluation
explains to me their position; they're usually so sensible that I go
along.

kevin