Emily's Reading Notes 3

Grading is a really big concern of mine as I continue teaching. The resources and ideas addressed by Lang and Davis in today’s readings are really important, and insightful into many of the issues and concerns I have regarding teaching, fairness, and directly impacting the future of students.

When reading these chapters, I found the discussion on rubrics to be important. I think it would be really helpful) to spend time talking about creating rubrics and how to use rubrics for grading. Discussing grading is really important (since that is something we will be doing a lot of as teachers), and it is really scary to think about because I control the students future. In the past, the rubrics I was required to use had between 25 and 45 different areas I needed to give score for, then do all kinds of complicated math to get the final score out of 25 or 100. It was helpful to have it broken down, but then I would have students come and argue about getting 7 out of 10 in one area, which if I changed, would not affect their final grade. But then I have seen rubrics that have only 3 or 4 areas that they are grading, and it is challenging to figure out where certain information fits in on the rubric. Davis (pg. 326) suggests having a list of items you are looking for and then circling missing information, while Lang (pg. 139) has a rubric with little specific information he is looking for. Lang even notes the downfall of having basic rubrics when students do things that do not fit into one of your categories. For class discussion, I would really love to have some time to talk about creating rubrics, and to get a sense from people whether it is better to have a very detailed rubric with many areas to grade, or a very basic one for key elements?

The second issue I find important to discuss during our class time today is the idea of testing. Using a variety of testing methods is good, and allows teachers to asses students across a variety of learning contexts (from basic knowledge to application in essay questions). However, Davis (pg. 362) seems to advocate testing as the only way to assess students learning in the course. Though I agree with Davis’ reasoning for using tests, I think it is also important to explore other forms of measuring students learning during the course. Lang, on the other hand, focuses on grading papers and how to assess student’s writing skills. Is there a way to format a course where both methods of grading can be used? I find value in assessing students writing and seeing the connections and application that they complete through the writing process. However, it is a daunting task to face grading that many papers, along with speeches (in my case). I like giving tests in courses, but many times students question the test validity and argue the multiple choice answers (pedagogically, there are many situations where there are right and wrong answers). But in order to encourage students to think critically and go beyond the basic content, essay questions are also important. How have you all seen previous instructors balance testing/grading procedures? Are there norms for each discipline (like communication using more essays to get student input and thought)?

I really feel that these two issues (rubric creation and testing) are important to discuss during class time. Both of these issues directly affect the student, and are the basis of why (many) students are in class. Grading is a really touchy issue, and it would be great to have some discussion and insight into how grading issues and concerns can be avoided before entering the classroom.