Ashley's Reading Notes #5

The Davis reading this week helped to emphasize how important it is to include writing in a course. As a student I did not like writing assignments, but in the end they are only helping me to improve. Davis (p. 305) states that involving writing in your course is essential for your students learning. I have noticed in the classes that I have been a teaching assistant writing is not a strong point for students. It is a sad truth that is not improving because it has been recommended that grammar be removed from K-12 education. Some people believe that the computer does everything for us, so it should not be taught. If students are not taught the proper way to structure sentences how will college professors be able to grade them? I know that Davis mentioned not to focus on grammar, but if a paper doesn’t flow I think it should be addressed.

Davis gives good examples of how to include writing in your course. She talked about ungraded writing tasks and how to incorporate them. I like this idea, but how do you monitor your students? If you don’t collect or read the papers how will you know if students are doing the assigned task? The idea of journals (Davis, p. 322) is a great way to get students thinking about what they learned. As an undergraduate I assisted the undergraduate intro class and the students had to fill out lab journals. This worked well because I could see what students were getting out of their lab experience.

The Week 6 reading in Lang was great because it answered some of my questions about grading. I liked how he spelled it out at the beginning about how no teacher likes to grade and it is not easy (p. 127). I battle with grading as a TA because the students are so close to my age and I feel like they may question me because I’m not the Ph.D. I did not realize that there were different types of grading systems and Lang provided good insight on which to use (p. 145). The system that I agree with Lang about is not grading on a curve (p. 140-41). As a student I thought I wanted this because I would bomb exams, but still receive a B in the class. I don’t understand why professors continue to test hard, it seems like they want to prove a point that they are smarter. As an instructor, is there any incentive for you to grade on a curve?