One of this week’s readings was “The Complexities of Responding to Student Writing: Or, Looking for Shortcuts via the Road of Excess,” by Richard Haswell. Within instructional response Haswell suggest four muscular regulative apparatuses (criteria, rules of genre and mode, disciplinary styles, and standard). This reading made me think….what is the standard in English Composition? What make a student deserving of an A versus a C? Is it the progress the student makes as a writer or the quality of their work? What determines the quality of the work (is it the style, grammar, organization, or creativity)? In English Composition instructional response, it seems to be an overwhelmingly grey area. What one teacher judges as a “phenomenal paper,” another teacher may view as “ok”. There is no specific standard across the board when it comes to writing. I think there desperately needs to be more of a standard. I have taken some writing classes where the teacher has chosen to use rubrics to grade their papers. I actually find that very helpful. The rubrics define a standard. Each student is judged on the same parameters and the student has no question what is expected of them, and what they will be graded on. Writing is the exploration of free thoughts, however, in order to provide a true instructional response, students have to be held to a standard.
Dear Regina,
ReplyDeleteI could not agree with you more about rubrics and standardization for most writing and communication. To judge writing is extremely subjective, and should not be left ambiguous. On the other hand, different types of writing need different ways of analysis. For example, you would judge a short story or novel differently than an essay or argument. The former cannot by anything but subjective (and would defy standardization because of the creative element). The later absolutely calls out for a rubric.
I also feel there is a great deal of personal bias and dare I say it, ignorance, in the average high school teacher (who is preparing the students for university) that is impossible to eradicate because they just don't know any different. As an example, I'd like to talk about my daughter who is now a 2nd year university student studying English. In high school, her teachers judged her essays to be average, even though I as a professional (not as a mother), saw that she clearly exceeded the requirements of the assignment. I had the opportunity to compare the work of a student who got 100% on an essay to my daughter's 70%. The 100% student showed no higher-level thinking, merely regurgitated "stuff" in a structured format. My daughter's 70% work was at a university level. The teacher was just not capable of recognizing the value of my daughter's work because it was so outside the norm. Now, my daughter is the one getting the high marks and the 100% student is not even out of the 60%'s.
Elaine and Debbie, I think this is what Fulkerson was talking about when he was discussing "mindfulness" in pedagogical choice. Teachers have to understand *what they're looking for* and inform students accordingly. I have a rubric for every assignment, and I give it to my students before they even start writing. A few times, the rubric has proven more "fair" than my "gut reaction" to their paper: for example, one paper my "gut" felt was a "C" actually turned out to be a "B" according to the rubric. If I don't like the outcome, it simply means I need to rework my rubric for the next semester. But if a student's work follows the rubric, it shows me that they're conducting some level of audience analysis (on me!), and I give them credit for it. But I'm coming from a social-epistemic pedagogy. :)
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