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03 Feb 09

The Chronicle: 3/10/2006: A New Way to Grade

Essential reading for all writing teachers. A fascinating experiment - the article is from 2006 and my quick shallow search didn't find more up-to-date info. I am ambivalent as I believe strongly that writers should write for specific audiences (i.e. their teacher) and, contradictorily, that writing teachers should be coaches not judges &/or markers. I also see this quote from the article as an accurate description of many freshman comp. courses:
"Before ICON, says Mr. Kemp, the system for teaching freshman composition was rife with inconsistency. Or rather there was no system. Instructors drawn from creative writing, technical communication, rhetoric, and literature could not agree on either the content or criteria of good writing. Some instructors had students writing haiku and short stories, while others assigned lengthy research papers. At the beginning of each semester, says Mr. Kemp, the department dealt with wholesale movement between sections, while his office turned into a "complaint desk" for students carping about the program's inequities." via Stephen Downes

chronicle.com/...27a00601.htm - Preview

writing teaching_writing techlearning composition technology marking

  • Most alarming to the critics is that the system's separation of instruction from grading threatens the traditional, and to some, sacrosanct, relationship between teacher and student.
  • Before ICON, says Mr. Kemp, the system for teaching freshman composition was rife with inconsistency. Or rather there was no system. Instructors drawn from creative writing, technical communication, rhetoric, and literature could not agree on either the content or criteria of good writing. Some instructors had students writing haiku and short stories, while others assigned lengthy research papers. At the beginning of each semester, says Mr. Kemp, the department dealt with wholesale movement between sections, while his office turned into a "complaint desk" for students carping about the program's inequities.
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