grades

BRADLEY BLECK (bleckb@NEVADA.EDU)
Wed, 21 Aug 1996 21:35:47 -0700

Mostly I was just looking for a reason to stop lurking on this list, and I
should probably go back and read the essay to make sure I'm giving an
accurate recommendation, but a couple years back in _College English_ (or
else it was CCC) there was an essay by Peter Elbow, I think, titled
"Ranking, Evaluating, and Liking" or something close to that. I remember
it going pretty much to the heart of some of the issues people have been
hitting on in the recent thread about grading. Like many, I hate assigning
grades, and maybe when I have tenure I won't, but Elbow's essay provided
me some insight so I could work more on providing evaluation that
students can use to revise effectively (pretty much by standards I
articulate of course) rather than my just providing a justification for
the grade I gave. However, the biggest thing I learned was that I could
make a conscious effort to like their writing and, boy, did that take some
of the drudgery out of a stack of essays.

Bradley Bleck
CC of Southern Nevada
bleckb@nevada.edu
http://www.ccsn.nevada.edu/english/bleck.html

On Wed, 21 Aug 1996, Jeffrey R Galin wrote:

> Suzzane,
> Sure all gradeless course would change the institution. But such
> dramatic change rarely occurs within institutions, and until critical
> mass is reached within any given institution, one course without grades
> does little to change things. Besides, I don't think grades are the
> problem. Grades are silly markers that, as Steve has pointed out, serve
> numerous significant functions. Part of our job is to find ways of
> evalutation that serve the students best, while still satisfying the
> institutional need for grades. We have to choose our battles to conserve
> our energy.
> cheers,
> jrg
>
>
> \
> \ Jeffrey R. Galin
> _/ Department of English
> o// University of Pittsburgh
> /-/ Pittsburgh, PA 15260
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>
> On Wed, 21 Aug 1996, Suzanne Cherry wrote:
>
> > JRG writes
> > one gradeless class does not change the institution.
> >
> > I'm just wondering, would all gradeless classes change the institution?
> >
> > Suzanne
>