Check-in and Research Project Prompts (30-45 min)

How’s everything? Anyone have prompts ready? Want to workshop them?

Jahyeon on Grading

I’m following up with my reading recommendations and discussion questions. I know yall are very busy so I hope you can find time to just skim through. 

My reading recommendations are: 

  • Susan D. Blum. “Introduction: Why ungrade? Why grade?” from Ungrading: Why Rating Sutdnets Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead). (15pg)
  • Asao B. Inoue. “Introduction: Laboring Toward Grading Contracts and the Inner Dikes.” from Labor-based Grading Contracts: Building Equity and Inclusion in the Compassionate Writing Classroom.  (16pg)
  • Asao B. Inoue’s sample Grading Contract for First-Year Writing. (attaching it in case you’re interested in the real-life application of grading contract, 3pg document)

My potential discussion questions would be:

  1.  How is ungrading/grading contracts good/bad for students?
  2.  How much is it good/bad for teachers–how does it change the form of our labor, our perception and position vis-a-vis the students? 
  3.  How should we distinguish the system of grading itself/the teacher who grades/certain ways of grading (e.g. what about commenting? Comments can be racist and bigoted too, but what’s the difference?) when we talk about the ideology behind the practice of grading?