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Date:         Wed, 6 Jan 1993 20:59:00 CST
From:         Irvin Peckham <peckham@CWIS.UNOMAHA.EDU>
Subject:      not grading essay/ but satisfying the registrar

To Rhoda and a few others who were waiting for a rebounced
message that got deleted.

This is from an old converation, but I'll try to recapture it.  I
think it came from my statement that I don't put grades on essays.
A couple of people asked how I give the students grades for the
course then.

I'm going to make this quick and I think I might seem cavalier
about the whole issue.  First, I assume that most teachers know most
students' final grades about three or four weeks after the semester
begins.  Most of the percentage points, etc., to me seems to be
defensive.  I start from that assumption--and maybe from the assumption
that I can probably find other things to do if I am fired.  Therefore,
I am freed to teach in ways that I know are functional rather than
defensive.

Okay.  (David, don't read this.)  I write responses to the students'
essays.  These responses cover everthing they were doing while working
on the essays--prewriting, drafting, responding to others' papers,
oral reports, final revision, self-evaluation (and maybe a couple of
other things).  These responses are pretty comprehensive, and I figure
they pretty accurately tell the student about my reaction (as a reader)
to the paper.  If I needed a grade to tell the student what I thought
about his or her paper, I would have stuck with algebra.

I make two copies of this response (obviously on computer).  I put my
copy in a folder.  I keep a folder for each student--let's call it
a portfolio.  In that portfolio, I keep all sorts of other things:
spot quizzes I give to check on whether everyone has read the essay
we're going to talk about today, my responses to their journals (which
I do not read in their entirity), their responses to my responses on
their papers, little in-class writings I sometimes have them do.  I also
keep attendance and some marks in my grade book about how much effort
they're putting into the class journals we keep on networks news.  At
mid term, I scan all this and write a report to each student about
how they're doing in the class, addressing all the relevant criteria (the
stuff I mentioned above).  And I tell them about what kind of grade
they're getting.  Usually give a few personal notes about the grade, too.
I tell them that if they want to talk further about the response and
grade, I will be happy to talk with them in my office or over e-mail.  I
should note that when I hand them their non-graded papers back, if anyone
brings up the where's-the-grade issue, I tell them they can come into
see me and we'll review the paper and talk about what kind if grade
it might receive.  Hardly anyone ever takes me up on this.

At the end of the semester, I do roughly what I did at mid term.  I
write a pretty full evaluation and give a grade.  I either send it
in an envelope (if they give me SASE) after I have read their last
essay, or I send it e-mail.

That's about it.  It's not very complicated.  I hardly ever get
complaints.  I should add that I'm not ghenghis khan about grades.
I obviously think they get in the way of good education more than
they help.  But I know that my grades have to reflect more or less
what my colleagues would assign for similar achievement and effort.
I respect that, and so do my students.

I think I should also add that I really don't worry about protests
(actually, I have never had one that went beyond me talking to the
student).  But if one were going to the chair or the dean, I would
take in my folder on the student and ask the student to bring in
his or her essays and ask the chair or dean to look all that over.
If they want to change the grade, why I'll go along with that.

Does that help?
Irv
--
Irvin Peckham
University of Nebraska at Omaha
peckham@unomaha.edu
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