I thought it was interesting when Lang (p. 136) mentioned Ken Bain's view that "penalizing late work puts undue emphasis on the assignment as a performance". I think this is strange because the students will undoubtedly have deadlines when they get into the "real world". I can't imagine that employers would welcome a new generation of graduates who know nothing of deadlines. In addition, I think this can place more stress on a teacher who now has to keep track of assignments not yet turned in and of getting back graded assignments in a timely manner. Whether it teaches them to be on time in the future is missing the point. I think it teaches the student that they are part of a larger process that requires them to do the necessary work on time so the group can move forward with the next topic. In the "real-world" there is also the potential of a real "penalty". I will say that if a student showed progress but wanted to add more material , above and beyond the requirements of the assignment, I would have no problem as long as they could show me what they had made sufficient progress up to that point.
I will try to come up with a variety of assignments to address the differences in which the students learn. I think this will give students at least one style in which they feel they can be successful and that they may even like! Some examples that I would like to employ are short paper(s), a presentation, online tutorial assignments, and online pre-class assignments/quizzes designed to prepare the student for that days lecture. As mentioned in both Davis and Lang, the assignments should be designed to help the students achieve the standards/outcomes of the course.
Another concept that I thought made sense are the potential drawbacks to grading on a curve, at least when you first start teaching (Lang/Davis). If you have a motivated class, then I see no problem for everyone to pass the test/class. Whether or not everyone should get an "A" may be a function of the type of class (i.e., intro, upper level, generals, etc). If the teacher takes some time to evaluate the appropriateness of the course material and the questions for exams then a teacher shouldn't have to grade on a curve.
The last piece that I will mention is the concept of teaching the fundamentals of writing. This could be done using a short paper as one of the course assignments. It could be broken down into several components such as: outline, first draft, second draft, peer review session, final draft. Writing is an important aspect of communicating in any job and therefore this type of assignment has "real-world" justification.
I really appreciated your comments regarding assignment due dates and time expectations being one way students learn about the role(s) they play in a larger process, encouraging each individual learner to see themselves in relation to the rest of the class. This may be one of the most valuable lessons any being learns in their lifetime!
ReplyDeleteThe idea of applying a penalty for late work is earnestly and plainly rejected by Lang. As you noted, he appears to concur with Bain's view that this creates an unfortunate and unhelpful shift in the student's focus - away from learning and toward performance. I would suggest that praise has a similar effect. Davis recommends that teachers "publicly and privately praise students" (p. 305) to show that their writing is valued. I would argue that praise also shifts the focus from learning to performance and further that it is a self-focus rather than a big-picture-what-role-am-I-playing-here focus. Neither penalties nor praises are likely to be authentically beneficial to learning - at least not of the kind we are hopefully after as teachers!
Jeremy, I liked your idea to have students develop their writing skills through breaking papers into process components with an outline, draft, peer review, etc. This builds upon Davis' tip to "Encourage students to see writing as a process and not a product" (p. 306). Cali, I agree that praise can be detrimental in certain situations but I also think that praise can be used as long as it focuses on progress and improvement rather than performance. Praising students for developing better writing skills and for improving their paper seems like it would encourage students to continue to further develop writing skills in the future. Furthermore, it demonstrates to the student that there is always room for improvement. Peer review sessions can also provide natural praise to the students. They can see how their ideas help others and how others' ideas can help them. This helps to shift students from a self focus to a group focus--how can we help each other learn.
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