Reading Analysis - Curren 51

Ah, grades: those lovely little marks that make or break our school daze. Wolff's article "A Discourse on Grading" had me nodding my head in recognition of the phenomena he describes. Grading, in Wolff's opinion, is relatively unnecessary until the professional (i.e. graduate school) level, and that before that point, it only serves to bolster the reputation of the undergraduate institution in the academic community... or maybe I'm reading it wrong. The only purpose for grading in undergraduate institutions is to indicate to professional institutions that a candidate has met the criteria for the degree... right? 

The most telling point that Wolff makes is that a student who excels enthusiastically in his major field of study to the exclusion of all else is considered a "failure" if he cannot pass his core subject classes, but a student who trudges in mediocrity through all of his classes is considered "successful." Does this raise anyone else's eyebrows?  I'd rather have the enthusiastic surgeon who can't spell than the guy in scrubs who scooted by with a C average in everything, wouldn't you? It's kind of sad that the guy who can't spell or can't do calculus, but could practically recite Gray's Anatomy (the celebrated medical textbook, not the TV show) from memory flunks out of medical school.

There are definite differences between the general education courses and the major courses, of course. Most of the time, students are going to be more interested in their own major courses, but sometimes a bad grade in a major course can have a major impact on the student. Criticism is not an easy thing to take, and some teachers just squash all the passions of their students with unrealistic or vague expectations that result in bad grades that are not any more well-supported than the essays they're grading. Wolff is right in saying that students can get frustrated by this sort of harsh and vague feedback and shut down. Once a student gets into a situation where s/he doesn't care about the work s/he's doing like that, as Wolff says "the spontaneous energies of the student may over a time be so dampened that some extreme therapy is needed to re-evoke them." I know I changed my college major after receiving such a grade... and I probably should've stayed where I was. 

What I take away from Wolff's article is important: make sure your grading decisions as a teacher are well-supported, just as you expect your students' essays' arguments to be well-supported. Give constructive feedback, and make your expectations clear from the beginning of the assignment, and measure up the students' performance consistently using that criteria. If a student were to come in and ask why it is that s/he received a certain grade, you should be able to tell her/him why to her/his satisfaction. Students can only improve if they can understand what, precisely, they did that can/should be improved.

~amanda c~