Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Our writing studio
Wow we were truly working in a studio. I was thinking this morning about a "writing test" and how would we grade it. If art were a standard, how would we gauge how good an artist is? Art is art for it's own reasons. I might splash paint on a canvas because I am angry. I might paint a pastoral because I feel serene or it means something to me. Who is to say that I am not good at it? Isn't writing an art, also? Look at us perfection our pictures and none of them are alike. Anyone want to give the other a "C?"
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Art may fail to be art once it is graded.
ReplyDeleteWe can grade a standard, use of a technique, maybe content, but we cannot grade the value of the art.
If we grade art, maybe we should grade life...
When I must grade writing, I only grade a product, not the "art" of that product.
Great analogy. I think as a teacher, if I truly feel that a student has put in time, thought, and passion into her writing, and really cares about it, I think she deserves that "A". But it all seems so subjective...How can I get away with it/justify it?
ReplyDeleteOh, oh, oh, Ron, that was a perfect line. "If we grade art, maybe we should grade life..." And thanks for the ellipsis at the end. It invited me, compelled me, to continue thinking, just as I tell my students.
ReplyDeleteI actually have a hard time evaluating effort, but at the end of my 10 week course, my students have _mounds_ of writing for anyone looking for that visual justification . . .
ReplyDeleteAnother issue I have with assessment, honestly, is my own reputation (as well as my Writing Center's) on the small campus at Chillicothe. For example, I've had a couple of students who work so hard in my class and leave still writing an occasional run-ons.
I sometimes wonder what the tenure-track lit people think when they get the same student in class and he says he took freshmen comp w/me . . . will they see and value the same qualities in that student I do?
Thanks, Deb. I feel the eyes of so many readers looking over my shoulder when I read student work, and like you, I wonder if they will value what I value.
ReplyDeleteI think it's Atwell that developed the metaphor comparing writing to the first words of an infant--how no one cares that "ma-ma" is not correctly formed, much less part of a grammatical sentence. "Way to go, kid! You got the "m's" down, and you really know how to use them."
We're all on a space on a game board, Chutes and Ladders maybe. Teachers try to help writers move along the board in a forward direction. We shouldn't be accountable for the spaces our students occupy, just the direction.