I kind of took offense at Elbow's assertion that we should not just "rank" papers, but "evaluate" them. Isn't that the point? What good is a grade if it doesn't say why? I sort of see a "rank" as a freshman essay without an argument — there's no "why," so I don't care what the rest of it says. The "evaluation," then, would be the assertion that readers could reasonably disagree with — the marginal and final comments would be supporting evidence for the thesis "You deserve this grade because [x]."
On the other hand, I like Elbow's concept of "evaluation-free zones"...in theory. As last semester was my first semester in grad school, I was not used to having papers returned without a grade on them. By the halfway point of the semester, I was sort of wondering if I was doing too little work because I didn't have a letter or number to back up my performance. However, the comments I received on my returned drafts and short papers gave me a better sense of what I needed to revise. If I had a lot of negative comments but still had an A on the last page, I probably would not have made any revisions before I resubmitted the paper. Without the grade, I felt more compelled to make significant revisions. This is the kind of reaction I would like to effect in my students, but I'm not sure if I should expect them to be as dedicated to reading and writing as I am.
Still, I've been considering revising my rubric so that my students' in-class assignments and maybe some short papers will not be graded in the typical way, but rather commented upon and recorded as completed or not completed. Do any of you think that not grading short papers would discourage students from taking the work seriously? Would they just write a page of nonsense because they knew it "wasn't going to count"? Or do you think it would become a carrot-on-a-string for them to do their best? Or would it be a carrot-on-a-string that would frustrate them because they didn't know the corresponding number/letter grade?
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Katie,
I think it is up to every teacher to decide wheter grade or not short papers. I would probably grade all papers because all the assignments are usually the steps to accumulate points for a final grade. However, it could be kind of experiment to give back one non-graded assignment and then e.g. discuss it in class. If it works well it can be repeated once again. Maybe it is easier for me just to follow traditional grading system. Anyway, if we use evaluation-free zones it is better to think thoroughly how it can help to define final grades because eventualy we cannot avoid them.
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