I found the Elbow article particularly interesting, with his separation of ranking, evaluating, and liking. I hadn't really separated ranking from evaluating before, and I think the separation is helpful.
That said, I'm a bit more of a proponent of ranking than Elbow is. I know that he's not arguing to get rid of ranking completely, and I do agree about the importance of evaluating, but, as an undergrad, a delay in knowing my ranking would have been (and, indeed was, in some cases) extremely bothersome to me. His idea of giving the students an estimate of their grade midway through the semester would have eased my anxiety a bit, but I still probably would not have appreciated the suspense for the first two months. His idea of giving 'H's and 'U's for particularly strong papers seems to some extent to also alleviate this, but, really, the only students who would not receive grades in that case would be those receiving Bs or Cs. This I could foresee as being problematic for students who know that they need to acheive a B average. They would know they weren't failing or getting an A, but they wouldn't know whether or not they were going to get the grade they needed. This could be particularly problematic if they did not receive any kind of grade before the drop date for the class. It seems to me that our system is so based on ranking that trying to cut down on the amount of ranking we do could have a negative effect, as long as the rest of the system remains unchanged.
I did, however, really like his suggestions for creating "evaluation-free zones." I would really like to incorporate in-class freewriting and quickwriting, some of which would be merely for the students' own personal use, and some of which would be shared with the class. It seems to me that the only way to write well is to write often, and setting aside some class time for this activity seems worthwhile. Sharing some of this writing with their classmates could also provide an incentive to really work at this writing, while removing the anxiety of knowing that it will be ranked.
I would be interested in hearing other people's impression of his ideas about ranking, as well as ideas of ways to incorporate "evaluation-free" writing.
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I also really liked the idea of 'evaluation-free' zones, Leta. I have been considering ways to incorporate in-class freewrites into my daily English 1000 schedule. Without the pressure of a letter grade looming over the students' heads, they might find their creative ideas flowing a bit more easily.
I'd like to relate at least a portion of these freewrites to course-related materials, sort of a built-in brainstorming session for any one of the three papers. For example, if I ask them to read an essay from a textbook for homework, I'd probably ask my students to do a short freewrite about that work. I'll probably give them a list of questions to think about, something to prompt the freewrite. Hopefully, when they use that essay later in a paper, they'll already have an idea where to begin.
I’ll probably also throw in some strictly fun freewrites, for everyone’s amusement. For example, I might ask for their reaction to one of my favorite jokes: What do you call a vampire who lived in the kitchen? Count Spatula!
I really like the idea of freewrites as background for the paper- a series of freewriting on increasingly complex premised could lead right into a paper draft. Other evaluation-free areas could be feedback on early thesis proposals, prospectus for a research paper, other nuts-and-bolts practice stuff...
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