I found Cathy Davidson’s blog posts about grading extremely interesting, particularly since (as Davidson acknowledges) grading is one of the most difficult pedagogical activities. Here is why I dislike grading:
- I constantly second-guess my judgment. Having a rubric makes things even worse: for each item on the rubric, I labor over the point total. “Does this student deserve a 2 or a 1.5 for the “ethos” section of their rhetorical analysis? Can I give it a 1.75? If I give a 1.5, what will that do to the total score? Maybe I didn’t teach this section well enough,. So-and-so is going to be so sad when she sees this grade,” etc. Davidson picks up on this with her hypothetic al musing, “Is this an A-- or a B++?" It’s funny because it’s true. It’s not funny because it’s true.
- This second-guessing makes grading take FOREVER (along with the commentary I offer, which is a good thing). Student projects on average take over 30 minutes each to grade, sometimes 45 minutes to an hour. That means the entire process can take days to get through, depending on how distracted I am.
- The amount of time I spend on grading leads to a sort of “self-loathing.” I get frustrated with myself, I get frustrated with the assignment I designed, I get frustrated by the fact that all of my work is going to get put off and I will have to scramble and compromise.
- I constantly second-guess my judgment. Having a rubric makes things even worse: for each item on the rubric, I labor over the point total. “Does this student deserve a 2 or a 1.5 for the “ethos” section of their rhetorical analysis? Can I give it a 1.75? If I give a 1.5, what will that do to the total score? Maybe I didn’t teach this section well enough,. So-and-so is going to be so sad when she sees this grade,” etc. Davidson picks up on this with her hypothetic al musing, “Is this an A-- or a B++?" It’s funny because it’s true. It’s not funny because it’s true.
- This second-guessing makes grading take FOREVER (along with the commentary I offer, which is a good thing). Student projects on average take over 30 minutes each to grade, sometimes 45 minutes to an hour. That means the entire process can take days to get through, depending on how distracted I am.
- The amount of time I spend on grading leads to a sort of “self-loathing.” I get frustrated with myself, I get frustrated with the assignment I designed, I get frustrated by the fact that all of my work is going to get put off and I will have to scramble and compromise.