@DrSuzanne @ZingerLearns @ungrading However, my father didn’t take it that way. He was angry before she told him that. Afterward, he interpreted it as being called on coasting, and he agreed that he was. When he relayed the story to me 25 years later, he was using it as an example of the need to put in that good faith effort. She was actually his favorite teacher; he credited her with keeping him intellectually honest.

@DrSuzanne @ZingerLearns @ungrading I agree, it is NOT transparent. The same method could have been used to destroy a student an unscrupulous teacher didn’t like. For that reason, I don’t think it is justified as a teaching method. I prefer a use of rubrics, so people know where they stand.

@ccampboyle @DrSuzanne @ungrading
I think rubrics can provide more transparency, and some clearer expectations, but rubrics are often vague, at times focus heavily on compliance rather than learning, and prone to different interpretations. They remind me of the studies that occasionally pop up about the frequent inconsistencies between graders.
I think a very important missing piece here is the ability to get early and frequent feedback, with opportunities to revise. For example, I have a written assignment that is broken down into 4 pieces and rounds of feedback, such that students can see their improvement, and have a very predictable outcome.

@ZingerLearns @DrSuzanne @ungrading I love the multiple rounds of feedback. I’m the parent of two (now adult) kids with disabilities. Teaching process is huge. In 4th and 5th grades my daughter froze when faced with writing because of all the moving parts. We literally started with her talking into a tape recorder. Then she would transcribe it. We used software called Write OutLoud to catch spelling mistakes. Then she would add punctuation. Then she was allowed to call me to look it over.

@ZingerLearns @DrSuzanne @ungrading Once we could drop the tape recorder, I taught her to use a graphic organizer to capture ideas and generate an outline. Then she rearranged things in the outline, expanded items into sentences, used a more sophisticated program (Read and Write 6.0) to check spelling and punctuation. Then she called me. By high school, she could get by with just Microsoft Word. Please note the school wasn’t doing this. But this was the process she needed to learn HOW to write.

@ZingerLearns @DrSuzanne @ungrading The school did do an admirable job of teaching the 5 paragraph essay Massachusetts expects people to write for the state standardized testing. In the end, she had a writing score on the SAT above the national average. But it took ALL of that because the process was so daunting for her.

@ZingerLearns @DrSuzanne @ungrading I could have done without the fight with a teacher in 5th grade who didn’t want her to use Write OutLoud (which was installed for her on a school computer as a reasonable accommodation) because it printed with a different font. She thought it would be stigmatizing. My daughter hadn’t even noticed until she brought it up. Then I had a sobbing kid.

@ZingerLearns @DrSuzanne @ungrading Fortunately, my daughter agreed when I pointed out that it wouldn’t make sense for me to drive without my glasses just because a lot of drivers don’t wear glasses.

@DrSuzanne @ccampboyle @ungrading
I also think it raises a fundamental question about what an "excellent paper" is and who gets to decide?
Why should the teacher be the sole arbiter of that?
We all have biases and preferences as teachers, why should they solely define excellence? Or some external measure like department or school or district expectations?

@ccampboyle @ZingerLearns @ungrading Yes, absolutely. These are such important questions. I’d like to see administrators reflect on this more. I see less movement at the upper levels than I do in the classroom.