Mitigated Criticism

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How will I remind myself that each student deserves an honest grade? And how will I give honest grades without destroying the students confidence?
It may be tempting for some teachers to give everyone an A for effort. Giving a student a high score who did not earn it, is unfair to them, as well as the students who worked for and earned the higher grade. If the A student notices that the teacher gives high scores to lower papers, they might get the idea that the teacher will give anyone an A. If I gave an A to anyone who turned something in, then how would my students know what grade their paper really deserves? They might think that their paper was not as good as they thought if a poor writer can receive the same grade as them. Furthermore, …show more content…

In order to do this well, I will have to understand that I am leading each student to the next step in their writing. I have to understand that not everyone will be at the same level, so my comments will look different for every student. Bean’s idea of mitigated criticism is helpful for me, because I don’t want to destroy any my students confidences with harsh sounding comments. Mitigated comments are just as important for the lower level students as they are for the higher level students. Young adults, especially high school students, are easily discouraged by negative comments: I can’t expect them to be motivated by harsh criticism. Ultimately, I want all of my students to feel comfortable taking on the task of revision, as I believe it is an important tool in …show more content…

Bean talks about his method in which he gives a holistic grade on the first reading, and then does a closer reading following the rubric. The two grades are then balanced to reflect one overall grade. This would be my ideal method because I want my students to meet the assignment requirement, but I also don’t want them to be confined by it. Using a rubric, even partially this way, is beneficial for the students to understand what I expect, what they accomplished, and what they need to work on. Giving a holistic grade could be confusing for some students, or not enough in terms of feedback. I want my students to understand why they got the grade they did, and more importantly what they can do to improve that grade. I don’t want my students to be held back by the rubric because I know they can accomplish wonderful papers that don’t always meet all of the rubric requirements. They will be learning, through revision, how to formulate a good paper. My hope is that my assessment of their paper will show them where they need to go, not where they are. Learning and writing are ongoing processes, and I want them to understand that they can and will improve. Their education is a journey, although they may not see that for years after they are in my class, I hope that my assessment methods will encourage them to keep moving

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