Module 1, or "Flashback to the worst class of my college career"

First I have to reflect on this blog; I haven't used it since June 2010 when I was in my capstone for my Creative Writing degree, and if you decide to go back and read it, you'll see I did not exactly enjoy the process. The professor I had absolutely loathed me. I don't say that in hyperbole, I mean she actually hated me. She made a point of telling our class that she would either pass us with a 4.0 or fail us. She went on and on about how she'd never given anything but a 4.0 or a fail, but then she gave me a 3.9. She would tell our class she didn't get poets and thought poetry was sort of a waste, and then expect us to be cool with her ripping our work apart. And to top it all off she was the head of the club for the literary magazine I was the editor in chief of, but she refused to go to any of our club meetings or return my emails. Then to top it all off she falsely accused me of academic dishonesty AFTER my graduation date, and I had to go to a hearing and prove she was lying. 

 Anyway, I bring all this up to say that the biggest thing she taught me was that personal biases have no place in your grade book, ever. This professor's job was supposed to help us in our culminating class before graduating with creative writing degrees, and she spent the majority of each class railing against poets (there were like 7 of us I think) while praising the creative nonfiction writers, and basically ignoring the fiction writers. Her assessment method of 4.0 or fail gave no student any sense of the quality of their work or where they needed to go, and her blinders towards proper feedback did a disservice to everyone. 

I personally believe that assessments should not be used to indicate a student grade at all; at least not one that determines what sort of a student they are. I want my students to feel empowered to learn and grow, and the only way to do that is for them to learn from their mistakes. If someone wants to take an exam 5 times because they don't like their score, I want to encourage them to do that (though I'd also probably want to help them study first). If I have a student that doesn't test well, I want to take the time to figure out how I can properly assess them. Because I have so much personal experience through my daughter's eyes with what it feels like to be placed into a "corner" based on your ability to test or function in a classroom, I place a really high value on teaching to the student right in front of me. For example this past year in my science class I had a 5th grade student who could not read at all. He was eager to learn science though, and he loved asking questions during class. If I had just handed him the test and asked him to take it on his own, he definitely would have failed. But, and this is a big one, the goal of my class was NOT to assess his ability to read, my goal was to determine if he understood the concepts of science I was teaching. So, I assessed him orally, and I had him talk out his responses. And guess what, that student who couldn't read had listened actively in every class, asked questions, and he passed his assessment with one of the highest grades in the class. 

So to summarize, I think that assessments should be a tool for students and teachers to guide instruction, and nothing more. Grades should be based on effort, participation, and individual student growth. I just wish my district would get with the program too. ~Ido Wah Nah