28 I No Longer Grade My Students’ Work – and I Wish I Had Stopped Sooner
28 I No Longer Grade My Students’ Work – and I Wish I Had Stopped Sooner
Learning Outcomes
- Apply the reading process to “I No Longer Grade My Students’ Work – and I Wish I Had Stopped Sooner.”
- Summarize the article.
- Respond to the article.
- Evaluate opposing views on the topic of the article after consulting other sources.
Preview the Article
Follow the steps below to preview the article “I No Longer Grade My Students’ Work – and I Wish I Had Stopped Sooner.” Ideally, you should print the article and write your responses in the margins of the printed copy. To read more about previewing, visit the chapter on previewing a reading.
- Read the title. What does it make you think about? What do you think the article is about? What questions do you have? Record your predictions and questions on the printed copy of the article next to the title.
- Have you heard of “ungrading?” If so, what do you know about it? If not, Google the term to learn what it means. Record what you know or learn in the margins of the printed article.
- Read the first two or three paragraphs. What additional predictions do you now have about the article? What additional questions do you have? Record them on the printed copy of the article.
- Scan the article and notice the headings (e.g. Three reasons) within the article. What additional thoughts or questions do these raise? Record them on the printed copy of the article.
- Scan the bolded and underlined vocabulary in the article. If there are any words that you do not know well, look them up in a print or online dictionary and write some notes about their meanings on the printed copy of the article. Keep in mind that some words have multiple meanings. You may need to read the sentence containing the word to understand the word’s usage. Additionally, sometimes researchers and other experts create new words to stand for specific concepts, and they may not appear in the dictionary. You may have to conduct a Google search to find the meanings of such words. One example is ungrading.
- Based on your preview of the article, what do you think is the central point of the article? (Don’t worry if you are not sure. This is a prediction or guess – you do not have to be correct as long as you are engaging your brain.) Record your prediction on the printed copy of the article.
- Based on your preview, do you predict that the article is narrative, expository, or argumentative?
Read Interactively
Now, read the article using the guidelines from the chapter on reading interactively. As you read, follow these steps to engage with the text.
- Pause to confirm or revise your predictions and to answer the questions you posed while previewing the article. Write down those revised predictions and responses to the questions as you read. If you cannot find the answers to your questions, save them for further research and discussion.
- Pause at other points to check for understanding of what you just read. Can you explain key ideas in your own wor