THREAD: I loved the chapter “What about grades” from @biblioracle’s #WhyTheyCantWrite. Does a S who goes from “D+ work” to “C+ work” deserve a lower final grade than the S who remains at a “B+ performance” the whole semester? Is this symptomatic of a broken scoring system? 👇

As graders, sometimes we mistakenly focus on a universal destination (that’s devoid of any context) as that which determines a S’s grade. The Ss who get closer to this abstract destination get the superior grade, which reinforces inequality... #WhyTheyCantWrite #Ranciere18

What if we focused on each S’s starting point & focused less on an abstract outcome that effaces all considerations of each S’s unique situation? Grade the S’s journey. Perhaps it’s a way to move from extrinsic to intrinsic motivators... #WhyTheyCantWrite #Ranciere18 @MrShakedown

In Jacques #Ranciere’s The Ignorant Schoolmaster, he claims that inequalities in S performance has little to do with ability and more to do with emancipating Ss to take control of their own journey. He writes, “I will not say [one S’s] faculties are inferior to the other’s...

“...I will only suppose that the two faculties haven’t been equally exercised... [Ss develop] the intellectual capacities as those circumstances demand... They develop the intelligence that the needs & circumstances of their existence demand of them” (50-51)... #Ranciere18

Switch out intellect with #writing, and we have a similar predicament as that described by Ranciere. Have the circumstances in place demanded Ss to sound his/her/their voice to an authentic audience (which is intrinsically motivating)?... #WhyTheyCantWrite #Ranciere18

Or have grading outcomes (& perhaps grammar instruction) served as extrinsic roadblocks to this endeavor? To emancipate Ss to write, we must focus less on Ss reaching the same destination and focus more on starting points & the individual journies that follow... #WhyTheyCantWrite

Emancipating Ss to become more intrinsically motivated about their journies as writers also means that we as instructors must assume, from the outset, that all Ss CAN already write... #WhyTheyCantWrite #Ranciere18

& If we must grade (it’s debatable - see @Jessifer’s work), we must assess the journey, not some abstract outcome that demotivates Ss from taking the risk of making their voices heard, which brings us back to @biblioracle’s challenge to grade more equitably 👇 #WhyTheyCantWrite