Peer Assessment
I’m always hesitant with the idea of peer assessments. I
think using them occasionally is a good idea, but relying on them too much
opens the door for cheating. Maybe I’m too cynical about my students to trust
them to be fair to each other. The author of this article claims that in her
secondary level classes, her students are “often much tougher on each other –and
themselves-when it comes to grading”. Personally, I believe this to be true of
many of my students, but not all of them.
1 in 4 rule
The idea of only grading 1 in 4 student assignments is
appealing for the shear decrease in volume of grading. However, I anticipate
students being aware that not all of the assignments will count towards their
grade, and therefore only putting forth effort on the one that counts. It’s
possible that I’m misunderstanding the technique of choosing which to grade,
but I think there are better means of approaching the grading process than keeping
75% of the assignments on a complete/incomplete basis.
Student journals
Again, I wonder if I’m too jaded for the job before I’ve
even really started. So many of my current students lose their work or forget
their materials, I’d be concerned about their ability to keep all of their assignments
in one place. I love the idea of asking the student to take responsibility for
their own work, but the pessimist in me sees how quickly it could go wrong. Not
to mention the amount of time grading an entire class of student journals would
take, even if they were staggered between classes.
Stamping
This is by far my favorite method discussed in this article,
and is something I already use in some of my current classes. Taking the time
to develop stamps that suit your needs saves you time without sacrificing input
for the students. While it won’t always be the specific, detailed feedback that
the student needs, it’s a step in the right direction.
The method I’d like to implement in my own classes will be a
combination of the stamping method and the 1 in 4 rule. I think I’ll change it
to 1 in 3, and instead of a complete/incomplete on the assignments not graded
in detail, I’d go through them with a stamp. Every assignment should be
considered valuable, or the students will lose the motivation to complete them
with equal effort.
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