Community Based Assessment and TAs

For today’s post, I wanted to center on Asao Inoue’s article on Community-Based Assessment and to what extent we, as graduate student can and are able to incorporate these practices into the classroom. By in large, I respect what Inoue is advocating and, while I have several practical critiques, I do believe there are elements we can work with in the classroom.

However, before I jump into a series of modifications, I would first like to put forth some concerns. Community-based assessment is designed to provide students with the opportunity to have more say in the evaluation process, where the class as a collective participates in the construction of rubrics and distinct letters grades are not assigned by the instructor but derived by dialogue. It ultimately aims to transfer some of the burden we, instructors, bear as we agonize over assigning a fair grade. Where I begin to have concerns is in relation to the struggle TAs, especially new TAs who have little to no teaching experience, face when establishing authority in the classroom. Now I don’t mean to refer to authority with a capital A; more so, I am talking about ongoing challenge to establish confidence in the classroom. Oftentimes, while we may see ourselves as older than our students, there are a few students who will challenge your authority as a teaching assistant rather than a tenure-track faculty. (Note: I think there is extra room, here, to address this same issue across genders—but will not be my focus here). Therefore, as I take into consideration this concept of community based assessment, I find myself to be reluctant to the idea. I have been teaching three years and I still find it difficult to engage topics and generate depth in our discussion. I am not sure whether I would be able negotiate a collectively-designed rubric. Part of me feels that Inoue is writing with the assumption that all composition instructors have a detailed background and knowledge of rhetoric and composition. Had I been in the classroom for a greater number of years I may feel more willing to try such activity.

Having said that, I do believe that there are ways that we can bring students into the discussion. As we discussed today (in the other section of 8010), reviewing the grading criteria throughout the writing process (i.e., right before a peer review workshop) rather than only at the beginning seems to be a reasonable request. I was a big fan of the idea of asking student to give draft a grade and explain why that came to this conclusion. Not only are they forced to engage the revision process they also enter into a dialogue with the very criteria we utilize as standards of writing. I also have students write a brief “Talk Back” after they receive their grade. This piece of reflective writing allows them to respond to my feedback (not the grade) so that 1.) I know that they read my comments, 2.) I can see they understood what my comments, and 3.) I allow them the chance to voice their own concerns. In other words, it helps to continue the discussion. I have some more thoughts, but maybe I will save those for class.

Just some thoughts to consider…looking forward to your ideas as well.