Skip to the assignment chart

Skip to the sample plan for an A

What is a “grading agreement,” and what am I “agreeing” to, exactly?

Many courses in college use point systems or percentages to determine your final grade. Each assignment might count for a certain number of points (i.e. 20 points out of 100), or a certain percentage of the total grade (i.e. 15% of your grade). Instructors might additionally use rubrics (or scoring guides) to spell out the expectations of quality attached to a particular assignment, and then grade the assignment according to those expectations.

This class takes a different approach to grading. Rather than assigning a certain point value to each assignment or making each assignment worth a particular portion of your grade and then scoring your work based on my assessment of its quality, you earn your grade by turning in work and meeting verifiable minimum qualifications (i.e. word count). These minimum qualifications are not based on my assessment of the quality of your writing.

You are “agreeing” to choose a grade, and then to meet the requirements in that category to earn the grade that you select. So, your grade and my assessment of the quality of your writing are separated.

Why don’t you just grade like a normal professor?

There are a few reasons that I prefer to grade based on the verifiable labor that you do rather than my assessment of the quality of your writing:

• We live in a society where the impact of things like systemic racism and wealth inequality give students very uneven access to opportunities, mental and physical healthcare, and other resources that are important to meet basic human needs. Assessment researchers like Asao Inoue write about how labor-based grading systems like the one that I’m using can help to close some of the equity and opportunity gaps that other forms of grading can exacerbate. Actually, lots of people in Writing Studies are writing about this practice (sometimes called “contract grading”) these days. Work like this has led me to conclude that if I grade the quality of writing that you do in my class, I am partially grading the quality of opportunities that you had before my class rather than what you have learned this semester.
  
• I prioritize your learning and growth, but grades do not incentivize your growth. Educational researchers like Alfie Kohn discuss how grades tend to force students into favoring an easier task over a task that might be better for learning. I hope that a system like this encourages you to try hard stuff, or new stuff, and know that you’re still going to achieve the grade that you want or need even if it doesn’t turn out the way that you expected.
  
• Lots of schools—generally, schools with a lot of wealthy students—don’t have grades, or they have more “narrative” evaluation processes (i.e. you still get feedback, but not letter grades). In fact, teachers and professors across multiple universities and several academic disciplines (yep, even STEM!) just published this book about what they do instead of giving out grades. More and more medical schools are moving toward a pass / fail model. CUNY gave a pass / fail option to students during the pandemic last spring and again in the fall. This leads me to believe that grades are more of a gatekeeping practice than a practice with some kind of inherent meaning and value. Grades do not necessarily indicate learning.
  
• When I was an undergraduate, college life was full of norms and values that I didn’t understand and that no one explained (this is sometimes called “the hidden curriculum”). I hope that a labor-based system like this makes this class more transparent rather than conferring additional benefits to students who already understand unwritten rules that never get explained (i.e. going to your professor’s office hours a lot might result in you getting a higher grade because a professor who knows you is more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt.)

If you hate grades so much, why grade at all?

My ideal circumstance would be that you come to class because you really want to be here, and we work together on stuff that you care about, and you all help each other to see things about your writing that none of us can see on our own. Unfortunately, we live in a world where I have to turn in a grade for your transcript at the end of the semester. This is a compromise.

What happens if I want to make an A, but I don’t satisfy every requirement in the column?

The Grading Agreement below breaks down exactly how many assignments you have to complete to earn a grade in a particular category. If you don’t meet requirements the first time you attempt something, you can reattempt it as many times as you want without a penalty. This is true until the final day of class, but it benefits you to reattempt assignments early to make sure that you’re on track to earn the grade that you want.

We will check in at the midterm and before the final to confirm your grade together, and you can also check in with me at any time if you’re confused about where you stand. But if you’re turning in work and it meets the minimum requirements (I’ll tell you if it doesn’t), you should know exactly what you’re on track to make at all times.

Wait, does this mean that everyone will make an A?

It means that everyone can if they complete all of the work. In my experience, it does not mean that everyone will. But that’s usually because someone stops coming to class, doesn’t turn in assignments, doesn’t reattempt an assignment that didn’t meet requirements, doesn’t turn stuff in on time and doesn’t meet requirements but doesn’t give themselves enough time to reattempt, or needs to reattempt the class later on but fails to formally withdraw. I expect that most people will attempt an A, and I want an A to be attainable to everyone. If you’re staying on track, there should be no surprises at the end of this class.

Does this mean that you’re not going to give me any feedback?

Nope, it definitely doesn’t mean that.

With each writing assignment that you turn in, I will ask you to submit a feedback request asking for the kind of feedback that you want. Your request will guide the level and kind of feedback that I give to you, but the feedback will have nothing to do with your grade.

Can’t you just tell me what to fix?

I don’t do this for a couple of reasons. First, I am one reader: not THE reader. I don’t want to train you to be whatever my idea of a “good” writer is. I might not be your ultimate audience for what you are writing. So, I can’t tell you what to “fix,” but I can tell you what I—as one reader—notice about your writing.

Also, I think you will be more receptive to my feedback if you actually want it and if you have some say in how it ultimately looks. Some students want a lot of feedback. Others want a little. Some students want me to engage with their ideas. Others want me to point to stylistic patterns, grammatical patterns, or other sentence-level stuff that I’m noticing. People are different. What motivates us is different. Our needs for each piece of writing at different stages of the process can also be different. Our interest in a particular assignment might be different. This helps me to account for that. I don’t want to spend time giving feedback that you don’t want, that you won’t apply, or that you might even resent.

Unless a feedback paragraph is part of the requirements for something, if you do not request feedback, I will assume that you don’t want it, and I will simply tell you whether or not something has met requirements.

How is this whole “peer review” thing going to work? Can I do that asynchronously?

Yep. I would love it if you can come to class for peer reviews, but I get that that’s not going to work for some of us. So to do this, you’ll just have to submit a form on the website (I will link to them in the reading schedule). A copy will go to me (so I can read it and give you credit), and then I’ll send it to your peer(s). You’ll have a week to do this, so if you miss class, you can complete it on your own time when it works for you as long as you do it sometime during that week so that your feedback can be useful to your peer partners. If you’re very ill or there’s some other kind of bad circumstance, just be in touch with me. We’ll figure something out.

Which assignments do I need to complete?

What’s an RSR? And where do I find the requirements for assignments?

An RSR is a Rhetorical Situation Reflection. You can find all requirements for assignments on the assignment prompts. Here’s the prompt that describes all of the weekly work tasks you can choose from. Here’s the prompt for Essay Portfolio 1, for Essay Portfolio 2, and for the Final Reflection.

Yikes. I need firmer deadlines than this.

Here is a sample plan with specific deadlines that you can follow if you’re aiming toward an A. Feel free to swap out any of the weekly work assignments for different ones. Just make sure that you have at least two Rhetorical Situation Reflections, and that you have done half of your weekly work by the midterm (March 22nd).

For a B, just do two fewer weekly assignments, and know that you can skip one requirement in each portfolio. For a C, do half of the weekly assignments, and know that you can skip two requirements in each portfolio.

I’m still worried / confused / scared / anxious / etc…

We will be addressing your questions a lot in the first few weeks of class, and I will update this policy and this page to reflect any changes and challenges that come up (as well as talking to you about them in class).

Please let me know what your concerns are (I won’t be offended!) When I have graded like this in the past, I inevitably miss something that students point out to me.

Plus, while I’ve taught a lot of writing before, and while I’ve also taught online, I am still pretty new to teaching during a global pandemic. I am flexible about how to make this work for all of us in an unprecedented and extremely stressful moment. I mostly just want you to stay on track with this class, to practice, to come to class prepared, and to give your best effort to the work that you decide to complete for the grade you want to earn. I want to enjoy reading and engaging with writing that you hopefully actually enjoyed doing! If you’re doing those things, there should be absolutely no reason that you don’t make the grade that you’re targeting.