Response to “Grading in a Process-Based Writing Classroom” by Christopher C. Weaver

     I really like the ideas espoused in this article.  I think that students are often so focused on their grades that they don’t experiment or feel free to explore different techniques that might improve their overall skill level.  If there’s limited time to work toward an assignment that will be graded, students will probably focus on what they feel the instructor wants and work toward fulfilling that perceived requirement.  While students need to be able to satisfy assignment criteria to progress in post-secondary education, they first need to establish a unique voice, a set of skills to draw upon and increase writing production overall. 

     The approach to grading that this instructor utilizes seems to allow for both experimentation in low stakes situations and the development of convention based, formalized skills.  While the students’ perception is that the instructor is grading only the formal elements of the writing assignments, I feel certain that there is evaluation of the entire exercise included in the cover letter grade.  This allows the instructor to offer prescriptive corrections related to the students adherence to convention while fostering an environment wherein the student is free to experiment.  It also allows students to work on developing critical reflection skills regarding their own writing and to document, for themselves, trouble that they may have experienced, what they liked or didn’t like about specific assignments and to work on the ability to self-direct their own process.

     This type of methodology can, of course, be modified in a number of different ways if the instructor of a particular class decides that different sets of conventions need to be addressed.  The important lesson here, I think, is that there should always be space for students to explore included in the classroom.