What do you do if you get a paper full of an ideology that so deeply offends you that you don't know if you can grade it objectively? And it's likely to offend any colleagues you hand it to for help, as well? (I handed it to my husband to read, and it made him angry.)
I have promised my students that I won't grade them on their opinions, only their rhetoric (that's no good in this paper, either), but this particular paper is really pushing my ability to look at it objectively.
Q: What do you do? How do you grade it?
Thank god I teach science.
ReplyDeletePull out a rubric, grade it, with detailed citations of the rubric. Make three copies. Put two in sealed envelops and send them for post-marking to 1) yourself 2) your chair.
BEFORE returning it, have it reviewed by your chair and two peers (your peers, that is). Have them summarize 1) what they would grade it and 2) their assessment of your grade. Seal and mail those as well for post-parking.
Return the assignment. When the flake inevitably makes the accusation that you graded him/her on her opinions rather than the writing, you at least have pre-emptively started the paper trail to show that it was a legitimate grade.
I have never had to do this, so I'm proposing this without experience. It's just an idea for you to start with and improve upon after the others' in-put.
And lastly - GOOD LUCK!
I had this last summer. A student turned in a paper using sources from various political "think tanks" and TV talking heads, several of which are openly racist. I talked to a senior coworker (and posted a question about it here on CM though the post was quickly buried by newer posts) and I ended up giving a low grade for not using scholarly sources. I wrote up a note to the student explaining the grade and they understood. whew.
ReplyDeletehttp://collegemisery.blogspot.com/2011/07/friday-am-wtf.html
If this paper was the sort that needs citations, this student will not have been able to find any respectable (peer-reviewed, for a start) sources to back up their opinion. You can start there. Also, substantiation, etc.
ReplyDeleteBut that said, it is harder to grade something we don't agree with, because we're more likely to see the flaws in the arguments. I think Wombat's idea - take it to a (preferably senior) colleague for a second opinion - is a very good plan, and leave a paper trail that you did this.
Wow, that's always rough. I tell my students I don't mark off if their ideology conflicts with mine, but I do expect them to substantiate it solidly even if mine agreed with theirs because that's an important part of having an opinion (showing WHY that opinion is valid). I'd at least take off a letter grade for not substantiating opinion, if that is part of the paper requirement. Just because it's an opinion doesn't make it a good, well-thought out exercise in critical thinking. That's where I would dock points. But definitely do it based on the assignment's requirements.
ReplyDeleteI would also get at least the chair's opinion so you have support ahead of time... just in case.
Good luck with this one!!! Is it going to be a long semester?
One of the hardest papers I ever had to grade came from a student who was 100% anti-abortion. I am 100% pro-choice. He ended up making an A- in the paper because he did a great job of pointing out inconsistencies of many other Christian anti-abortionists' logic about exceptions for rape and incest. I had to distance myself from my own point of view and read it solely as an academic exercise in rhetoric and reasoning. He explicitly stated his audience was conservative Christians who held the "rape and incest" exceptions. He cited several sources (not just Biblical ones, but philosophers and credible scientific sources as well).
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, the student, who was in our honors program, got a full scholarship to Prestigious State U and called me a year later after he'd been there living in the dorms and taking upper level classes. He actually apologized for the paper and said that going away to college had changed his outlook on a lot of things. I was surprised he even remembered it.
This is one of the reasons I prefer assigning analytical rather than persuasive papers. That allows me to use the approaches Merely mentions. But even with a persuasive paper, it should be possible -- though not necessarily easy -- to grade the quality of argument, not the ideology underlying it. But I like Wombat's idea of getting a colleague's, and possibly a supervisor's, take. Some (though not all) students who write papers of this sort are deliberately picking fights with professors they perceive to be liberal and out to get conservative students, and it probably makes sense to take some preemptive self-protective measures (as well as to check that your own preferences aren't biasing your judgment). If you have a conservative colleague -- or even a conservative friend -- whose judgment you trust, you might hand it to him/her; of course, if your conservative friends are anything like mine, they'll probably be outraged, too, but they may be able to help you figure out how to critique the argument from a perspective that grants some reasonable conservative premises (and perhaps even proposes some counterarguments based on those premises), while rejecting the outrageous ones.
ReplyDeleteMy tactic: I read it as though I am reading the work of a very, very smart person who is adding to the challenge of the assignment by adopting an argument she would never otherwise argue. Does that help?
ReplyDeleteTry to parse out the student's argument using logic (eg, if A, then B, therefore C) and if it doesn't work out, then feel free to rip them a new one.
You grade it on whether or not it makes sense. Lots of ideologies I don't agree with make sense. They may be cruel and unfair, but they make sense.
ReplyDeleteIs it well-written and well-supported? Has the student eloquently defended his or her point of view?
You really have to suspend your own feelings in cases like this, or you can't teach well.
I'm with Stella, with an emphasis on "Is it well-supported?" This is why I require evidence-based essays and not blathery thought pieces. Either the evidence is credible for XYZ opinion, or it is not. I can't imagine, for instance, a paper denying the Holocaust that uses credible sources or evidence, however eloquently it argues or defends its position and however good the writing.
ReplyDeleteMidstate Mandy sends in this comment:
ReplyDeleteThanks for all of your feedback, everyone. As a bit more background, the assignment was for the students to read an (assigned) essay, summarize it, and respond to it--to the *essay*, not necessarily the *argument.* (A lot of the students didn't see the difference, of course, but that's what revision is for.) This particular student wrote on an essay which discussed the pressures on heavy women from the media to conform and being heavy as non-conformity. This student then went on a tear about how you can't blame the media for your choice to be heavy, and doesn't everyone want to be healthy and attractive, and that's just what the media is selling. So not only did the student deeply offend the feminist (and heavyish person) in me, s/he failed to adequately complete the assignment. If it had been well-written but offensive, that would be one thing, but I'm worried about how much my offense at the student's tone and opinion are coloring how much I mark him/her down for a) not responding as the assignment required; b) having almost no organizational strategy; and c) having absolutely no audience awareness.
I definitely plan to have a male colleague look at it and see if I'm being utterly unreasonable in my grade and feedback before I give it back to the student.
I'm not sure how you respond to an essay except by responding to its argument -- were they supposed to evaluate its sources, organization, style, tone, argumentation, etc., as in a draft workshop? Did you want them to "respond" by praising the article? By indicating what they could use it for in their own work? To me that's a very loaded verb, and I think bright and interesting students often "respond" with criticism -- beyond summary, it's what the engaged ones know how to do, even if they do it clumsily.
ReplyDeleteIf the student summarized it adequately, and the response was as you said, it sounds like the student completed the assignment adequately. A thought piece is a thought piece, and we dna't punish thoughts even when they are not things that we agree with or that please us. If you asked for a well-researched response, or a response that keeps a particular audience in mind, then I think you'd be within your rights to grade it down for content. But to me, grading a student down for a response we wish they didn't have isn't fair. Though of course a penalty for poor organization seems OK, as would a penalty for poor grammar.
To me the moral of this story is don't assign an essay whose content you're so strongly invested in that a student's negative response is painful. I would never ask students to "respond" to an essay claiming that, say, the children of lesbians are healthy and well-adjusted, if I weren't ready for students to respond that, say, lesbians having children was immoral regardless of outcome (and I'm lesbian with a kid). I might, however, assign such an article and then be very specific about what kind of response I wanted, i.e., "Discuss the implications of this article for therapeutic treatment of children in same-sex families," or "Evaluate the research methods used and discuss their strengths and shortcomings," or "Research the author's publication history and situate this argument in terms of her other work."
Oops, that weird dna't = can't. Touch-typing is not my strength.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone else get assigned the same essay?
ReplyDeleteIf so, dealing with this will be easier than you think (assuming your students are as crappy as everyone else's).
Find the paper written by one of the students whose ideology matches yours, but who also responded to the argument rather than the essay, and who also wrote crap. Grade it. If the grades are similar, you did a great job of grading the work and not the opinion. PLUS, you'll have documentation to prove that you did not grade on opinion, i.e., the student with the non-offensive beliefs who also bombed the assignment.
But still - good luck.