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Showing posts from April 26, 2020

Teaching Revising During A Pandemic -- Part 1 of 2

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This is part one of two posts on revising in distant learning environments.  I want to respond to a question about revision, which came to me from a colleague Iris Ruiz (@ChicanaDra), in two ways. The first way is from a teacher's perspective: How do you teach revision in these times of social distancing?  In another post, I'll offer the same question addressed to students, so it'll be about how to learn to revise and learn from it. Teaching Revision from a Distance I think there are lots of ways to do this, like most things. I don't think I have all the answers, or even most of them. Mine is just one of many answers. Hopefully I offer here something that helps you further your own thinking about how to help you create ways to help your students revise drafts in your courses that are now online and from taught from a distance. What I offer, though, are ideas that I use in both face to face and online courses. Photo from Mopple Labalaine , "Dafad" Th

What is Rigor in a Writing Course? -- Part 3 of 3

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This post is part three in a three-part series that responds to Erik Armstrong's (@mr_e_armstrong) Tweet. Thank you, Erik, for asking these questions. If you haven't, read part one and part two .  Is a labor-based grading contracted course rigorous? Is it as rigorous as a similarly structured writing course that uses conventional grades? My quick answer is: Yes, and No. Yes, a labor-based grading system can be just as rigorous as a conventionally graded course, even more rigorous. And no, it is not the same kind of rigorous. Rigor means something different in each kind of grading ecology. These two kinds of assessment ecologies are differently made, often have different functional definitions of rigor, and are just not very easily compared. Comparing what rigor looks like in labor-based grading ecologies next to conventionally graded ecologies is comparing rigor-apples to rigor-oranges. But then, just because a teacher grades papers by some standard of quality does not m