Asao B. Inoue's Infrequent Words

Entry 23 Up to this point, I’ve offered a way to think about racism and White supremacy in our literacy and language classrooms and society as racist discourse. This allows a teacher to consider racism as historical and structural, growing out of particular ideas about race in Western European thought and traditions that all work in concert with societal structures and institutions (see posts 5 and 6 ). This allows racist discourse to get used to do a number of things in the world, to organize our lives and languages, all of which can be considered racial or racist projects (see posts 3 and 4 ).  Racist discourse (see posts 9 and 10 ), then, is a mutually reinforcing dialectic (see post 18 ) in much the way Marxism offers its dialectic (base and superstructure). The Marxist dialectic describes how people behave and come to know themselves and their world. It’s an analytical tool for investigating one’s life conditions, and the meaning and significance we might make of our lives. The

This is a series of blogposts  meant for students  who are in courses using grading contracts of some kind to determine their final course grades, or those who just want to understand better what grades are, what they do in classrooms, and how they effect learning. This is the  second  post in a series of five blogposts  meant to address questions about grading and grading contracts. If you're a teacher (or an inquisitive student), you might look at my  Labor-Based Grading Contracts Resources  page.  This series is a collaboration with the really awesome podcast,  Pedagogue   ( @_Pedagogue_ ) with Shane Wood. You can listen to me reading this blogpost at Pedagogue , or use the widget below. But maybe you just want to read it on your own below, or follow along.   Pedagogue · Pedagogue & Infrequent Words: Why Does Conventional Grading Feel So Unfair? *** Q2. Why Does Conventional Grading Feel So Unfair?  Assumptions of Mediocrity Produces Unfairness This question of fairne

This is a series of blogposts meant for students who are in courses using grading contracts of some kind to determine their final course grades, or those who just want to understand better what grades are, what they do in classrooms, and how they effect learning. This is the first post in a series of five blogposts meant to address questions about grading and grading contracts. If you're a teacher (or an inquisitive student), you might look at my  Labor-Based Grading Contracts Resources  page.  This series is a collaboration with the really awesome podcast,  Pedagogue   ( @_Pedagogue_ ) with Shane Wood. You can listen to me reading this blogpost  or use the widget below. But maybe you just want to read it on your own below, or follow along.   Pedagogue · Pedagogue & Infrequent Words: Where Does Grading Come From? *** Q1. Where does the practice of grading come from and what does that history tell us about today’s grading practices in schools?   The Beginnings of Grading I