It worked, maybe

I had a brainstorm the other day about a trick to lessen students' obsession with grades to the exclusion of feedback. If you teach writing, you might know what I mean:

Students look at the grade/score on an essay and come up to talk, saying things like, "What did you take off for? I did everything you said to do." or "What didn't you like in my essay? I thought it was good."

I often say, "Did you take a look at my comments? If you didn't understand something, I'd be happy to talk with you to explain what I meant."

Often, students haven't looked at them (let alone read them!). That always bothers me because writing comments is where I've spent time teaching, offering feedback designed to help them become better writers.

So the trick? Don't total their scores. Here's how.

I use a rubric for evaluating essays: five criteria categories that can earn 20 points each. This year, I've decided to just list the values in each category, and students have to do the addition themselves.

Yesterday, in FYC (my most juvenile, disruptive, unlikable class of the last five years), I didn't get one single person up to the desk at the end of class! Hooray. I had an email later last night, but it was a question about revising her essay, proof that she'd read my comments.

Tentative conclusion: this trick works. We'll see what happens with today's FYC, a class full of responsible, engaging, thoughful students.