{"id":1832,"date":"2019-08-02T19:01:49","date_gmt":"2019-08-02T18:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/transfer.writingcommons.org\/?p=1832"},"modified":"2023-12-29T16:23:59","modified_gmt":"2023-12-29T16:23:59","slug":"so-your-instructor-is-using-contract-grading","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/article\/so-your-instructor-is-using-contract-grading\/","title":{"rendered":"Contract Grading – So Your Instructor is Using Contract Grading…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Throughout your time in school, most\nof your classes have probably been graded. If you met certain criteria, you\nreceived an \u201cA,\u201d a \u201cB,\u201d a \u201cC,\u201d and so on. Maybe your school used numbers,\ngrades, or GPA-style grading, but whatever the grades looked like, the\nmechanism was pretty similar. Your teachers probably used a combination of\ntests, quizzes, essays, presentations, attendance, and participation to\ndetermine your grade. This system is familiar to nearly everyone who goes\nthrough the educational system in the United States, and many international\nstudents as well. So familiar, in fact, that most of us have never given that\nsystem a second thought. That\u2019s just how it works. It\u2019s how grades are done.\nSo, why use a different system?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Educational psychologists have shown\nthat grades can undermine student engagement with their own work, making them\nmore focused on grades than on learning (Kohn 29). As a result, students are\noften more concerned with how to get an \u201cA\u201d than how to write effectively for\ndifferent audiences, purposes, and genres, all of which are more important to\nstudents\u2019 long-term writing abilities. As you\u2019ve probably experienced, focusing\non grades is not only less satisfying than focusing on learning, it\u2019s also very\nstressful and can put students and teachers into an adversarial relationship\nrather than a learning partnership. Moreover, since grades frequently measure\nhow well students produce standard academic discourse (standard academic style\nand language), some writing scholars consider traditional grading biased\nagainst students with less access to the dominant discourse\u2014students of color,\nfirst-generation college students, and multilingual students (CCCC Statement on\nStudents\u2019 Right to Their Own Language 1; Inoue, \u201cTheorizing Failure\u201d 332; Shor\n9). So, teachers who choose contract grading aren\u2019t just using a different way\nof tallying up points; they are using a method of assessment that lowers\nstress, helps students focus on learning, and emphasizes educational equity. In\nfact, the majority of students across disciplines end up really liking contract\ngrading (Hardigan 386-387; Hiller and Hietapelto 664; Taylor 22-29). Some of\nour students tell us they wish contracts were used in all their classes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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