Reframing the Great Rubric Debate beyond the taking of sides, Eric D. Turley and Chris W. Gallagher propose a set of questions designed to help educators assess the value of rubrics: (1) What is the tool for?; (2) In what context is it used?; (3) Who decides:; and (4) What ideological agenda drives those decisions? They contend that these four…

Presents an English teacher's irreverent look at grades and grading. Argues that learning must somehow be linked to a product, which must be measured or graded to gauge the worth of the product according to the merit it deserves. (RS)

Describes the positive experiences of an at-risk student participating in a production of "Macbeth." Discusses the problems of evaluating such students. Asserts that learning does not necessarily lead to power, money, prestige, and respect but does lead to freedom. (PRA)

Presents a ninth grader's written responses to Adrien Stoutenberg's story "Reel One." Describes the authors' senses of the student's readings of the story. Summarizes reflections on the authors' evaluations. Invites other teachers to do the same. (HB)

Provides the responses of 14 teachers to the question, "In your classroom, how do you balance the need to build students' self-esteem and the need to uphold rigorous academic standards?" (PRA)

Seeks evaluative strategies for grading poetry that occupy an elusive middle ground between flexibility and consistency. Discusses rubrics, collections, conference/negotiation, self-evaluation, and explication. (RS)

Discusses how teachers can make a portfolio more than a static collection of papers. Describes the passive portfolio as well as the active portfolio, and discusses moving to the active portfolio (a working portfolio which enables students to see their learning processes and take responsibility for their own learning). (SR)

Focuses on the need to reevaluate the teaching of grammar and mechanics. Examines how to create a meaningful, practical system for teachers and students. Defines "glossing" as a method whereby the student corrects an error identified by the teacher and then states the grammatical rule that applies. Notes that this process allows teachers…

Describes how one English teacher developed a replacement for the traditional literature exam: student exhibitions. Defines these exhibitions as student presentations over course material in which expertise and close reading are demonstrated. Advocates allowing students the opportunity to teach class materials. (HB)

Discusses having students dig deep into a novel to create material that demonstrates their understanding of the characters; and having students illustrate their understanding of poetry by the way they read it, by the music they select to have in the background, and by the connecting commentary that links poems together. Provides sample rubrics to…

Describes a successful use of portfolios to assess the development of eleventh grade students' writing skills by inviting self-reflection and encouraging students to assume control over their writing. (KEH)

Presents three fictional scenarios each based on very different kinds of facts: the very clear data of test scores, the ambiguous data of behaviors, and the concrete but infinitely interpretable data of portfolios. Notes that the data represented by the portfolio is much more appropriate to assessing language competencies than is data represented…

Discusses the benefits of a "Pass/Revise" grading system. (DD)