There’s a strange moment in the assessment of writing. It’s that place where formative becomes summative. I used to explain it to my kids as my being a coach through the process (formative) and my being a judge for the product (summative). And though I thought that sufficiently settled the strangeness between, and even if my kids accepted my teacher-speak explanation of the phenomenon, it was never not strange. I was reminded of this recently by a former student who shared a story of the strangeness that I have been a part of too many times.

“They grade hard. I asked if I needed to do anything else for the final draft, and they said, ‘No, it’s great,’ and then I got a ‘B. I don’t understand.”

I never really did either. It’s tricky. And I am not throwing any of my ELA colleagues under the bus. It’s hard to know where the line is between coaching and judging. If we help too much (is that a thing?), then we worry about tainting the grade at the end, so we tend to withhold or temper our help to prevent this from happening. And in that place, we often find ourselves facing the “good now” v. “good later” dilemma. I even remember trying to explain away the dilemma to my kids–mostly myself–with the idea of my looking through more critical lenses at the end, as if I would somehow develop a super sense for judging writing that could only happen at that time and place, away from the kid, into the grade unknown, where strange things happen to papers and teachers and ultimately students as the marking happens. The marking. The ranking. The sorting. The grading. It’s the grading.

As most know, I have left “grade unknown” for feedback. And as I have recently begun coaching my kids through their first major piece this year, and as I have been reflecting on my former student’s story, I have had a major aha. I am no longer stuck in the strangeness. Oh, I am still shaking off some of the holds of old, but I am mostly free from that place of…weirdness. Now, my helping kids is only about making it better for their audience, not a grade. My helping kids is about giving them a chance to grow by considering and responding to my feedback; it’s not about getting a grade. My helping kids is only in the now, there where we are together: writer and reader. It’s not about later where a grade appears–sometimes, seemingly, out of nowhere.

With my feedback-only approach this year, I have come to learn that two things are key. One, the summative has to be a “publishing” opportunity. The kids have to read their work to us, and/or we have to create classroom anthologies of our work. Of course, there’s more to it than that, but that’s the basic premise: kids have to publish. Two, the formative has to be a response to feedback, and more, the kids have to explain that part of their growth story. It’s not about just making changes; it’s about why and how, too.

No, these are not new ideas. In fact, I suspect many ELA classrooms strive for authentic audiences and encourage “meta-cognitive meaning making” as part of the process. These are nothing new. But for me, the “new” of being beyond grades has created a place of clarity and liberty when it comes to engaging my young writers. My interactions with them have never felt more genuine, more real, more…normal.

I still have a lot to learn out here, away from the grade unknown, but so far, I am encouraged by my discoveries as I venture deeper into the realm of feedback.

Today’s Trail

Along today’s trail we will experience…

…connecting through Smiles and Frowns.

…growing with grammar.

…responding to feedback.

…reflecting in our Journey Journals.

…hearing a Sappy Sy Rhyme.

Happy Tuesday, all.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.