Closed Procedure...

As I read Lindemann’s chapter 14 I came across this sentence that made a light bulb go off in my head. Lindemann states, “Grading, however, is a closed procedure,” and goes on to say that once a paper is graded the grade and/or comments on the paper can have a “destructive impact” on the student (226). As I read this chapter Cathy’s latest post came to mind about tests and how we teach students a test and not English. Where English classes and all other classes for that matter, are a means to an end and not an end in themselves. I hate tests, I truly believe that tests are a nasty joke placed on students. I remember sitting in my chemistry class junior year and having to take a test, whose contents were elusive to most of my class. I remember sitting there thinking the worst and how I would fail the test, fail the course, and thus fail in life. I remember receiving my grade and being disappointed, I was mad that I was forced to take a test which was biased. The teacher had favorites and he provided extra attention to them; thus, they got better grades. The teacher would complain about the grades, but to no avail. He didn’t reteach the lessons, nor did we have the time to “relearn” them since we were playing catch-up on the AP Chemistry exam.


I mean this was how I felt in English class too; we would have to write essays and receive grades with poor comments. As Cathy mentioned on her blog, I felt like some of my classmates were born with a writing gift that I would never be blessed with. As I looked at the grades I would receive on my essays I felt judged, I felt inferior. My grades would be good, mainly As and Bs, but the comments are what got to me. I had, and to this day I still have, run-on sentence problems and the like. I mean, how is it that I can accept and A or a B with a comment on my grammar, on my subject, or on my presentation. I would always look at my peers’ papers and see the comments such as good, like, and good point. I would look at my paper filled with comments judging me or hardly any comments and the letter grade. Either way, I had been judged and felt inferior because of it. I think that there needs to be a better way to grade papers without taking something away from the student and rather give them something back once the paper has been graded.