Beginning to write this blog i really had no idea what I was going to write about, but deciding that starting with the reading this week would be a good place to start. What really caught my attention in this book was the anecdote at the very beginning of the book, the one about Krystal. Her paper had no form to speak of and the general direction of her piece didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. Although on a rubric her paper would have received an F, Maja Wilson said that it moved her and she couldn’t bring herself to give Krystal a failing grade. The question I had, and one that Wilson addresses in her book, is whether it is write to base grades of the individual on how the group as a whole was supposed to be doing. Although Krystal’s piece wasn’t the typical A,B, or even C paper, it did move Wilson in some way. I think that in certain cases an individual students grade should be determined separately from the standard rubric, and in some cases a new rubric needs to be made to achieve that. Thoughts?
