ENGS 345: Practicum in Teaching Writing

Over at the Crooked Timber blog, Henry has an interesting post up about grade inflation and compression.

As good, responsible new teachers, I’m sure you’re all opposed (on principle!) to the insidious evil that we call “grade inflation.” So was Henry. As he explains:

In the course of writing my own paper several things happened. I started off assuming (with no real evidence) that grade inflation was real and believing (for no real reasons) that it was bad; I discovered that there is no evidence of grade inflation (which doesn’t, of course, mean that it doesn’t exist) and that the reasons for thinking it would be bad if it did exist are pretty weak.

It just gets better and more interesting (and more provocative) from there. I highly encourage you to read it all. And check out the comments afterward, as well. They’re often excellent at CT.

One last meta-point: Henry brings up the related concept of grade compression — the notion that the range of grades becomes compressed from the 13 or so grades (A+ to F) we’re used to seeing to a much smaller scale of grades being given. I mention this because you’re in that boat now as grad students in the Humanities — the range of acceptable grades for you (and your peers across the country) is much smaller (A+ to B). B- is a serious sign of trouble in today’s grad-level academy, and C (acceptable in undergrad classes) is right out.

What do you think about all of this?

Welcome to the Fall 2008 section of English 345: Practicum in Teaching Writing, or as I’ll almost certainly refer to it, the Teaching Seminar.

On this blog you’ll find the course syllabus, course calendar (listing readings, special events and assignment due dates), resources for teaching composition and rhetoric, and a steady stream of composition- and teaching-related materials happening around the world and on the Web.

I’ll post materials here for you to read for our in-class discussions, so check this page every few days to stay current.

Finally, while I won’t ask you to post here about your classes or the details of your teaching experiences (I don’t think this is the right format or venue for that), if you have questions about assignments or want to respond to any of the posts I put up here, feel free to do so!

Oh, and just to clarify: everything below this post is from last year’s section. You’re welcome to read it, but I’m not sure how relevant it’ll be for you. Just so you know.