How to Avoid Bludgeoning Students

How to Avoid Bludgeoning Students

In The Chronicle of Higher Education article that I chose for this week, David Brooks humorously reflects on his six years as a Teaching Assistant and how he refined his ability to grade papers.  He explains how when he was new to grading papers he filled the margins with comments and corrections in an attempt to assert his authority over his students and prevent them from questioning the grades he gave them.  However, he eventually learned to use his comments to help his students improve their writing and work through their ideas. 

I definitely recommend this article to everyone in our class who is a Teaching Assistant or new to grading papers.  In fact, I am attaching it to this post in a Word document so it will be easy to access.  Brooks’ writing is not overly academic, though he clearly has an authoritative voice.   

 This article struck me immediately because it’s title, “Wielding the Red Pen,” reminded me of our in-class discussion about how blunt to be with our comments on papers.  I liked Brooks’ solution to this dilemma because he suggests that teachers should actually withhold full disclosure of a student’s mistakes.  He says that he will write comments that challenge students to investigate their mistakes:  “In the margins of a test or paper, I pose questions that encourage students to decipher their errors, rather than bludgeon them with my recognition of those errors. I favor a few comments at the end of a paper that assess the work as a whole” (3).

I completely agree that teachers’ comments should challenge a student to rethink their papers and ideas, instead of simply telling them when they are wrong.  Brooks said that his probing, indirect comments resulted in his students meeting with him to discuss how they could improve their papers.  In this light it, seems that comments can also serve to extend the learning experience of the paper itself.  Grading papers is certainly an art and I realize that I have much more to learn before I am an effective and efficient grader; however, Brooks offers a nice starting point for new teachers.  Do not bludgeon students with comments; instead encourage them to investigate their missteps.      

Brooks, David. “Wielding the Red Pen.” The Chronicle of Higher Education 57.24 (2011).

   Educator's Reference Complete. Web. 17 Mar. 2011.