I finished out this week by typing up my outline for Crispin. I was spending some time considering how I wanted my students to submit their papers for tutor assessment. Also, I was considering what tutor assessment should look like. When the parents are the teachers some may assume that they are the only ones who should assess work for understanding of items taught. I have listened to several webinars/podcasts about assessing for the best benefit of the student. I am very much a child of the competitive brick and mortar system. I have struggled this year and last with the idea that the grades that I received as a child truly did not reveal my own personal growth but were purely an artificial measure of my standing in life. The few classes that came easy to me and I received A's and B's for my work really did not portray my personal growth in those areas. Classes that I labored greatly to achieve a C did not reveal what the true weaknesses were in. Until recent years even, I believed the lie that I was an unintelligent person due to the grades I earned. I always felt a strange dichotomy existed. How could I as an overall B or C student in a private high school make a 1050 on my SAT or a 24 on the ACT? As a rising sixth grader one summer, I placed before myself a daunting task that may partially explain my SAT/ACT scores. I polled the smartest people I knew. "What were the most important books that they read?" I proceeded over the next several summers to read every book on that list that my parents allowed. I did not make it through War and Peace! I remember sighing with the proper-ness of Pride and Prejudice, swishing my skirts with Gone With the Wind, climbing muddy backwoods trails with Christy, crying with Jane Eyre, and holding my breath with Hunt for Red October. There were many more books than these! My family continues to tease me about dwelling too long in the bathroom with a book when the kitchen needed to be cleaned!
I am afraid I am digressing here. Some CC tutors do not believe that it is their position to give input on a students work quality. Whether a student has had a firm understanding of the concepts or if they have given their best attempt at the assignment is solely left to the parent. However, having been an active parent in the back of the room, sometimes I have had confusion over just what my student is supposed to be accomplishing in an assignment! Ultimately, it is the parents desire for the tutor's input which is the deciding factor. Whether the parent elects for the tutor input or not, the parent is to give the final assessment of satisfaction of work done to the students best. Rubrics guide assessments and help us make sure all assignment goals are met. Comparison against past work challenges students to perform at higher levels, and comparison between students reveals whether a student is performing at general grade level. The Challenge guide gives guidelines for each assignment assessment. If you have any concern about your students performance please contact me. I am available via email, text, or phone.
