You try to be personable in the classroom and in general. You tell jokes, you tell personal stories. You want to be funny, hip, and cool like Louis C.K. and Ricky Gervais. In the process the wall breaks down between you and your audience, your students.
You conference with them during their essay first draft. You get to know your students' struggles and heartaches. You learn of death, poverty, hardship, sometimes so brutal that you feel guilty that your life is relatively easy.
Here's the trap: Creeping grade inflation. There's a rubric you have to follow. Deviate from it at your own risk. If you're too flexible, you'll be branded an "easy pass" and attract the easy pass crowd, students who feel entitled to a high grade with minimum work.
This is my struggle.
I'm not going to move to the other extreme and be some cold stoic; however, I am going to seek balance.
While I want to use humor and personal stories to connect with my students, I'm going to combat grade inflation with the following:
No more conferencing
No rewrites after a grade has been recorded on an essay
Five In-class reading quizzes per semester
Break down the rubric to the students and explain how you will apply it to the grading of their essays
No grading the essay in front of the students. With the student peering over your shoulder, you may break down a bit. Grade the essay in privacy without hearing the breathing of fear, anxiety, and desperation, which might cause you to deviate from the rubric.
In the end, it's all about balance. You have to be personable on one hand, but be consistent on the other.
I can tell you from experience that this balancing act is easier said than done.
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