I ran across some silly instructor manual claims while prepping a course. The textbook itself is wonderful, and the instructor manual is quite useful overall, so I'm not going to identify the book here--but this passage really surprised me:
Huh? I admit that quizzes give the impression that reading involves comprehension, and my courses require more than that from students--but "simple comprehension of material" is a great start.
Even sillier is the next sentence:
Grading is punishment? And here I thought that grading helps students assess their learning. Do these authors believe good grades to be punishment, I wonder, or only bad grades? And does it punish students to grade their writing and their tests, too?
These authors suggest an alternative to quizzes: setting students a few questions to answer while they read, but they "urge" teachers not to grade them, allowing only that they may be used as discussion starters or to take attendance, "if that is required in the program in which you teach." This alternative is great, a strategy I use more often than quizzes, but again, why assume that students will be harmed by grading?
This passage from a different instructor manual was a good antidote:
Prepping a new course always turns me into a curmudgeon.
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