In over my head....

I have to say at the beginning of this chapter I really felt like finally someone understood me. I am not going to say that I am a perfect writer that always gets perfect grades, but I am a good student that gets good grades, that is until ENGL200W. For the first time ever I was given an assignment that I am completely stuck on. It is so bad that I knew the paper was crap before I even turned it in, not surprised to get it back with the words “revise and resubmit” written on it. Williams writes “Nevertheless, students of all ability levels may display performances that differs from assignment to assignment or from task to task. Students that have been writing C papers for weeks will get excited about an idea or a project, will work away at it for days, and will produce B work or better. Then the next assignment finds them struggling to put together something meaningful.” (299) I totally understand this statement and now wonder what makes a paper a C or a B in each person’s standards?
I can say that in high school I actually argued a teacher into a higher grade because I was able to show evidence on why their grade was not accurate. If I was able to do this in high school, what does that have to say about that teacher grading standards? Obviously she even questioned her grading system if I was able to show her how debunked it was!
This point makes me somewhat nervous when it comes down to my turn to be on the other end of that graded paper. All of this information that Williams included in this chapter is very important to me as a soon to be teacher, but I feel it was so overwhelming that I am not sure where to start. I think that Wendy had a very good point about having some sort of class or maybe a workshop for Secondary Ed majors on assessment. All of these tools for a new teacher are great, but I think we need to truly know how to use them before we are set out with the wolves, so to speak.
As far as rubrics go, I like them. When writing a paper I actually go through the rubric given and check off for myself the things that were supposed to be addressed within the paper, that way I know what I am turning in before I even see a grade on it.