[Ads-l] The English Language is the Enemy of the People

[Katherine Flowers]

Thanks to everyone for highlighting Asao Inoue's work on labor-based
grading. In response to the question of how his grading system is
structured, I would recommend some of his recent books, two of which were
published open-access:

   1. His award-winning 2015 book *Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecologies:
   Teaching and Assessing Writing for a Socially Just Future*, published
   through Parlor Press,
   https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/inoue/ecologies.pdf
   2. His 2019 book *Labor-Based Grading Contracts: Building Equity and
   Inclusion in the Compassionate Writing Classroom*, published through the
   University Press of Colorado,
   https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/labor/contracts.pdf
   3. His 2021 book *Above the Well: An Antiracist Argument from a Boy of
   Color*, https://wac.colostate.edu/books/perspectives/above/

I would also recommend a podcast interview from 2019:
https://www.pedagoguepodcast.com/blog/episode-12-asao-b-inoue

-Katherine

Katherine Flowers
Assistant Professor of English
University of Massachusetts Lowell


On Wed, Nov 10, 2021 at 8:46 AM dave at wilton.net <dave at wilton.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "dave at wilton.net" <dave at WILTON.NET>
> Subject:      Re: The English Language is the Enemy of the People
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> =0AI'm interested in how his "labor-based" grading system is structured.
> No=
> ne of the news reports I've seen go into it. =0A =0AI bet it's less
> radical=
>  than it sounds. When I last taught writing, at an institution with a
> signi=
> ficant minority of L2 students, I weighted participation heavily. (Lots of
> =
> ungraded assignments where the grade was based on completion.) For graded
> a=
> ssignments, I structured the grading rubric to give more weight to the
> stru=
> cture of the argument, sources used, and evidence presented. I didn't
> ignor=
> e grammar and style, but they were a smaller part of the overall grade.=0A
> =
> =0A(Compared to one political science professor I had in grad school who
> wo=
> uld reduce by one letter grade for every three grammar "errors" he found.
> T=
> he "errors" were often faux ones, like split infinitives. 90% of our time
> w=
> as spent proofreading rather than on the substance, and it wasn't a
> writing=
>  course.)=0A =0A =0A-----Original Message-----=0AFrom: "Chris Waigl"
> <chris=
> @LASCRIBE.NET>=0ASent: Tuesday, November 9, 2021 10:59pm=0ATo:
> ADS-L at LISTSE=
> RV.UGA.EDU=0ASubject: Re: [ADS-L] The English Language is the Enemy of
> the =
> People=0A=0A=0A=0AOn Tue, Nov 9, 2021 at 5:45 PM Margaret Winters
> <mewinter=
> s at wayne.edu> wrote:=0A=0A> What struck me was the very formal,
> theory-based=
>  language with which the=0A> speaker promoted not worrying about grammar
> (o=
> r, I suppose, register) in=0A> grading students.=0A>=0A=0AWell, he *is *a
> p=
> rofessor of rhetoric.=0A=0AI find that I'm much more welcoming of messy &
> p=
> olemical debate on this=0Akind of topic rather than the usual ones that
> are=
>  about whether it's ok to=0Adiscriminate against people you don't like,
> whe=
> ther certain types of people=0Aare not smart enough to be scientists or
> whe=
> ther it's ok to kick someone=0Aout of a washroom.=0A=0AChris=0A=0A--
> =0AChr=
> is Waigl . chris.waigl at gmail.com . chris at lascribe.net
> =0Ahttp://eggcorns.las=
> cribe.net . http://chryss.eu
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> lect.org
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