Labour-Based Grading Contracts in an Indigenous-Specific Section of Academic Reading and Writing

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31468/dwr.975

Keywords:

Ungrading, anti-racist pedagogy, contract-grading

Abstract

This essay outlines the experience of introducing a labour-based grading contract in a section of the University of Victoria’s standard introduction to academic reading and writing that was only open to students who self-identified as Indigenous. Labour-based grading contracts offer an alternative approach to conventional grading, in which a student’s grade is determined by the amount of labour that the student does over the semester. By emphasizing labour and learning, this approach to grading works towards decentering normalized whiteness in academic writing pedagogy. In this essay, I describe our labour-based contract, I explain how our class negotiated the contract, and I share some reflections on what went well and what I would do differently next time.

References

Cedillo, C. V. (2020). Cultural literacies: Towards inclusive writing pedagogies and practices. Composition Studies, 48(3), 132-162.

Gaudet, L. (2020) ATWP 135: Academic Reading and Writing [Syllabus]. University of Victoria.

Inoue, A.B. (2017) Grading contract for TWRT 464 [Section A]. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Rs4Y0l7wdvlWHeYVeLLn1b3_DKOgD0cyfX7ytObKZNA/edit

Inoue, A.B. (2019). Classroom writing assessment as an antiracist practice: Confronting WhiteSupremacy in the judgments of language. Pedagogy 19(3), 373-404. https://muse-jhu-edu.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/article/733095/pdf

Inoue, A.B. (2015). Antiracist writing assessment ecologies: Teaching and assessing writing for a socially just future. The WAC Clearinghouse. https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/inoue/ecologies.pdf

Inoue, A.B. (n.d.). A social justice framework for anti-racist writing assessment: Labour-based grading contracts. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q2KIqTBSIQRPxt5wvBwEvIm3jEfmIs0ixBrTIZtqEdU/edit

Wargo, K. (2020). A conceptual framework for authentic writing assignments: Academic and everyday meet. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 63(5), 539-547. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.1022

University of Victoria. (2020). Grading. Retrieved from: https://www.uvic.ca/humanities/atwp/current-students/grading/index.php

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Published

2022-11-09

How to Cite

Gaudet, L. (2022). Labour-Based Grading Contracts in an Indigenous-Specific Section of Academic Reading and Writing . Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie, 32, 418–428. https://doi.org/10.31468/dwr.975

Issue

Section

Writing in Practice