Using Graded Assignments: The Benefits and Burdens
by
Katherine Pratt

Grading is not fun. However, I recently decided that it might be worth some extra work to improve students' preparation for class and to give them some feedback before the final exam, so I began experimenting with using graded assignments in my classes.

Although I have tried various methods to improve class preparation, I decided that I needed to try something new last spring when I taught the Basic Federal Tax class to first-year students. As you can imagine, the first-year students approached the tax class with much fear and loathing. In addition, several large writing projects were due in Legal Research and Writing during the term, so I was concerned that many students would be absent (either physically or mentally) when those project deadlines approached.

I wanted to prompt the students to prepare thoroughly for class and to stay engaged throughout the term. In addition, I wanted to provide them with some feedback before the final exam, so that they would be less panic-stricken about the test. I decided to have the students turn in homework assignments which I would then grade and return to them.

During the first week of class, I announced that I would adjust a student's grade on the final exam a maximum of one grade step up or down (for example, from a B to a B+) based on the student's class participation, preparation, and attendance. In order to evaluate the students' preparation, I graded their answers to the problems.

The students wrote out their answers to the assigned problems, as if they were writing exam answers. A day or two before we covered a given problem in class, I collected the students' answers to the problem, graded them, and returned them before the class in which we discussed the problem. The students prepared their answers without knowing whether I would ask them to turn them in on the day they were due. I asked the students to turn in their answers about two-thirds of the time.

I evaluated the answers using a "no credit," "check minus," "check," or "check plus" standard. Using this format, the grading was much quicker than exam grading, although I did take time to write comments on papers when they were warranted.

Not surprisingly, giving the students feedback seemed to greatly facilitate their learning. The students' attempts to analyze statutes, regulations, cases, administrative pronouncements, and policy considerations progressed dramatically over the course of the term. At the end of the semester, the students wrote terrific exams.

Although I had anticipated that the students would benefit from receiving feedback throughout the term, I failed to anticipate the benefit to me of reading the students' answers before we discussed a problem in class. Usually, we teachers have little idea of what goes on in the heads of most of our students until the final exam. For the most part, we are forced to read the faces of our silent students, like tea leaves, for signs that they either understand or are lost.

Although I have, in the past, thought that I was a pretty good judge of the level of comprehension in a class, I will never again trust my view of what is going on in my students' heads unless I read what each one thinks. Reading the students' answers was an eye-opener, and frequently led me to add material to my class notes that I never, ever, would have thought to add without the feedback from students. I know that I taught my students better as a result of receiving feedback from them throughout the term.

In addition, using graded assignments fostered a good student-teacher rapport. I admired the students for their consistent and considerable efforts to master the material. They appreciated the fact that I took the time to give them feedback on their work.

Using graded assignments also improved class participation. Having already attempted to answer an assigned problem on their own, the students were quite enthusiastic about solving the problem in class. Although class participation improved overall, I especially noticed increased participation by women in the class. Research indicates that male students are more likely to speak in class than female students, especially if the student is unsure of the answer. Taunya Lovell Banks, Gender Bias in the Classroom, 38 J. Legal Educ. 137, 141-43 (1988). Perhaps having a prepared answer to the problem boosted the confidence of the women students in my class, prompting them to speak more often.

Requiring advance preparation of the problem also encouraged the students to learn actively. They were forced to learn the material as best they could on their own, in order to answer the problem. This active preparation allowed the students to understand and retain more of what went on in class. Several students remarked that Tax was surprisingly easy to review because they had learned the material the first time they had studied it.

In addition, requiring advance preparation of the problems helped to mitigate any differences in intellectual ability in the class. Some students no doubt had to work harder than other students to prepare the answers before class, but by the time we began to discuss a topic, everyone had achieved a basic level of understanding of the topic at hand. Instead of feeling as though I had to choose between boring some students or proceeding too quickly for others, we all proceeded together from a common starting point.

What are the potential drawbacks of using graded problems, other than the obvious one of needed to write the problems and grade the assignments? Using graded problems raises certain ethical issues. If students may not work together on the problems, how do you enforce that rule? Do you treat violation of this rule as an instance of cheating? If students are allowed to work together, how do you know that an answer is a student's own work? I allow my students to discuss the problem in a group, but each student must individually draft his or her own answer. Several students told me that they had enjoyed discussing problems with a group of students and had benefitted academically from the experience.

Using graded assignments produced many more benefits than I had anticipated. Although I share your distaste for grading, in my view the benefits far outweigh the burden of grading assignments.