Demystifying Five Myths about Grading Your ASL and ASL e-Portfolio

Grades are a very real part of your acquisition of American Sign Language (ASL).  Many of you associate ASL classes with being graded, which is a necessary evil when the time comes.

Examine the following five myths about grading in light of your acquisition of ASL.

Myth 1. I love giving grades on your newly acquired language skills; I find it easy to decid what the letter grade should be on any particular assignment, storytelling, or quiz. Actually I hate giving grades for your heuristic learning activities and often find it difficult to decide whether a passing grade is, say, a B- or a C+.

Myth 2. I value only error-free ASL.  When I listen to your ASL activity, I look mostly at parts of signs: handshapes, palm orientations, locations, non-manual expressions, and modifier movements. I am interested first in your ideas; then I look to be pulled by ASL and the train of thought.  That is what I want: to be engaged in your ideas.  If your ideas are lively and intelligent, I am not going to notice mechanical lapses.

Myth 3. I spend most of my free time correcting your ASL e-Portfolio. It is important to remember that a professor is a human being, too, with a wide variety of interests and a number of responsibilities.  This doesn't mean that you and your e-Portfolio aren't important, but it does mean that you need to make an impression within a very small window of opportunity.

Myth 4. A letter grade is the only way or the best way to assess your skills in ASL. I may offer advice, but the decision to accept it and implement it is yours.  Letter grades really don't initiate the kind of dialogue that is essential to the assessment of your ASL proficiency.

Myth 5. I am the only audience you need to think about. Your e-Portfolio may be shared, both in draft and final forms, with a number of people in your class and perhaps in other ASL classes.  You need to develop it for those audiences as well as for the evaluator or evaluators. With your written permission, I may use it for my professional presentation on campus or elsewhere. (Your name will be changed but your video cannot, which is something you need to think about.)

Keep those above myths in mind as you prepare your e-Portfolio.  They address a dilemma that I struggle with everyday: how to encourage you to develop your strengths and have a positive attitude toward ASL acquisition despite the fac that your work is going to be evaluated critically.

Good luck!

~Professor Carl

Reference:

Cambridge, D. 2010. Eportfolios for Lifelong Learning and Assessment. San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass.