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1. I wonder how much the history of "grading" has been shaped---and constrained---by the development of photo-duplication technology.
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2. In ye olden days, gradebooks with number/letter grade were needed b/c teachers returning student work would thereby return any comments.
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3. At end of term, a teacher could not easily review all of his/her previous annotations and assess how a student had progressed.
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4. A number or letter grade served as an approximation of a fuller assessment that a teacher presumably gave on returned physical papers.
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5. But theoretically photocopying (and later tech---think Google Docs or Word files) obviates (some of) the need for that approximation.
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6. Now a teacher can easily keep more than a gradebook: you can have a complete record of all correspondence with a student for review.
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7. If any of that history is true, does that technological advance make possible creative new ways of thinking about assessment?
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8. In other words, are grades partly an atavistic artifact of a time when student "papers" were literally single-copy papers?
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9. Or does tech actually make possible revival of something more like "recitations" that preceded returnable work? @TryingBiology/717750558157832192