Self-Grading as an Assessment Method.

dents must think and work as a group, articulate their views, meet other people, research, exercise creativity. An added incentive in the composition group projects is grading by the class as well as by the instructor. After each group presents or performs, its members stand with backs to their audience, who then vote for the letter grades deserved by the group. It's good for a hardworking group to know that their peers, as well as their teacher, think highly of their efforts. A barrage of questions and approving comments from the class is inevitable after a well-done presentation. That's food for the spirit, too. "A project" is an amorphous thing. It can be almost any activity outside the realm of the usual. Not only can individuals and small groups do projects, the entire class can also. What else but "a project" is publication of a class magazine or newspaper? Another class project might involve an investigative series of interviews with college officials on school issues, or with town or state officials on current problems. The same work, project, describes the activities of a composition class whose members formu late questions about issues which they spend the semester answering through research and interviews, alone and in interest groups. Project work can synthesize class en deavor. Handled carefully, it can motivate more effectively than anything else. Best of all, it can stimulate the most hard-to-teach student and satisfy the most hard-to-please teacher.