In this article, I provide a chronological narrative to my ungrading choices in composition classes as a neurodiverse single mother from a working-class background. I discuss my positionality as a White person committed to justice and my experiences as an “assessment killjoy” (West-Puckett et al.) during the ethical turn in writing studies. From this foundation, I reflect on my attempts to grade more equitably. I discuss my pedagogical goals, which are grounded in intersectional feminist theory (hooks; Royster and Kirsch), standpoint theory (Harding), learning sciences (Hammond; Ross), and a robust model of the writing construct (White et al.), and analyze the consequences of exit portfolios, labor-based contract grading (Inoue), and specifications grading (Nilson) via this integrated framework.

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Walking and Talking Feminist Rhetorics: Landmark Essays and Controversies, edited by Lindal Buchanan and Kathleen J. Ryan, Reviewed by Cynthia Lewiecki-Wilson, Green, edited by Brooke Rollins and Lee Bauknight, Reviewed by Beverly Faxon, Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, vols. 1 and 2, edited by Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky, Reviewed by Rebecca Powell, Multiliteracy Centers: Writing Center Work, New Media, and Multimodal Rhetoric, edited by David M. Sheridan and James A. Inman, Reviewed by Vincent D. Robles

This article examines the social influences that affect how women perform in a composition course focused on first-year students. We know that society encourages young women to be good girls, but does being a good girl lead to being a good student? Can first-year composition assignments illuminate gender gaps at play in higher education?

Kip Strasma Responds to “Gender and Peer Response” by Elizabeth Tomlinson, and Tomlinson responds to Strasma’s “Spotlighting.”

This case study examines written peer response materials generated by small groups with varying gender compositions. Based on those observations, I offer several pedagogical implications.

The author questions monolithic notions of Standard English by exploring dialects, gender, and the complexities of language in various social and cultural contexts.

Eva Payne served as a consulting reader for Gregory Shafer’s essay and expressed these opinions in a letter to the author that is part of our review process. This is the original letter, recast in third person for publication.

Students can draw from their own knowledge of gender to become more aware of stereotypes of gender and language.

Reviews four books: Weaving a Virtual Web: Practical Approaches to New Information Technologies, ed. Sibylle Gruber; Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing, by Jane Margolis and Allan Fisher; Readings Online: A Virtual Common Place, ed. Paul Amore; Reading and Writing in an Online World, by Dawn Rodrigues.

Considers how reading Jane Tompkins’ “Sensational Designs” helps foster a new appreciation of the ways in which students contribute to the creation of a literary work. Discusses how students responded to their semester-long study of various “neglected” 19th-century women writers.

A Group of Their Own: College Writing Courses and American Women Writers, 1880–1940, by Katherine H. Adams; Everyone Can Write: Toward a Hopeful Theory of Writing and Teaching Writing, by Peter Elbow; Teaching Composition as a Social Process, by Bruce McComiskey.

Considers how teaching John Updike’s short story “A&P” to treat issues of class and gender provides practice in reading for multiple meanings. Discusses students’ responses to the character “Sammy” and considers issues from personal response to reading the text. Notes multiple perspectives and ways of teaching “A&P.”

Describes a class discussion in the author’s first-year composition class at a New York City community college, after students read a volume of Sappho’s poetry. Discusses issues of reading comprehension, poetry, gender-preference prejudice, and how they were all set straight by one student from Brooklyn.

Presents and describes a narrative writing assignment used by the author in a developmental writing course that helps to demonstrate to students how and why sexist language usage can limit thinking, sometimes injuriously, and that concretely illustrates how language and gender stereotyping interact causally. Describes the assignment, how it is used in class, and class discussions resulting.

Argues that literature by Caribbean women writers of the 20th century offers two-year college students models for surmounting obstacles, resisting oppression, and holding life in fragile equilibrium. Discusses various Caribbean women authors and the influences upon them. Describes numerous ways that specific Caribbean works could be used in the two-year-college curriculum.

Argues that a carefully designed and skillfully moderated asynchronous Internet classroom environment can help minimize problems related to gender in traditional classrooms. Discusses class “climate” and class discussion in the traditional classroom and in the online classroom. Notes research related to gender and the online classroom. Outlines course design and teaching strategies. Offers a policy for online class conduct.

Reviews three books: Time to Know Them: A Longitudinal Study of Writing and Learning at the College Level, by Marilyn S. Sternglass; Feminism and Composition Studies: In Other Words, ed. by Susan C. Jarratt and Lynn Worsham; The Performance of Self in Student Writing, by Thomas Newkirk.

Reviews three books: Turns of Thought: Teaching Composition as Reflexive Inquiry, by Donna Qualley; Gypsy Academics and Mother?Teachers: Gender, Contingent Labor, and Writing Instruction, by Eileen E. Schell; Reflection in the Writing Classroom, by Kathleen Blake Yancey.

Instructors should learn both to celebrate and to accommodate gender differences in the writing classroom.