7th graders are highly unlikely to produce writing of such a great quality that it "cannot be graded". Maybe when Hemingway was in the seventh grade. And we can grade subjective things all the time. You can grade code based on something other than whether it runs efficiently, for instance.
Meanwhile, your prompt sounds like hell. And is far more subjective than the previous one.
> Convince your best friend that Slaughterhouse Five is a terrible novel.
So, before you even start the assignment, you let the teachers dictate the position that someone has? And you're not going to teach students to assess themes in books, so what will they judge Slaughterhouse Five on, aesthetics?
> Cite the text any way you please
Why on earth would you change that requirement. "Cite the text using method X" is a direct analog to "Coding standards dictate this naming convention". I would fire a "free thinker" who refused to adhere to the, sometimes arbitrary, standards for communication with the rest of group. Standards are good.
> ideally by comparing it to a book you think is actually good."
As a rule, I don't think convincing someone that a work of art is "terrible" should be done by comparing it to something else you "think is good".
> [No page limit]
You can trust an adult with that, but a seventh grader? Usually they need a page limit to encourage them to write more.
It seems like the following a complete essay that you would have to grade very well: "Slaughterhouse Five's lack of elves makes it terrible, because fantasy novels are just better and books like the Lord of the Rings have elves which makes it a good book [Source - My conversation with Johnny yesterday]"
Grading that well would be bad because it's horrible in every way.
Meanwhile, your prompt sounds like hell. And is far more subjective than the previous one.
> Convince your best friend that Slaughterhouse Five is a terrible novel.
So, before you even start the assignment, you let the teachers dictate the position that someone has? And you're not going to teach students to assess themes in books, so what will they judge Slaughterhouse Five on, aesthetics?
> Cite the text any way you please
Why on earth would you change that requirement. "Cite the text using method X" is a direct analog to "Coding standards dictate this naming convention". I would fire a "free thinker" who refused to adhere to the, sometimes arbitrary, standards for communication with the rest of group. Standards are good.
> ideally by comparing it to a book you think is actually good."
As a rule, I don't think convincing someone that a work of art is "terrible" should be done by comparing it to something else you "think is good".
> [No page limit]
You can trust an adult with that, but a seventh grader? Usually they need a page limit to encourage them to write more.
It seems like the following a complete essay that you would have to grade very well: "Slaughterhouse Five's lack of elves makes it terrible, because fantasy novels are just better and books like the Lord of the Rings have elves which makes it a good book [Source - My conversation with Johnny yesterday]"
Grading that well would be bad because it's horrible in every way.