Making the Grade:

1. Making the Grade: How to Evaluate Student Papers Fairly and Consistently

2. What is the Best Way to Grade Fairly and Consistently?

3. No, No, No

4. What Do Students Want? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93J_0Qxsci4

5. How Do I Begin? Decide the value of the evaluation

6. How Do I Begin? Decide the value of the evaluation Will students have a chance to revise?

7. How Do I Begin? Decide the value of the evaluation Will students have a chance to revise? If so, make extensive comments on drafts and use formulative rubrics.

8. How Do I Begin? Decide the value of the evaluation Will students have a chance to revise? If so, make extensive comments on drafts and use formulative rubrics. If not, make focused, but few comments and use summative rubrics.

9. How Do I Begin? When will you return the graded papers? a. Before the last day of class? b. At the final exam? c. After the semester is over?

10. How Do I Begin? What do you want students to do with your comments?

11. How Do I Begin? • Will students have a chance to revise? • If not, consider having 2 deadlines for the paper: • A week early– you will make in-depth comments • A week later—few if any comments beyond the rubric; but students may NOT argue the grade

12. How Do I Begin? Decide the value of the evaluation Is this a high- or low-stake assignment?

13. How Do I Begin? Consider reading student papers all the way through before marking the rubric or making comments

14. How Do I Begin? Consider reading student papers all the way through before marking the rubric or making comments Why?

15. How Do I Begin? After reading the student’s paper, decide on 3 main points to make

16. How Do I Begin? How do I decide what is most important?

17. How Do I Begin? How do I decide what is most important? Use Beth’s 7 levels of evaluating student papers

18. How Do I Begin? • Include no more than 3 comments per page • Praise • Briefly summarize student’s good points and areas that need work

19. Help Students Understand your Grading Criteria One way to help students understand how you will evaluate their work is to prepare an annotated sample of student work

20. Help Students Understand your Grading Criteria Prepare an annotated sample of student work Discuss the annotated sample in class

21. Help Students Understand your Grading Criteria Prepare an annotated sample of student work Discuss the annotated sample in class Post the annotated sample for students to use as a reference

22. Help Students Understand your Grading Criteria Another way to evaluate student papers consistently and fairly is by creating rubrics.

23. Create Rubrics Holistic Rubric: A grading sheet that considers the work as a whole Analytic Rubric: A grading sheet that breaks down the assignment into parts and sometimes assigns each part a certain number of points or a percentage of the grade

25. Writing Assignment 2A Additional Comments and/or Suggestions:

26. Using Rubrics Effectively • Consider eliminating point totals from rubrics

27. Using Rubrics Effectively • Make more comments on drafts than on final papers that cannot be revised • Consider using analytical rubrics for drafts and a holistic rubric for the final paper

28. Evaluating Student Papers • The fair and consistent evaluation of student papers begins with the creation of the writing prompt.

29. Evaluating Student Papers • The fair and consistent evaluation of student papers begins with the creation of the writing prompt. • The evaluation must be aligned with the prompt and with in-class explanations.

30. Commenting on Student Papers Make Helpful Comments • Focus more on global issues than local • Be respectful, challenging, and specific

31. Align Your Comments with Your Rubrics Do the comments you have made on the student’s paper reflect the grades you marked on the rubric?

32. Align Your Comments with Your Rubrics For example, on the rubric do you indicate the most serious problem is the thesis? Yet, do your marks on the student’s paper suggest that grammar and punctuation were far more of a problem?

33. Begin Your Comments with Praise Build student confidence before offering suggestions for improvement

34. Commenting on Student Papers It might be tempting to begin editing the paper, but this isn’t helpful for the student. Though it isn’t the most “obvious” guidance, the student first needs guidance on structure, organization, and content.

35. Commenting on Student Papers Then, simply comment at the end of the paper that the student will also need to do some major editing after the final revisions have been made.

36. Focus on Global Issues Look at the focus, structure, support, paragraphing. What is the thesis statement? • Does it explain what the reader will be arguing? • Does it indicate what the main ideas of the paper will be, those that might correspond to the major headings?

37. Be Selective; Make only 2-3 Comments/Page • Provide needed guidance without taking away students’ authority over the paper • Be specific! • Limit comments on correctness and style

38. Restrict Comments: Don’t expect perfection – choose what matters to you Don’t waste time making comments on papers that are irrelevant to your criteria

39. Commenting on Student Papers Does the paper have so many problems that you would have to write a great deal to guide the student?

40. Commenting on Student Papers Does the paper have so many problems that you would have to write a great deal to guide the student? • Instead of making any comments, simply invite the student to your office and explain that you won’t give the student a grade on the paper until it has been revised and edited thoroughly

41. Commenting on Student Papers Is the comment necessary? Is the same information already on the rubric?

42. Time-Saving Tips • Remember less is more; limit your comments to what matters most. • Do not use comments to “justify” your grades; use them to help the student become a better writer

43. Commenting on Student Papers

44. Commenting on Student Papers

45. Studies of Student Paper Evaluations Students often do not understand our comments: Study reveals percentage of students who typically understand faculty comments: • 54 percent of students assessed were very fairly confident • only 5 percent were very confident • 40 percent said they did not understand what the comment meant

46. Studies of Student Paper Evaluations • Students in two studies wanted both positive and negative feedback. • For example, “I want to know what I did correctly on my papers, not just what I did wrong” generated a mean response of 4.49 (out of 5.0).

47. Studies of Student Paper Evaluations • Negative feedback tended to be more specific than positive feedback • When offered, positive comments tended to be vague, such as the word “good” scrawled down the side of a paper.

48. Check Your Consistency in Grading 1) Re-grade the first paper or 2 after you have graded all of the other papers. 2) Randomly look at your comments and graded rubric. 3) Compare some of the papers that have similar scores.

49. Help Students Understand Your Completed Evaluations • Post the rubric again on the day you return the papers and comment in general about the papers • e.g., “Most students had a clear thesis that guided the organization of the paper” • “Some common problems included failing to provide evidence for some of the claims” • “Many of the papers included too many quotations instead of evidence that the author synthesized the content and actually has an opinion on it”

50. Help Students Use Your Evaluation Effectively • If you have required drafts of the paper, have students write a memo telling you explicitly what changes they will make and why • When students are required to do drafts, be sure to have them return those marked drafts with your comments when they submit the final paper • Or have students explain how they have responded to each comment you made on the draft