Exchanges: The On-line Journal of Teaching and Learning in the CSU
Once we have collectively discussed and answered any lingering questions about each of the five criteria, students begin the individual focused grading exercise. Before class, I write a series of steps on the board that they are then instructed to follow. 1. Read your essay slowly and carefully 2. Underline your thesis statement and examples of different sentence types 3. Mark, and if possible, fix any errors in usage 4. Choose a letter grade for each of the five criteria 5. Assign a 4-0 (A-F) to each of the individual grades 6. Add the five numbers together and divide the total by five 7. The final number corresponds to the letter grade When I grade the student essays, I write margin and end comments. On the back page of the essay, where the student has already listed his or her scores for each category, the total score, and the final grade, I juxtapose my grades. Through this visual map, students can see easily where we line up in agreement and where we disagree. This method helps me to cut through the disagreement and point to the specific area that is holding the quality of the writing back. For instance, a student who has always gotten B's on essays might, out of habit, give herself 3's or B's on each category. While I might also average the grade out as a B, I may have given A's for the categories "Command of Topic" and "Organization" but C's for the categories of "Analytic Focus and Development" and "Syntactic Variety." The juxtaposed grading charts enable this student to leave class clearly knowing what is required to bring her writing to the A level. |
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