Effective Grading & Rubrics

1. Effective Grading & Rubrics Erin K. Johns Speese

2. Tips from Nicole Sieben “Relate and React to the Content/Ideas of the Piece” • Respond only to the content/ideas • Ask guiding questions • Give explanations as to why a revision needs to occur • Don’t offer much correction feedback or simply give grades

3. Tips from Nicole Sieben “Provide a Balance of Compliments and Critique” • Suggested Positivity Ratio is 3:1 • According to study, 3 positive comments counteract 1 harmful comment • Helps student to grow as a writer

4. Tips from Nicole Sieben “Use Minimal Marginal Notes and Summative Endnotes” • No more than 4 marginal notes on each page • Give holistic comments at the end that address larger or consistent concerns • Phrase end comments as letters to students to personalize

5. Tips from Nicole Sieben “Keep It Conversational and Ask Questions” • Frame suggestions as questions, i.e., Have you thought about…? • Try to keep tone conversational not confrontational • This tone tends to carry over into one on one conferences

6. Notes from Nicole Sieben “Ask Students to Write Feedback Response Letters and Highlight Paper Revisions” • Allows students to assess their own writing • Asks students to think about what they can still improve in their writing • Maintains conversational tone • Helps students become more self-aware of their writing and revision process

7. Notes from Nicole Sieben “Use Emoticons (Speak Their Digital Language)” • Use emoticons in places where students are attempting to illicit an emotional response • Shows students you are engaged with their ideas

8. Notes from Peter Elbow “Use Minimal Grades on Low Stakes Writing” • Use an easy grading schema for writing that is informal/low stakes • Scale with three levels: Strong/Satisfactory/Weak • Scale with two levels: Pass/Fail • One level: Acceptable by just being turned in • Zero scale: Not collected, meant for inquiry • Avoid making comments on these assignments unless necessary

9. Notes from Peter Elbow “Giving Grades More Meaning” • Using criteria but not grading each one • Using a minimal grid for grading, i.e., Clarity: Strong, Satisfactory, etc. • Makes it easier to see how the grade averages out

10. Notes from Nancy Sommers • Watch for comments that shift the focus away from the student’s purpose in their writing to the teacher’s purpose • Watch for contradictory feedback that might confuse students • Teachers’ comments are often not text specific; Anchor your comment to the student’s text • Take draft stages into consideration; What comments are appropriate for a first versus second versus final draft?

11. Designing an Effective Assignment • Overview the focus of the assignment • Articulate clearly the parameters of the assignment • Make it clear what the goals of the assignment are • Have learning objectives/takeaways for students • Articulate the evaluation criteria for the assignment

12. Designing an Effective Rubric • Decide if you want to implement a point scale or a multi-level scale (strong, satisfactory, weak) • Make a list of clear criteria that you will evaluate in the paper • Emphasize content criteria more so than grammar, sentence level concerns • Option: Leave space for specific comments on criteria when needed

13. Holistic Comments • Still include a holistic note discussing the overall feedback for the paper • Keep substantive suggestions for improvement at 3-4 • Keep a positivity ratio. Don’t just focus on the negative. • Keep the tone conversational. Usually, a letter format works best. • Don’t overwhelm your students with feedback for improvement. • Use the rubric to your advantage, especially for lower level concerns like grammar. Check a box on the rubric and save the holistic comments for higher level concerns, like content, structure, argument development, etc.

14. Works Cited • Elbow, Peter. “Grading Student Writing: Making It Simpler, Fairer, Clearer.” New Directions for Teaching and Learning, no. 69, 1997, pp. 127-140. • Sieben, Nicole.  “Building Hopeful Secondary School Writers through Effective Feedback Strategies.” English Journal, vol. 106, no. 6, 2017: pp. 48-53. • Sommers, Nancy.  “Responding to Student Writing.”  College Composition and Communication, vol. 33, no. 2, 1982, pp. 148-156.