Effective Grading: Burden or Opportunity?

1. Grading!! Burden or Opportunity?

2. When do YOU grade something or someone? • whenever you make a choice • when do you do it formally? • evaluation forms

3. When are YOU graded? • classes • everyday life • business • social life

4. Assessment • What is it? • informal • one-on-one interactions • formal • comments on papers • grades on papers, exams • grades on courses

5. Rubrics • What is a rubric? • How does the grader use one? • partial credit • How should the student use one? • Who else might use one? • parents • accrediting agencies

6. Let's make a rubric • Subject: a children's playground • Coop activity • in your pairs, brainstorm at least 4 areas / dimensions / criteria that should be used • compile a list for the whole group

7. Evaluate the rubric • How would you do that for the playground? Reality check! • Write out descriptions of your dimensions • Group them into categories • Don't go overboard! how many are you willing to grade?

8. Develop the scale / weights • How important / difficult is each dimension? • Do you want a large scale or a small one? (a large point total or a small one?) • Do you want to classify students into a few groups or distinguish small differences between students?

9. Try your rubric out • Use actual student data • Keep notes of dimensions not covered • Keep notes on scales out of balance

10. When do you share rubrics with students? • Before the fact of grading? • pros • cons • After the fact of grading? • pros • cons

11. Questions to ask • What are the attributes of a quality performance?  • By what qualities or features will I know whether students have produced an excellent response? • What do I expect to see if this task is done excellently, acceptably, poorly? • Do I have samples or models of student work, from my class or other sources, that exemplify some of the criteria I might use in judging this task?

12. Judging a rubric (Part I) • Does the rubric relate to the outcome(s) being measured?  Does it address anything extraneous? • Does the rubric cover important dimensions of student performance? • Are the categories or scales well-defined? • Is there a clear basis for assigning scores at each scale point?

13. Judging a rubric (Part II) • Can the rubric be applied consistently by different scorers? • Can the rubric be understood by students? • Is the rubric fair and free from bias? • Is the rubric useful, feasible, manageable and practical?

14. Source • http://intranet.cps.k12.il.us/Assessments/Ideas_and_Rubrics/ideas_and_rubrics.html • Chicago Public Schools

15. Grading • Be demanding! if you don't expect excellence, you'll never get it! • Don't be afraid to deduct points • You are grading a PAPER not a PERSON! • Be polite or at least neutral in feedback • "WRONG!" is not useful feedback - be detailed • Make your feedback easy to find on the page

16. Interact with your supervisor on rubrics • If your supervisor does not provide one for an assignment, MAKE one of your own • SHARE it with your supervisor - ideally before you use it! • DISCUSS the results with your supervisor - how could it be done better next time?

17. "Opportunity"? • Opportunity for feedback • correction of a student's direction if needed • encouragement of what they did right • Opportunity to reinforce what has been covered in class, what they are supposed to learn

18. Example • Principle: "documentation is important to the writing of a program" • Rubric: Comments : 5 points • Grading: student omits all comments • Action: you deduct 5 points • Result: student asks you how to write comments

19. What’s the worst thing about grading? • You have to write with a pen • It takes time • You have to do arithmetic • It’s the same thing over and over again • It makes students angry

20. What’s the most important thing about grading? • You are teaching! By giving feedback • The student is interested in the result • You get paid