Return
to
the Writing Board
Homepage
University Writing Board
Designing and Assessing Student Writing Workshop
Friday, October 8, 2004
Welcome and Free Write
Pauline
Uchmanowicz, Chair, Writing Board
Overview of the Grading
Cycle
Mary Sawyer
Writing Assignments and Grading Rubrics
Peter Kaufman
Maureen Morrow
John Sharp
Tips for Assigning and
Grading Writing in
Large Classes
Pauline Uchmanowicz
Designing and Improving
Student Writing Assignments
Jan Schmidt
Follow
this link for a copy of the
10 most troublesome grammar errors
Participants were given four selected “readings” in advance of the
workshop:
Peter Elbow’s “Ranking, Evaluating, and Liking:
Sorting Out Three Forms
of Judgment” as well as Cherryl Smith and Angus Dunstan’s “Grade the
Learning, Not the Writing” (For examples of practical advice (including
sample grids and checklists) for creating grading criteria or
evaluating and commenting on student papers).
Lynn Bloom’s “Why I (Used to) Hate to Give Grades”
as well as Lad
Tobin’s checklist of things teachers think about when grading that we
“are not supposed to think about when we give grades” (for
philosophical
considerations about grading).
Participants were asked to bring to the workshop a
student-writing
assignment for which s/he wished to create or improve the design,
checklist of criteria, or rubric for grading.
Welcome, Free Write, Introductions
Pauline Uchmanowicz
Chair, Writing Board
Participant questions generated in response to the free write (what is
your greatest concern with regard to student writing assignments):
What is the appropriate philosophy of grading?
What is the power of
grades?
To motivate/ encourage better work?
Should the final course
grade be the average or the end achievements?
Can we get rid of grades
all together?
Am I ‘guilty’ of grade inflation?
Should I have different standards for ESL students?
How do take life
experience/ self-awareness into account for a grade?
How do I give substantive comments that get beyond
the repair of line
edit problems?
What type of feedback effectively deals with
mechanical vs. content
issues?
What type of feedback will communicate a B vs. an A?
What type of feedback will communicate organization/
effective
communication?
How do I design meaningful assignments?
Meaningful objectives
Meaningful content
Process of development
Should I/how do I use peer review?
Should I/how do I use group projects?
Should I/how do I use rewriting?
Line editing vs. content feedback How
many times
Assessment for final grade
What defines/ allows the assignment of an A vs. a B grade?
Role of gut reaction
Various student experience levels
Overview of the Grading Cycle
Mary Sawyer
Mary asked participants to free write on the writing cycle in
response
to: Where in the diagram do you ask students to participate in a
meaningful discovery?
The writing cycle:
Students connect with topic -->Assignments
-->Students complete drafts <-->Response to drafts-->
Grading/Final response
Free write responses from
participants:
Ways to get students to connect with the topic:
Oral presentations before
writing
Presentation by expert before assignment
Free write followed by sharing of ideas
Focused free write in response
to posed questions
Work backwards starting with short writing focus on
rhetorical strategies
Readings in class to enable focusing
Mary’s note: These assignments are mostly evaluation-free zones (no
grades assigned)
Ways to design assignments:
Give final exam question on the first day of
class and discuss it throughout the semester
Provide models of student
models (note: Need students’ permission in writing)
(the problem of copying and lack of original thought was raised)
Provide a partially written introduction for students to complete
Provide models after first draft Writing Assignments and Grading
Rubrics
Writing Assignments and Grading Rubrics
Peter Kaufman’s presentation on use of rubrics
and peer assessment
Follow this link for a copy of the
rubric
Follow this link for a copy of the peer
critique
The basic ideas of the handouts were borrowed from a colleague and then
adjusted to the needs of the area of specialty. The handouts are
generally considered a work in progress.
The rubric:
This handout is given to students to self-grade ahead of time.
They
serve as a ‘contract’
Students know what to expect and can examine how well they are
connecting with the topic.
The students get significant feedback beyond the rubric
Students’ use for examining feedback
All good on rubric not necessarily makes paper a B- fuzzy areas of
grading (content vs. mechanical aspects of the paper)
Peter noted his distaste for giving grades (the ‘necessary evil’).
The
rubric helps:
Explain the grade given
Fall back to explain grade when topic is personal
Peer assessment:
Students bring draft to class; the entire class time dedicated to peer
critique.
The assessment sheet contains significant space for feedback
There are no grades at this stage
Comments:
The students could look at more than one peer’s paper
One could grade
the comments
One could distribute between strong and weak students
Maureen Morrow’s presentation
Follow this link for a copy of the rubric
The major writing assignment for the semester is a laboratory report.
The written communication format of the discipline is rigid and
students can end up using all of their energy figuring out the format.
To help students work within the format, I:
1- Provide details of format (rubric)
2- Provide time for much practice
with the format in ‘grade-free zones’ (in class writing- the laboratory
notebook)
3- Use less lecture, more discussion. In-class brain-storming
4-
Provide feedback via multiple and progressive assignments
The feedback/grading time savers I use:
1- Progressive assignments. Initial assignments are in outline type
formats--- easier to grade.
2- Most of the in-class, laboratory notebook writing is not graded.
Students are invested in the product- their own laboratory notebook.
3- During the in-class writing time, students needing assistance can be
approached for coaching. Atmosphere of independent student discussion
encouraged.
4- Peer review of first paper draft- many formatting errors corrected
at this stage.
5- The rubric and top 10 grammatical errors (from the freshman
composition handbook). Avoids need to write the
same comments on format errors. Leaves time to comment in depth.
Follow this link for a copy of the
10 most troublesome grammar errors
John Sharp’s presentation
Follow this link for a copy of the rubric
Follow this link for a copy of the assignment
Comments on the deisign of the
assignment:
Rubrics (each specific to assignment) are given ahead of time Model
papers provided on blackboard
A larger percentage of the final grade is based on the final draft
(60%), but first draft and peer review comments are also graded.
Group work and grade are employed for the research process and oral
presentation (after paper completed)
Research sources given to the students ahead of time
The advantages of using the rubric:
This makes the assignment more transparent; clear questions are
addressed
Repetitive mistakes take time to grade, this can be avoided
if the student has the rubric during the paper writing process.
These
mistakes can also be easily indicated on the rubric.
Note:
The mechanical aspects of the rubric gets away from real issues of
quality
Differential weight given to content aspects allows for better relation
of the grades to the holistic interpretation of paper quality.
Tips for Assigning and Grading Writing in
Large Classes
Pauline Uchmanowicz
Follow this link to a detailed description
of Pauline’s presentation
Do not allow students to ask, “What do you want."
Students must frame questions as ‘what is the purpose’, making the
professor responsible for the explanation of the assignment.
Make collaborative writing and group grades possible
Providing end comments in the form of questions is useful
Note the
professor comments with ‘I’ because the text is not actually read
objectively
Designing and Improving Student Writing
Assignments
Jan Schmidt
Give assignment ahead of time
Use rubrics ahead of time with student
peer review
Use a point system instead of letter grades
Integrate peer review into the midterm
Incases of student embarrassment instructor can leave the room
Students write summary of peer's paper (with given
parameters)
Evaluation the summaries, but start discussion with ‘what do you notice
about
the paper’
The students learn much in peer review, let them know this
Back to top