Job Discussion Forums

[Nabby Adams]

I teach writing. I've just given the test. It had 3 parts.

20 common mistakes they made throughout the year were written down and they had to correct the English.

Two writing assignments; a letter to a friend and a description of a photo. These topic had been covered also.

Now, the first part was easy to grade as there was a range of scores, but gy golly I am finding it harder to mark the tasks. They are all so similar and after 5 or so it is even hard to feel there is any difference at all.

Do any teachers out there have any ideas on designing a test that can sort the wheat from the chaff so to speak?

And how do you go about giving a subjective grade? In many cases it is easy of course but in many the fine line between an A and B or B and C is so fine that I wonder if it exists at all.

[Kootvela]

For a piece of writing, I would say, give 10 points:
-layout (if relevant): 2 points
-grammar, accuracy, spelling: 3 points
- task fullfillment (minor errors okay):3 points
-vocabulary:2 points

Add or take away one point for originality. Sure, you can distribute the points differently.

[Glenski]

Kind of depends on the level of the course/students.

Basic course: give them sentences to combine using given (or not given) various conjunctions.

Or if you use various proofreading marks, show them and have students explain what they are for.

Advanced course: have them find the errors in a references section of a journal article and correct them.

How about no test at all, but just a major collection of their work due on the last day of class?

[Kootvela]

That's a good idea to compile a sort of portfolio with samples of students works.

I have one who hasn't submitted any of the four assignments in the whole course

[Nozka]

Nabby, you need to develop a rubric which lays out your objectives and desired outcomes. The objectives are the skills you want your students to perform, and the outcomes are how well - underperforming, performing, outperforming - they are able to accomplish each task. Objectives might include writing topic sentences, using a variety of sentence patterns, controlling punctuation, using transitional expressions etc. In other words, the things you have been teaching them all along.
Using rubrics will not only help you (and your students) to see the strengths and weaknesseses in their writing, it will also make grading and teaching a lot easier. Do a little research on the subject; you will find lots of valuable information and possibly a few rubrics you can borrow.
Portfolios are also good, but less relevant to your immediate issue. I use both rubrics and portfolios in writing courses. In some sense, you should have a pretty good idea of how well each of your students can write coming into the end of a course. If everyone's writing looks the same, perhaps they are writing in a formulaic way, or perhaps you are not considering the range of skills that make up quality writing.

[Kootvela]

Also, sometimes it doesn't matter much. How much of writing do you have to do during the course? If it's an important writing course, make them sweat, but if it's just a constituent part of another course, you shouldn't overstress.

[naturegirl321]

YOu have to make a rubric. Print out little ones and then circle the grade they get and staple it to their tests.

[denise]

I agree that it's important to make rubrics--before you start marking the writing! They can include things like content, grammar, spelling, organization, relevance, etc.--you decide which elements are the most important.

When I have time and I want to do a proper job, I read through writing exams (or papers) two times. The first time I put down my pen and just read to get a general idea of the quality. The second time I keep the rubric right in front of me and consult it while I read. And if possible, if there's a separate cover page with the students' names, I turn that page over so as not to be influenced.

It's very hard to get around the subjective nature of writing exams, unless you just want to go through and count all of their writing mistakes, which is kind of a silly way to mark.

d