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[chengdu619]

Hey everyone, I have just begun teaching a writing course. My students are all sophomores. I gave them a brief writing exercise their first day, and while marking up their papers with suggestions I came across a problem: How do I grade their papers? I know this sounds like a simple question, but I am kind of stumped. As their final will be in class I will not take off for spelling. Should I just focus on grammar and the degree to which they follow the type of essay proscribed. ( e.g. Explanatory essay with thesis and three example paragraphs, etc.)?


Any words of wisdom?

Thanks and may we all enjoy the new school year

[Lobster]

You should create a simple rubric designed to account for the expectations you have for the students and their levels of ability. Things you can include are:

Content: Facts, Opinions and Originality
Organization of Ideas: Title, Thesis Statement, Logical Progression of Ideas
Mechanics: Spelling, Grammar, Punctuation, Sentence Structure
Structure: Intro, Main Body, Conclusion
References, Citations, Bibliography

It will be up to you to weight these categories according to the class focus.

I'm sure there is more you could do with this, but that will get you started.

RED

[YankeeDoodleDandy]

During my time in China, I have taught two writing courses. In the beginning, spend some time to teach them the writing process. Show them how to make an outline or a bubble map to generate some ideas. Chinese writing stresses balance and harmony. You will see phrases like every coin has two sides, every saw has two blades,different people have different thoughts, ( beliefs,opinions,ideas).Chinese students also have a tendency to use " Proverbs ", that have nothing to do with their writing prompt. Please instruct your students with some modeling and a ton of patience to start answering the question in their first paragraph. Teach them to use other transitional words, instead of firstly, secondly, thirdly etc. This is also a MONUMENTAL task to get them to express their opinion.Have them write every week, collect half of the notebooks each week and make constructive comments in their notebooks. As Lobster said, develop a Rubric for an A,B,C, grade on their writing assignments. I taught a two hour class and I was given credit for teaching four hours, other universities in Anhui either gave you credit for teaching 3 or 4 hours in their two hour class. You can also try Writer's Workshop and peer editing with different colored pens. When you find common mistakes, you can teach a mini-lesson on writing. I used a blue and white textbook entitled " A Handbook of Writing " All the best, YDD

[Jordean]

There seem to be a lot of rubrics available online.

Also you should assign each student a proofreader and let them work out some of the bugs before you have to read the paper. Criticism is also a part of the writing process, so they should work on that too.

[Beyond1984]

"How do I grade their papers?" -chengdu619

For classwork and homework (usually involving writing one or two 4-7 sentence paragraphs,

I go with a check plus (worth 80 points) B
A check (worth 70 points) C
A check minus (worth 60 points) D

A check plus and a check minus cancel each other out.

The midterms are easy to mark "wholistically" - is the paper exceptional? Raise the student with a B average to an A, and so forth.

I show students their grades before the day of the final exam and ask them if they are satisfied or if they want to take the final and try to raise their grades.

-Wen Lin

The average final grade of my classes varies from about 2.6 - 3.1 I stress that A/B are honor grades and reserved for exceptional students. Those who twy twy twy their very best yet make the usual mistakes of an average student get an average grade. Those who never missed a class do not thereby qualify for an honor grade.

[Lobster]

Another thought on this topic. Chinese students need to be taught each component of an essay separately. So, you need classes on "Writing a Title", "Writing a Thesis Statement", "Writing an Introduction", etc.

RED

PS. The textbook "Blueprints" is a very good academic writing text.

[IT2006]

If you teach on the university level, and you see no progress, make your suggestions on the paper and return it to the student ungraded. I taught mid-tier university students who seemed to have no comprehension of the writing process. I just couldn't accept it.

It wasn't an apparent failure to understand the logical progress of the narrative. At first it seemed to be a apparent failure to understand syntax and basic rules of grammar (though when we worked from the workbook, it was obvious that they had an excellent grasp of grammar).

I began making simple (rather than detailed) notes about their writing and returned the paper to the class ungraded. I told the class that no one would receive any grades until the papers improved drastically. In addition, they would continue to rewrite the papers until they got it right.

Furthermore, no one would receive a grade until the essays were intelligible. They became tired of doing the same thing over and over again, so (apparently) they decided to put more effort into their work just so they could go on to something else.

I also changed my tactic. I composed a five paragraph essay and told them that they could use the form as a guide. They could borrow phrases and transitional words freely to help them along.

What made the biggest difference, however, was that I required the class to begin each class with several sentences just telling me about anything. The four or five sentences were returned with responses from me remarking about content rather than mechanics. That made a big difference. Once they understood that I was interested in THEM as much as I was interested in their ability to write, things began to change.

Then, I began assigning writing assignments which spurred their interest. Among them: Write about your happiest day; Write about your saddest day; describe your best friend; Tell me what scares you; What worries you?

These were bright students and above-average speakers. I realized that there was disinterest mixed with a general fear of criticism. As soon as they realized that my mission was not to tear them down and that their mission was to allow me to know them better, the writing improved drastically.

Once I removed the element of criticism (and thus the fear of failure), performance improved tremendously.

I also allowed students to turn in papers late without penalty because some of these students were perfectionists. Though I railed against perfectionism, I allowed the students to work to hone their compositions until they thought that they were passable. NOT ONE student failed to turn in a paper.

The end result? An improved attitude; less reluctance to express themselves in writing; some students expressed the thought that they actually enjoyed the process once the factors of teacher criticism and continual self-censorship were removed from the mix.

I stressed throughout the course that I was not interested in where their abilities lie in the beginning. Rather, I made it very clear that I expected progress throughout the term, and that only two papers would count as major grades. They were encouraged to take risks in their weekly assignments and in their class work.

Students were given a grading rubric in the beginning of class as well as
a general outline of the expectations of the course.

One other thing which I did in class to try to make the class a little more enjoyable was that I encouraged the students to engage in group work in the form of an "Exquisite Corpse". During the impressionism period of European art, artists would fold a piece of paper into four quadrants. The first artist would draw a pictire to the edges of the adjacent two quadrants, but those who followed the previous artist could see only where their lines left off. The next artist would see only one blank quadrant and would have to finish their quadrant based upon the lines that touched the edges of the folded quadrant.

I took this idea and turned it into a writing exercise in which I started several stories, and the students would have to finish them. When one group had finished one paragraph, it would pass it along to the next group. (Of course, the students could read the previous group's paragraph, but the challenge was to make the entire story coherent but with many twists in plot). It was a crazy gamble on my part, but the class enjoyed creating bizarre twists which the next group had to resolve or compound for the next group. The students enjoyed it immensely.

I have done this in two writing classes in two different Chinese schools, and the approach worked.

This may or may not work for everybody (or anybody, for that matter).

These students were actually good speakers but totally unmotivated writers. This worked for me. My assessment of these students was that they could write, but hated the whole headache of writing, especially when their teachers would just shoot them down for making a mistake.

I can't say that this will work for anyone else. All I know is that it worked for my classes.

[chengdu619]

Your replies have been a big help. I think the major issue I am dealing with now is how to develop a rubric that I am comfortable with.I will give students their first out of class writing assignment next week.

One other question. How does everyone calculate final grades. My intention is to give a lot of weight to participation ( which includes homework), maye 50 percent or so. And then have the midterm be 20 percent and the final 30 percent.

[theincredibleegg]

[nobleignoramus]

Bear in mind that they ought to 'know' how to write essays since that is what they have been doing for quite some time -in Chinese. There are some modest differences, though, as pointed out by another poster, as to how they organise their thoughts and express them.
What I have found necessary to stress all the time is that punctuation marks are set differently in English than they are in Chinese. Also Chinese need to learn how to begin a sentence,and how NOT to begin it (with conjunctions, such as'But', or 'And').

I go along especially withthe suggestion of pairing or teaming them up so that every student has at least one proofreader whose mark drops as low as the writer's for every mistake in the writer's essay he or she ignores.

Make it a special point to COUNT THEIR WORDS continuously, and downmark the essay for words in excess of the limit. That will take care of the students' proclivity atrepeating themselves orciting Chinese sayings in English thatmay not shed extra light on their ideas.

[Jayray]

Re: rubrics

If your rubric has an odd number of criteria categories, most of the grades will aggregate toward the center. An even number will tend to divide the class into two main categories: those who meet most of the criteria, and those who meet only half of the criteria.

Yes, I can hear it now... DUH, no spit, Tonto.

How you design your rubric will affect grading and the point spread IF you even use the rubric for determining grades. (There are other uses for rubrics other than determining grades and mean averages). The odd-even categories have their own merits.

[Beyond1984]

"Make it a special point to COUNT THEIR WORDS continuously, and downmark the essay for words in excess of the limit." -Nobleignoramus, italics not in originial

Noble ... stop counting words for a moment! I have good news!

I agree with you and the Bard that "brevity is the soul of wit," but believe it sufficient to count sentences - 4 to 7 per paragraph.

I teach my students to regard words as expensive, and encourage them to use as few as possible in order to develop a concise and powerful style. I show them how too many prepositional phrases can bloat their essays and obscure their ideas.

-Wen Lin

I'm using a text by Behrens and Rosen called A Sequence for Academic Writing, third edition, Pearson Longman. It has almost no useful articles or writing prompts, just the boring rhetoric (How to outline your essay, etc.) Can anyone recommend a better text, preferably published in China (and cheap)?

[mondrian]

word counting? good or bad


If you tell them what you expect (with a 10% leeway), then they should keep to it.
Mark down any papers with less than your required number; discount all repetitions (penalising if necesasry), and point out to them that numbers of words in excess to your requirement will require extra time to compose, be superfluous, and give rise to potential mistakes (which will also be marked down!)