grading method for essays and short anwer
Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 1:52 am
I got this method of grading from my mother who has been teaching Spanish at a community college for over 20 years. I find it very easy and effective at assessing the students' levels.
First read the answer or essay in its entirety.
Here are the rules for both short answer and essays:
Incorrect tense or absent verb = -1 point
Error in spelling, preposition, conjunction, punctuation, etc… = -.25 or LESS
The reason for marking verbs the most valued is because of their importance in the sentence in conveying meaning and because of their difficulty to be learnt correctly.
For the essay:
You must assign a minimum number of words. Say for a minimum 200 word piece, there are then 200 points possible. If the student doesn’t write at least 200 words, then you mark off a point for each word missing.
You then go through the piece, crossing out with a single line, mistakes and writing the correct form above or below the mistake. My mom suggested always rewriting the correction and I agree. It’s clearer for the student and they can easily discern their mistake from your correction.
Afterwards you count up all the incorrect or absent verbs and mark off 1 point for each and then take off partial points for other errors. It is important to note that you don’t take off a lot for these other errors. As I stated earlier, verbs are difficult to learn to use effectively and they hold a lot of importance in conveying the meaning of a sentence. The correction of the other errors is providing the feedback they need to see the mistakes for which small amount deducted shows they are still important.
For the short answer: worth 5 points each
Dictate the questions to the students. They can get up to 2 points for writing the question correctly. The answer, worth up to 3 points, is graded the same as the essay. -1 for incorrect or missing verb, and -.25 or LESS for other errors. If the answer is wrong, it’s wrong and that’s that, 0 out of 3 points.
When you grade the short answer, read it all the way through first and then go back and cross out errors with a single line (red pen) and write the corrected version above it.
I usually do about 5 short answer questions for a quiz off a story or movie. I hold one quiz a week alternating one for grade and one for practice.
I find this an easy and effective way to assess students.
First read the answer or essay in its entirety.
Here are the rules for both short answer and essays:
Incorrect tense or absent verb = -1 point
Error in spelling, preposition, conjunction, punctuation, etc… = -.25 or LESS
The reason for marking verbs the most valued is because of their importance in the sentence in conveying meaning and because of their difficulty to be learnt correctly.
For the essay:
You must assign a minimum number of words. Say for a minimum 200 word piece, there are then 200 points possible. If the student doesn’t write at least 200 words, then you mark off a point for each word missing.
You then go through the piece, crossing out with a single line, mistakes and writing the correct form above or below the mistake. My mom suggested always rewriting the correction and I agree. It’s clearer for the student and they can easily discern their mistake from your correction.
Afterwards you count up all the incorrect or absent verbs and mark off 1 point for each and then take off partial points for other errors. It is important to note that you don’t take off a lot for these other errors. As I stated earlier, verbs are difficult to learn to use effectively and they hold a lot of importance in conveying the meaning of a sentence. The correction of the other errors is providing the feedback they need to see the mistakes for which small amount deducted shows they are still important.
For the short answer: worth 5 points each
Dictate the questions to the students. They can get up to 2 points for writing the question correctly. The answer, worth up to 3 points, is graded the same as the essay. -1 for incorrect or missing verb, and -.25 or LESS for other errors. If the answer is wrong, it’s wrong and that’s that, 0 out of 3 points.
When you grade the short answer, read it all the way through first and then go back and cross out errors with a single line (red pen) and write the corrected version above it.
I usually do about 5 short answer questions for a quiz off a story or movie. I hold one quiz a week alternating one for grade and one for practice.
I find this an easy and effective way to assess students.