Grading Workshop: Using Rubrics/Scoring Guides Lisa Maruca January 12, 2008

No one likes grading, but... “Assessment is a necessary part of learning” –Edward M. White

Fair Play “We need assessment if we are to improve, but we need to have confidence that the assessment is professional, fair, and honest, that is, in sports terms, that the height of the net stays the same.”(White 203)

Consistency “Judgment is tough to do and tough to take, but unless we do it we are not professional …The problem is to find ways of assessing student work that are fair, consistent, public, clear, and responsible—grades that support teaching and learning rather than substitute for them” (White 203).

Discrepancies in Evaluation Lead to: Student confusion Lack of progress Assumptions of professorial arbitrariness Lack of trust in teacher-student relationship All of these undermine student learning.

Why use rubrics? Objectivity Consistency Clarity in creating assignments

Edward White again: “By speaking in a casual and superficial way about its very complex demands, [an] assignment can suggest that an equally casual and superficial response is good enough. Until we attempt to compose a fuller, more detailed writing assignment, and devise a scoring guide for the assignment, its complexities and difficulties are not apparent.”

Why use rubrics? They help students Think more rhetorically Learn to be better peer reviewers Create concrete revision strategies

Why use rubrics? Provide precision in feedback Clarify multi-factored, complex assignments Track specific areas of improvement

Why use rubrics? Easier? Faster?

Types of Rubrics General vs. assignment- specific Numerical rating (1-4, 1-6) vs. larger point scale (50, 100, etc)

6+1 Trait®: Seven “traits” ideas organization voice word choice sentence fluency conventions presentation Five levels: 5 Strong 4 Effective 3 Developing 2 Emerging 1 Not Yet

ENG 1020 Grading Rubric: 1. The "A" paper has an excellent sense of the rhetorical situation. Its aim is clear and consistent throughout the paper. It attends to the needs of its audience and the topic itself is effectively narrowed and clearly defined. 2. The content is appropriately developed for the assignment and rhetorical situation. The supporting details or evidence are convincingly presented. The reasoning is valid and shows an awareness of the complexities of the subject. If secondary sources are used, they are appropriately selected and cited. 3. The organization demonstrates a clear and effective strategy. The introduction establishes the writer's credibility and the conclusion effectively completes the essay: paragraphs are coherent, developed, and show effective structural principles. 4. The expression is very clear, accessible, concrete. It displays ease with idiom and a broad range of diction. It shows facility with a great variety of sentence options and the punctuation and subordinate structures that these require. It has few errors, none of which seriously undermines the effectiveness of the paper for educated readers.

Specific Rubric Excerpt from Rhetorical Analysis Assn. Writer’s Purpose (up to 10 points each) *purpose of the paper is clear and is either explicitly stated (thesis) or implicit *paper content follows from the purpose and does not stray Reader friendly (up to 10 points each) *paper contains enough summary *paper contains enough quotations Rhetorical Analysis (up to 10 points each) *paper analyzes another text, ad or image, and does not just summarize *paper refers to appeals or other ways the source text makes a credible argument

Scoring: Numerical Rating E.g, 4-6 point scale Are easy, fast, and intuitive to use May be associated with grades Can only use a few categories, usually equally weighted

Scoring: Point System E.g., Total Points of 50, 100, 200 May work better with overall grading (papers of different weights) Allows for a lengthier list of expectations Allows for variable weighting of sections Can be more subtle May take more time to score

Effective Rubrics Are concrete Use limited levels of rating (e.g., 1-4, not 1-10) Include limited areas to cover Are possibly created and definitely discussed by students Contain comment sections Are always in process (feedback loop)

What to avoid Being overly vague Being overly detailed Not including rhetorical issues Not responding to content in the margins Using letter grades instead of numbers/points too early in feedback

Creating and Using Rubrics 1.Examine the course outcomes/ learning objectives  to develop analytical and critical strategies for reading complex texts with varied sources of information, multiple perspectives, and complicated arguments  to identify and analyze the structure of analysis and arguments in a variety of texts and media, identifying authors’ claims, evidence, appeals, organization, and style, and evaluating their persuasive effect  to consider the rhetorical situation for any given piece of writing, including audience, purpose, and context  to conduct research by finding and evaluating print and electronic sources, generating information and ideas from research, and synthesizing them with respect to the topic and ideas of the writer  to write effectively in multiple analytical and argumentative genres, generating a clearly defined topic and purpose/thesis, organizing and developing complex content and reasoning, and using standard text conventions for academic writing  to use a flexible writing process that includes generating ideas, writing, revising, providing/responding to feedback in multiple drafts, and editing text and tone for multiple audiences  to make productive use of a varied set of technologies for research and writing

Creating and Using Rubrics 2. Divide outcomes into assignments (expect more with subsequent assignments) Weekly Summaries Literacy Narrative Rhetorical Analysis Argument Academic Analysis

Creating and Using Rubrics 3.List expectations in assignment instructions 4.Use (select) expectations in peer review 5.Use expectations in instructor feedback 6.Use same list to grade papers

Voices against Rubrics  Maja Wilson, Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment  Bob Broad, What We Really Value: Beyond Rubrics in Teaching and Assessing Writing

Selected Bibliography  Broad, Bob. What We Really Value: Beyond Rubrics in Teaching and Assessing Writing. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press: 2003  Crank, Virginia. “Chasing objectivity: How Grading Rubrics Can Provide Consistency and Context.” Journal of Teaching Writing 17.1 (1999):  Goodrich Andrade, H.. “The Effects of Instructional Rubrics on Learning to Write. Current Issues in Education 4:4 (April 17, 2001). January 10,  Ketter, Jean S. “Using rubrics and holistic scoring of writing.” In Stephen Tchudi, (Ed.), Alternatives to Grading Student Writing; Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English:  Simkins, Michael. “ Designing Great Rubrics.” Technology and Learning 20.1 (1999): 23-24,  White, Edward. “Using Scoring Guides to Assess Writing. In Richard Straub, ed., A Sourcebook for Responding to Stuident Writing. New Jersey: Hampton Press,  Wilson, Maja. Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2003.