1. The purposes of grading student work
Emily Marshman
dB-SERC lunch discussion

2. In your view, what is the purpose of grading students’ work?
What would you like your students to do with their graded work that has been returned to them?
What do you think most of them actually do with their returned graded work?
In what types of situations should students be graded (e.g., exam, quiz, etc.)?
Does grading serve the same purposes for these situations?
Discuss with a person next to you, and then we’ll share some ideas (2-3 mins?)

3. Purposes of grading … Helps students Helps instructors Learn content
Develop problem-solving skills
Develop expertise in a domain …
Helps instructors
Give a final score / rank students
Identify areas of understanding and difficulties
I can add more of what the faculty members say
Give feedback to students (don’t necessarily learn from their mistakes, study on whether they actually do it) / get feedback for myself and how to teach better (do you use it? How often do you reflect? Do you need to do it more?)

4. Grading something that involves showing work
I’ll just talk about it
Showing work – both got right answer – would you give the same points? discuss

5. Grading send messages to students
What is important?
Process?
Final answer?
Checking work?
Etc.
Be transparent about your requirements
students should explicitly know learning goals & grading criteria
Am I smart enough to succeed?
Test averages should be C before curving
Low performance is demoralizing for students, despite a curve
30-40 average is threatening / shocking to students
Encourage a “Growth mindset”
Students should view their graded assignments as opportunities for learning and that their intelligence is “malleable”
Besides just a final score, as you might have seen when grading the two solutions, grading sends messages to students
What’s the impact of your test in that the average is a D? self-efficacy
Studied hard and obtained average on exam – hurts motivation
Reflects badly on the instructor not students

6. Types of assessments
Summative assessment - measure the extent to which students have learned and whether the goals of the course have been met (nothing more)
Formative assessment - obtain feedback on students’ understanding to allow instructor and students to address student difficulties
Assignments, quizzes, and even exams can be thought of as a learning opportunity
Grading in the spirit of formative assessment
What feedback should I give to students?
What can I use from students’ graded work to improve teaching / learning?
Since grading is very important in motivating students, it is important to think about the types of things we grade and what the purposes are
What you grade on reflect your learning goals – students learn what they are graded on
Embedded throughout course, low-stakes, convey info to students about what is required and lets you know where they are understanding / struggling – coaching and feedback – piano analogy – productive struggle
Bloom’s taxonomy?

7. Bloom’s Taxonomy (http://ar.cetl.hku.hk/bloom.htm)
Formative assessments can communicate to students what we expect and the level of understanding that is required – is that level knowledge / comprehension (low level, e.g., definition of acceleration) or is it application (calculate acceleration in a 2D system)? Is it synthesis (e.g., use acceleration to determine force or speed, multiple concepts)? What do you expect them to be able to do?

8. Low-stakes grading
Formative assessments should be low-stakes in that they occur frequently but only count for a small portion of a student’s final grade
These could include, e.g.,
Minute papers
Just-in-time teaching
think-pair-share, clicker questions
Interactive lecture demonstrations
collaborative learning
Tutorial worksheets/POGIL (process oriented guided inquiry learning)
Concept maps
Peer review
What kind of formative assessments do you use in your own class?
Are there any other formative assessments you use in your own classes?

9. Grading rubrics
Scoring tools which outline the performance expectations for an assignment.
divide a problem into various parts and provide descriptions of how scores should be allocated for varying levels of mastery.
Concrete grading criteria and reasons for scores are crucial
How often do you use grading rubrics in your own class? What are the advantages of using a grading rubric?
Advantages
Incentivizes the use of effective approaches to the in the present assignment and in future assignments (Reif)
Instructors can obtain a clearer picture of what aspects are difficult for students
Students obtain a clearer picture of what aspects they are struggling with / what they have mastered
Consistent grading standard – ensure fairness
Grading rubrics can be used for less frequent, more “high-stakes” assignments
Grading rubrics focus on foundational things
Transition to next slide : you might not be the only person who grades student work for your course – TAs are often responsible for grading students’ work – what are their grading approaches??

10. Teaching Assistants’ grading practices
Make a prediction about how you think the TAs graded these two solutions.
you might not be the only person who grades student work for your course – TAs are often responsible for grading students’ work – what are their grading approaches??

11. TAs’ grading practice TAs say that they grade for
the benefit of the student (to learn from their mistakes)
the benefit of instructor (to understand student difficulties).
Quiz Context:
More TAs grade the brief solution higher than the elaborated solution
<brief solution >=8.3
<elaborated solution>=7.1
HW Context:
Majority grade the brief solution higher than the elaborated solution
<brief solution>=7.1
<elaborated solution>=6.7
Important to have discussions with your TAs about the purposes of grading / summative vs. formative assessments / what do you value and what should they grade on?
TAs generally graded on:
Explicit mistakes in physics or algebra
Correctness of final answer

12. dbserc.pitt.edu Assessments resources
Grading may sometimes be frustrating, but it is an important way to send consistent messages (both about learning content and motivation)
what you value / what you expect from them
Think of your assessments as formative in nature – something to learn from and improve upon (not just using a rubric for fairness, but also for giving/receiving formative feedback)
Have discussions with your TAs about how they should be grading student work (They often think about grading in terms of a summative view)
dbserc.pitt.edu
Assessments
resources