Everyone can judge right and wrong answers, but great teachers can grade a paper in a way that encourages students who need this passion and lets them know they can do better. As the great poet and teacher Taylor Mali put it: “I can make C+ feel like a Congressional Medal of Honor and I can make A- feel like a slap in the face.”
Step
Part 1 of 3: Checking the Essay
Step 1. Learn the difference between major and minor mistakes
Sometimes called “higher” and “lower” tiered problems, it is important to prioritize big issues like content, creative thinking, and organization over small issues like grammar, usage, and spelling.
This provision of course depends on many things, such as assignments, student grade levels, and their individual problems. If you're in the chapter on using commas, it's completely fine to designate that as a "higher" grade issue. But in general, basic writing tasks should prioritize the higher-level problems described above
Step 2. Read the paper in its entirety once without marking anything
When you have 50 or 100 papers to review and another pile of quizzes to complete and lessons to plan, it can be tempting to just give them all B's. Resist the temptation. Read each essay individually before marking anything. Check the highest level issues first:
- Do students answer questions and complete assignments effectively?
- Do students think creatively?
- Does the student state his argument or thesis clearly?
- Was the thesis well developed throughout the assignment?
- Did the author provide evidence?
- Does the paper show signs of organization and revision, or does it look like a first draft?
Step 3. Keep the red pen on your desk
Regaining an assignment that looked as if someone was bleeding on it can be a source of great anxiety in a student's life. Some teachers argue that the color red represents authority. While that may be true, there are other ways to express authority than with pen color.
Marking an essay with a pencil can be a suggestion that mistakes can be easily corrected, thus keeping students looking ahead, rather than dwelling on their successes or failures. Pencils, blue pens, or black pens are completely acceptable
Step 4. Read the paper thoroughly once again with pencil ready in hand
Write comments, criticisms, and questions in the margins of the page as neatly as possible. Find the parts that the author needs to clarify and circle or underline.
Be as specific as possible when asking questions. "What?" not a very helpful question to write in the margins of the page, as opposed to “What do you mean by ‘some societies’?”
Step 5. Check for usage issues and other low-level issues
After you have finished reviewing the most important issues of the essay, in terms of its content, please rate some of the lower-level issues, such as usage, grammar, and punctuation. Depending on the grade level of the essay and the student's level of ability, this may be important. Common minor problem correction signs include the following:
- = to start a new paragraph
- three underscores in a letter = for lowercase or uppercase
- "sp" = word not spelled correctly
- word crossed out with small "pigtail" on top = word needs to be deleted
- Some teachers use the first page as a rule of thumb to mark later problems. If there is a problem at the sentence level, mark it on the first page, then unmark it again throughout the essay, especially if the assignment requires a lot of revision.
Part 2 of 3: Writing Effective Comments
Step 1. Write no more than one comment per paragraph and a note at the end
The purpose of the comments is to point out the strengths and weaknesses of students' writing and offer concrete strategies for improving their work. Completely destroying a failed paragraph with a red pen will accomplish neither of these goals.
- Use the comments at the margins to indicate specific points or sections in the student essay that could be improved.
- Use the paragraph notes at the end to summarize your comments and point to improvement.
- Comments should not explain letter values. Never start a note with, “You got a C because…”. It is not your job to defend the values you provide. Instead, use comments to review revisions and subsequent assignments, rather than looking back on the success or failure of the current assignment.
Step 2. Find something to compliment
Try to start the comment by finding something the student has done well and encouraging it. Seeing an exclamation mark or “Good job” on an essay tends to impress students more, and ensures they will repeat the same behavior.
If you're having trouble finding compliments, you can always compliment their choice of topic: “This is an important topic! A good choice!"
Step 3. List the three main issues regarding repairs in your notes
Even if a student writes a really bad paper, don't shower them with all the things that need improvement. Try to focus on no more than three main areas of improvement in your comments. This will give students real strategies for improvement, and avoid showering them with “failures.”
When you are reading an entire paper for the first time, try to define three possible points as you review the paper and write comments
Step 4. Encourage students to revise
Instead of focusing comments on everything that went wrong in the essay, direct the comments to the next essay, or to the rewriting of the current essay, if it fits the requirements of the assignment.
"On your next assignment, make sure you organize your paragraphs according to your arguments" is a better comment than "Your paragraphs are messed up."
Part 3 of 3: Assessing Letters
Step 1. Use the grading table and let the students see it
Scoring tables are used to assign numerical values to the various criteria used to create letter grades, usually on a scale of 100. To get letter grades, you assign a numerical value to each section and calculate the score. Showing students the use of grading tables will keep the grading process transparent and eliminate the idea that you're just making up grades without a source. A rating table, for example, might look like this:
- Theses and arguments: _/40
- Organization and paragraphs: _/30
- Introduction and conclusion: _/10
- Grammar, usage and spelling: _/10
- Source and quote: _/10
Step 2. Know or make a description of each letter value
Show students a description of the meaning of grades A, B, and so on. Write your own based on your own specific criteria and emphasis for the class. Share with students so they can interpret the grades they receive. This is a fairly standard provision, often written like this:
- A (100-90): The work meets all the requirements of the assignment in an original and creative way. Work at this level goes beyond the basic guide of assignments, showing that students take extra initiative in shaping content, organization, and style in an original and creative way.
- B (89-80): The work meets all the requirements of the assignment. Works at this level are successful in terms of content, but may require improvement in organization and style, possibly requiring minor revision. A grade of B indicates the author's less original thought and creativity than a work graded A.
- C (79-70): The work meets most of the assignment requirements. Although the content, organization and style are logical and coherent, this work may require some revisions and may not reflect the author's high level of originality and creativity.
- D (69-60): The work does not or does not meet the requirements of the assignment. Works at this level require many revisions, and fail widely in terms of content, organization, and style.
- F (Below 60): The work does not meet the requirements of the assignment. In general, students who put in a lot of effort won't get an F. If you get an F on any assignment (especially if you feel that you're doing your best), you should talk to me in private.
Step 3. Make grades the last thing students see
Put the grade at the very end of the paper, after they have seen your rating table and comments. Writing a capitalized grade at the top near the title will ensure that students are less likely to check and read all the witty and helpful comments you have written.
Some teachers like to hand out papers at the end of class for fear that they will discourage or distract students during the lesson. Consider giving students time to review papers in class and to spend time talking about their grades afterward. This will ensure they read and understand your comments
Tips
- Avoid distractions. It might seem like a good idea to rate papers while watching Jeopardy, but it will end up consuming more time. Set reasonable goals, like grading ten papers tonight, then stop when you're done and relax.
- Share the grading process and don't try to grade all papers at once. Your comments will become shorter and shorter and you may start skipping or repeating things.
- Don't have a favorite student. Judge everyone fairly.
- Check for more than just grammar. Check the concept, plot, climax, and most importantly…make sure the paper has a beginning (an introduction that caught your attention), a middle (three reasons each with three supporting details), and an ending (summary of what the paper covered, good ending to make the reader remember the story).
