trying to grade
Grading.
What a chore.
I find that I comment too much on the final paper. It's too late! In a higher-level course, where the final draft is all I see, that might work, but in 101 it's assumed that I've seen one or two drafts already.
Taking that into account, I graded too leniently. I should have taken more points off instead of writing more comments. Not that commenting is bad, but it takes up too much time. If I had 25 papers (instead of 3) this would have taken me all day.
Is it fair to go back and change a grade on some of the first papers based on later papers (from the same assignment, from different students)? I gave the first paper I read a B+, and then wished I had graded it lower so I could have given the next one a B. Instead, I unknowingly forced myself to grade poor works higher only because I started grading too high. If I'd actually seen a draft, though, I think I'd have had a better idea of the first student's work and wouldn't have graded too high (or would have kept the grade for different reasons- e.g. a lot of work put in, much improvement). I would also have had a good perspective on the class as a whole.
I found myself going back over the papers in the morning and adding more comments. I wonder if this is common, or if teachers usually comment and then set the papers aside for good.
I would like to know how my grades compared to the grades other TAs gave to the same paper, and how they compare to the grades I'll give a few years down the road.
Not having seen a draft, I really didn't notice anything about the students' writing processes.
The papers were better than I expected. There were some grammar problems, but most of the problems I noticed had to do with word choice. I tried to focus more on content than mechanics (which was difficult for me, since I'm distracted by bad grammar and punctuation).
The second paper- the one with hyper-thesaurism - was a problem for me. I felt that the student had great potential as a writer, but needed to watch her word choice. Submissive mocha? Arousing latte? Her paper read like a really weird porn script.
Coffee-house porn. Interesting. Perhaps a new genre.
Anyway, my comment was basically what I said above, plus I wrote that I wouldn't accept another assignment from her until she came to see me. Was that OK to do?
If I keep telling kids to come see me about every essay, I'll be swamped.
What a chore.
I find that I comment too much on the final paper. It's too late! In a higher-level course, where the final draft is all I see, that might work, but in 101 it's assumed that I've seen one or two drafts already.
Taking that into account, I graded too leniently. I should have taken more points off instead of writing more comments. Not that commenting is bad, but it takes up too much time. If I had 25 papers (instead of 3) this would have taken me all day.
Is it fair to go back and change a grade on some of the first papers based on later papers (from the same assignment, from different students)? I gave the first paper I read a B+, and then wished I had graded it lower so I could have given the next one a B. Instead, I unknowingly forced myself to grade poor works higher only because I started grading too high. If I'd actually seen a draft, though, I think I'd have had a better idea of the first student's work and wouldn't have graded too high (or would have kept the grade for different reasons- e.g. a lot of work put in, much improvement). I would also have had a good perspective on the class as a whole.
I found myself going back over the papers in the morning and adding more comments. I wonder if this is common, or if teachers usually comment and then set the papers aside for good.
I would like to know how my grades compared to the grades other TAs gave to the same paper, and how they compare to the grades I'll give a few years down the road.
Not having seen a draft, I really didn't notice anything about the students' writing processes.
The papers were better than I expected. There were some grammar problems, but most of the problems I noticed had to do with word choice. I tried to focus more on content than mechanics (which was difficult for me, since I'm distracted by bad grammar and punctuation).
The second paper- the one with hyper-thesaurism - was a problem for me. I felt that the student had great potential as a writer, but needed to watch her word choice. Submissive mocha? Arousing latte? Her paper read like a really weird porn script.
Coffee-house porn. Interesting. Perhaps a new genre.
Anyway, my comment was basically what I said above, plus I wrote that I wouldn't accept another assignment from her until she came to see me. Was that OK to do?
If I keep telling kids to come see me about every essay, I'll be swamped.
posted by Liz at
9:20 AM
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