Transcript Political Science Advanced GTA Training

Political Science Advanced
GTA Training
Sue Doe
Assistant Professor, English
gtPathways Coordinator
[email protected]
Grading For What Matters—
Purposes of Assignments
What is the TASK being required by the assignment—to inform, to
explore, to convince, to describe, to compare, to summarize, to
persuade? Find the VERB or VERBS and you’ll know the task.
Is this
• a thesis-provided paper for which students must defend of refute?
• a problem-solution paper in which students are given a problem or
question that demands a thesis and support? Is
• a data-provided paper for which students are expected to analyze
and explain?
• a genre-provided paper, in which students are expected to follow
an organizational structure or format in an accepted form, such as a
memo, case study, lab report, or executive summary?
• write-to-learn or write-to-engage writing for which students are
expected to explore and/or develop their thinking rather than to
produce a polished paper?
• an in-class essay, reflecting comprehension of course material?
Holistic Scoring
The Assignment: POLS 101 American
Government and Politics
With Thanks to Professor Sandra Davis and
Her Students Who Generously Shared Their
Work With Us
The Assignment
POLS 101 American Government and
Politics
Your assignment is to write an essay supporting or opposing the use of the
Electoral College as a means of electing the president. Use only the
materials listed here and posted on RamCT: AMODD, ELAT, and LWV.
Essay Components:
1) Introduction and Background—introduce the issue, explain how the E.C.
works to elect the president, discuss a variety of historic challenges to the
E.C. and whether you think the process worked well or poorly in 2000.
2) State whether the E.C. should be abolished or kept and provide 3-4
reasons why.
3) Support each reason with at least one paragraph of evidence backing your
view. Use sources and distinguish these from your own views.
4) Provide a reference list.
5) Paper should be 3-4 pages but no longer than 4 pages. (Graders stop
reading if paper is over 4 pages.)
6) Students are instructed in assignment sheet: “ You should roughly cover
15-20 points per page.”
Reference List
students are instructed to NOT USE quotations
but to parenthetically cite if paraphrasing
• AMODD
– Sidlow, E. and B. Henchen. (2008). America at odds. 6th Ed.
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
• ELAT
– FEC National Clearinghouse on Election Administration. (2003).
The pros and cons of the Electoral College System. Retrieved
March 25, 2008 from
http://uselectionatlas.com/INFORMATION/INFOMRATION/electc
ollege.procon
• LWV
– League of Women Voters of California Education Fund,
Choosing the President (1992). The Electoral College. Retrieved
March 25, 2008, from
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/case/3pt/electoral.html
Additional Advice Given Students
• You are asked to make a persuasive argument
in writing. You should try to convince a reader of
your opinion. State you position on the
proposed amendment, including the reasons for
your opinion. This is often done in one or a few
sentences that summarize the argument you will
make in the rest of the essay.
• A thesis statement 1) tells the reader whether
you oppose the proposed constitutional
amendment; 2)is a road map for the paper; it
tells readers what arguments will follow; 3)
makes a claim that others might dispute
Holistic Process
• In groups of three, do a “read-around” of
the set of three papers you now have. Sort
High, Medium, and Low.
• Before you begin reading the sample
papers, read through the Holistic Scoring
Rubric for a Thesis-Restricted Paper.
Hierarchy of Rhetorical Concerns
Audience, Purpose, Occasion
Focus: Thesis, Reasons, Unity/Coherence
Development: Reasons, Evidence, Explanation
Style/Mechanics/Conventions: Readability, Care
and Polish, Patterns of Error
Sort, Read, and Comment
(or Stop, Drop, and Roll)
You would apply the same strategy if you had a set of
papers here. You would skim through the set of
papers. While this sounds like a time-consuming extra
step, it actually saves you time in the long run.
Here’s what you might do if you had that stack:
– Sort into three stacks—high, medium, low
– If possible, stack within categories (High + and High -) so that
you have 6 stacks
– Read with hierarchy of concerns in mind
– Provide an end comment that is forward-looking and focused
– Substantiate end comment with a few marginal comments
Analytic Criteria
Use a scoring tool to assist with
grading
Consider Three Approaches
1) standard rubric
2) benchmark and anchor papers
3) continuum approach
Approach #1: Standard Rubric as
Scoring Tool
Component Parts
• Assignment itself
• Dimensions/priorities/criteria
• Scale with levels of achievement. Levels
can be continuums or reflect categories
such as “proficient,” “competent,” “needs
work.” These need not be points.
• Specific commenting room/space
Standard Rubric for Summary & Response Assignment
Dimension
Excellent
Competent
Needs Work
Clarity and
accuracy of article
summary
Focus of
response
Development,
Organization &
Coherence of
Response
Readability,
Mechanics,
Source Citation
Grade:
Steps for Creating Standard Rubrics or
Scoring Sheets
• List key elements/features to assess, based on
course and assignment objectives
• Refine and simplify key elements, then consider
their relative importance or weight
• Do a common sense check to see if weighting of
criteria is meaningful. Avoid points. Percentages
are better but keep them broad. Too much
refinement can lead to “grade-grubbing.”
• Decide if you’ll give feedback on all criteria, on
certain ones, or only in an end comment
• Make clear where the overall grade appears
Approach 2:
Benchmark and Anchor Papers
Consider writing a paragraph that explains what’s necessary for a
C paper for this assignment. In other words, what MUST a
paper accomplish to be deemed “adequate”?
Then write a paragraph explaining how the B paper improves upon
the C. (The B paper does everything the C paper does but goes
further to…)
Then write a paragraph explaining how the A improves upon the B.
(The A paper does everything the B paper does but goes further
to …)
It can be useful to distribute or post this explanation
Remember: you are only assigning a grade; students earn those
grades. You do not GIVE grades. They do not GET grades.
Consider using a 24-hour moratorium and a conference plan for
grade protests.
Approach 3: The Continuum
Approach
Once you have determined the most important aspects or
criteria for grading, consider using a continuum to
describe where the student is in their application of this
criteria. This avoids the oft-times awkward approach of
assigning points with criteria-based evaluation.
Example (criteria 3) from the Washington State U “Critical
Thinking Guide”:
Identifies and considers salient perspectives and positions
important to the issue’s analysis
Scant
Substantial
----------------------------------------------------------------
Grading Criteria Listed on the
POLS 101 Assignment Sheet
1) Clarity of argument and organization
2) Quality of analysis. You need to make
your position on the issue clear. Provide
arguments that are supported by
information (i.e., evidence)
3) Quality of writing. Your ideas need to be
clearly expressed. This includes proper
spelling, grammar, expression of ideas,
and citation of sources
Critical Thinking Rubric
Source: Washington State University
http://tilt.colostate.edu/summer/2008/pdfs/W
ashington%20State%20Critical%20Thinkin
g%20Guide.pdf
Managing Your Time Through a 3Part End Comment
1. Sum up the strengths of the paper
2. Identify the main problems to be worked on
3. Provide a specific suggestion for how to improve the
paper, based on the main problem(s) already identified
And Remember:
• You can’t respond to everything in a paper.
• There are real people on the receiving end.
• Comments are not principally for “justifying” a grade.
Your are providing formative feedback students can
use with the next paper, even if it’s not in this class.
• Consider using questions in your marginal comments.
Peer Review of Comments
1. Identify the major strength your partner noted in this paper. What locations
did the GTA point out to substantiate this claim of strength?
How accurate do you believe this evaluation is?
2. Identify the guidance or advice your partner noted as a central concern in
this paper. What locations did your partner identify to substantiate the
claim of “needs improvement”
How accurate do you believe this evaluation is?
3. Identify the concrete suggestion for improvement that your partner noted.
Would an undergraduate understand this advice and be able to follow it?
How accurate do you believe this advice is?
4. Characterize the tone/attitude of feedback your partner has provided. Could
it be improved and if so, how?
5. Are your partner’s comments forward-looking and formative in nature or do
the comments seem defensive, as if justifying the grade?
Reminder: You Are Managing Your Time By
Choosing Your Battles—hierarchy,
hierarchy, hierarchy!
•
•
•
•
Apply minimal marking technique
Avoid becoming your students’ copy editor as that is NOT your job and error
correction is not instructional. Remember you are part of the instructional
team, not an editor.
To instruct students on grammar issues, look for patterns of error or try to
characterize error if you feel it is impeding the student’s message. Work
with a Top 5 list of errors.
Severe cases should represent <2% of papers. For these, you will need
additional support.
– Non native speaker/writer issues: tenses, dropped articles, strings of sentences
arranged the same
– Learning Disabilities: misspellings even with spell check, omitted words,
homonyms
•
Carelessness: Consider a “return to sender” policy on first occasion or the
“R” grade. Must be approved by professor and not all will believe this is a
good idea.
Revision Processes and Strategies
for GTA Intervention
Early, mid and late interventions
•
Early
–
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–
•
Topic proposal (subject, topic, issue, question)
Research question + tentative thesis
Seminal source description
Mid
–
–
–
–
–
•
Annotated bibliography (text partners) or source evaluation
Summary and response to one source
Quote and paraphrase sheet for one source
Introduction review, especially if multiple sources. Use “templates”
for entering conversation
Prospectus in full sentences (one page)
Late
–
–
–
Full draft workshop on one paper
Full draft peer review on all papers
Conference—writers talk about the draft they bring and revision plan
Responding to WTL/WTE and
Threaded Electronic Discussions (aka
Discussion Forums)
•
If being used, you have basic decisions to make/discuss with prof
about how to read and assess
–
–
–
•
Will you skim every entry and give whole-class feedback?
Will you read a random sample/scheduled group and give feedback to
sample?
Will you decide in advance how many times over semester you will
read and respond to each student?
Then generate accountability
–
–
–
–
–
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Select good examples to show as models
Use a check mark system for recording—participation?
Observe length of responses
Provide prof with your observations to share with whole class
Discourage “texting” shortcuts in posts and for in-class writing
Expect and enforce a standard of courtesy and academic
professionalism. Contact people on first evidence of discourteous
shared writing. Be prepared for “confessions” of adolescent behavior