Transcript Reasonable Responses to Error

Reasonable Responses to Error
Josh Edler, Psychology
Sue Doe, Engligh
DID YOU NOTICE THE ERROR IN THE
TITLE SLIDE?
Why Care About Grading
• Grading takes up so much of our time:
– Last semester, JE spent 60+ hours grading papers.
– More efficient practices means less time grading (e.g. different grading
techniques cut grading time in half; Boss R., 1988).
• There are other people on the end of this process that care about
our feedback and timeliness.
Sample Grading
• We are going to distribute a sample of student writing.
• For the next 10 minutes, we would like for you to read and
comment on this paper.
• Assignment: In an academic paper with your instructor as
reader, evaluate the psychological claim in the assigned
article:
--Identify and describe the psychological claim in a
brief introduction
--Justify your evaluation criteria
--Apply the evaluation criteria to the article
--Judge the claim based on your evaluation
How many of your comments look like
the following?
The Reflexive Grader
• Why Not Grade on the Little Things?
– Little Things (typos, grammar, verb/noun agreement) are tedious and
hard to catch.
– To actually benefit a student and change their mistakes on little issues
requires a very complicated intervention called Error-Pattern Analysis
– All the “rules” that we have internalized as correct and proper are not
as concrete as we might think.
What is wrong with this picture?
In the olde dayes of the Kyng Arthour,
Of which that Britons speken greet honour,
In the old days of the King Arthur,
Of which Britons spoke of great honor,
Did you know!
Old Middle English originally had complex verb
endings for both gender (masculine, feminine, and
neutral) and for number!
Present Singular
Present Plural
Present Singular
Present Plural
ic cysse
thu cyssest
he cysseth
we cyssath
I kiss
You kiss
He kiss
We kiss
Other Considerations
Language is fluid and evolving. Rules with language are
hardly stable.
– Consider conventions associated with source citation
– Consider the dwindling use of the comma
– Consider RECENT use of the male pronoun as universal
signifier
– Consider the ease with which we forgive error among the
published, though not among the students
What Should We Grade on?
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
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.
Review the assignment:
In an academic paper with your instructor as reader, EVALUATE
the psychological claim made in the article you read:
--Identify and describe the psychological claim in a
brief introduction
--Justify your evaluation criteria
--Apply the evaluation criteria to the article
--Judge the claim based on your evaluation
Revise Feedback on Sample Paper—for
an additional 5 min
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Where does the writer stay on task?
Where does the writer deviate?
What’s the most important advice?
Where is the student doing something well?
Write an end and a few marginal comments
Read Around of Comments—
Comments are writing! When commenting,
YOU are the writer!
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Consider audience/purpose of comments
Consider space for commenting—end and
margins
Consider presence/absence of concrete
suggestions
Consider recognition of strengths
Consider tone of the comments
Consider whether comments are forwardlooking
GREAT EXAMPLES OF FEEDBACK?
Basic Principles of Commenting
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Comments are “formative”
Remember the reader at the other end of comments
Remember you have END and MARGINAL space
Focus on the most important advice
Ask questions and offer reader-response comments vs. “diagnostic”
comments on observed deficiencies
Play the believing game and find a positive but don’t mislead
Use a 3-part end comment
Explain how weaknesses relate to one another
Do a common sense check: Make sure grade and evaluation criteria
are connected and accurately reflected in your comments . .
Things to Remember
• The writing process does not end when we put a grade on the paper.
• While focusing on the local errors of a paper is natural, it is often less
beneficial for the student and more time consuming! If you must
address error, address it as pattern of error so that students learn.
• Your style of writing is not necessarily the student’s. Let students
maintain ownership of their writing by NOT writing for them.
• Be maximally instructive: consider where the student is before
engaging in line edits. (Capstone course and thesis advisors and may
need to line edit final products; otherwise focus on higher concerns)
• Your service when grading is critical and INSTRUCTIVE; don’t take
your eye off the ball—the central task which is educating.
• Becoming better commenters/graders can improve your writing!
Commenting Advice
“The best kind of commentary enhances the
writer’s feeling of dignity. The worst kind can
be dehumanizing and insulting—often to the
bewilderment of the teacher whose intentions
were kindly but whose techniques ignored the
personal dimension of writing.”
--John Bean
• Recommended additional info
http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/teaching/commenting/index.cfm
Questions and Comments