tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post3788790462443325568..comments2023-06-11T02:19:27.429-07:00Comments on Academic Cog: Grading GuiltSisyphushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09880634753539329199noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-30383201718103779982010-12-16T08:30:19.212-08:002010-12-16T08:30:19.212-08:00...my students producing an essay on, say, the cau...<i>...my students producing an essay on, say, the causes of the civil war, that starts off by asserting a lot of common wisdom that they already knew, never once refers to any of the textbooks, veers off into a discussion of the student's favorite cat and closes by returning to some of the causes introduced in the beginning, but this time directly contradicting the earlier assertions!</i><br /><br />I just read several such "research" papers, and yes, that was painful.<br /><br />To avoid that kind of pain on final exams, I give my students three possible essay questions in advance of the test. I put two of these questions on the test, and the students write in response to one of them. The midterm takes the same form, and I coach them extensively on how to write this kind of essay. The short-form essay, coupled with my expectation that students rely on course readings to provide evidence in support of their arguments, seems to work well for them, and it's much easier for me to grade.<br /><br />I think folks in <i>all</i> disciplines need to take responsibility for showing students how to craft an argument and support it with evidence. When we segregate such training to composition and miscellaneous humanities classes, we're setting our students up for failure--and ourselves for some very painful grading.Leslie M-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02434392840359276805noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-8611858222814163252010-12-03T17:50:44.162-08:002010-12-03T17:50:44.162-08:00Not that it matters, but I've done something s...Not that it matters, but I've done something similar to what Bardiac describes for larger lecture classes and it's worked wonders. Students break into groups and work together to identify a passage (usually from a novel) that they find worthy of a written response (what I call commentaries). <br /><br />Once all groups have selected a passage, each group reads their selected passage to the class as a whole. Then, as a class, after all passages have been read, we discuss some (not all) of the selected passages. In this stage we discuss (1) why the passage would (or would not) generate insightful writing and (2) what that writing might look like on the exam.<br /><br />At the end of class I tell them that one of the student-selected passages will be on the exam (and I always choose one of the passages we didn't have time to discuss (but which we did identify).<br /><br />I imagine you could tweak this to fit the types of stuff your doing in your own classes.<br /><br />Also: NO GUILT ALLOWED (my motto these days).Phttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16625377988852170518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-42105786927714783162010-12-03T12:58:33.156-08:002010-12-03T12:58:33.156-08:00Sapience is right; I get to pick my prompt. Howeve...Sapience is right; I get to pick my prompt. However, I'm worried that while I will get good reflection on their writing process, the essays they write won't have recognizable essay structure, and there is a dept rubric (so, basically enforcing the 5-paragraph essay, I feel). So I've decided to pull an article off the internet roughly related to some of our readings.Sisyphushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09880634753539329199noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-45853643304687571152010-12-03T04:37:24.857-08:002010-12-03T04:37:24.857-08:00Oh, I LIKE Sapience's idea!Oh, I LIKE Sapience's idea!Bardiachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-66000530305055714312010-12-02T20:50:06.558-08:002010-12-02T20:50:06.558-08:00It sounds like you get to write your own final exa...It sounds like you get to write your own final exam? If that's the case, can you turn the final into something resembling a mini portfolio project? For example, they are required to bring in their last graded paper to the final exam, choose a section that works and explain why, and choose a section that they think should be revised and explain how they would revise it.Sapiencehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09259871146375570988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-61988201521230324712010-12-02T18:59:50.119-08:002010-12-02T18:59:50.119-08:00Will there be a specific departmental prompt given...Will there be a specific departmental prompt given the day the essay's written, or is there one given ahead of time?<br /><br />If the former, I would spend time in class brainstorming possible exam questions (which they should do before exams in general), and then doing some brainstorming about how they might answer one or another of those questions.<br /><br />If they get the question ahead of time, then I'd recommend that they do a bubble map or something ahead of time.Bardiachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.com