TA Marking1 Grading handbook This is an excellent resource from the University of Maryland. Download it from: Marking for TA’s A copy of today’s PowerPoint is on our CTL website.

TA Marking2 Marking for TA’s

TA Marking - John Parry - UBCO -CTL3 The Guardian

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 One of your assignments this semester is to mark student work.  You have been handed a stack of 100 papers.  What information do you need to know before you can begin? TA Marking5 FCSI.WS

TA Marking6 What do you need to discuss with your supervisor?

TA Marking Develop a plan! Supervisors and TA marking colleagues, discuss the following: What should we communicate to the students prior to submission? What are the objectives of the assignment? What should we look for in order to evaluate the essays? What constitutes an excellent, good, adequate, or poor paper? What should we include in our comments? How can we manage our time? How long should we spend on marking? unitymanagement

Discuss the following with your supervisor: Clarify the relative weighting of content, expression, format, grammar, etc. TA Marking8

Discuss the following with your supervisor: Clarify the relative weighting of content, expression, format, grammar, etc. Share sample essays to calibrate your marking: have each marker read essays to locate excellent, good, average, and poor. Share these and discuss. Develop a set of attributes tied to each of the letter grades. TA Marking9

 Stress expectations and university standards.  Include detailed formatting expectations.  Identify the required documentation style.  Clarify precise expectations related to submission.  Discuss plagiarism, how to avoid it, consequences, and process.  Double spaced ?  Binders ? TA Marking10

TA Marking11 SWBAT …

 Consider using letters (tied to UBC numbers) rather than numbers. Sometimes numbers communicate quality (A=excellent), and quality is what you are looking for. A+ 90 – 100B+ 76 – 79 A 85 – 89B A TA Marking12

TA Marking13 What does a good paper look like? Average? Failing paper?

TA Marking14 Sites.fcps.org

TA Marking15 Style Complexity

TA Marking16 How much commenting should I do?

 Comments that run through the paper should help the student understand what they are doing wrong or incorrectly as well as what they are doing well or right.  These comments help the student understand the grade. TA Marking17

TA Marking18 A marking sheet helps reduce the amount of writing you have to do!

TA Marking19 A marking sheet helps reduce the amount of writing you have to do! Your final, summative comments should help the student understand why his or her paper deserved the mark it received.

TA Marking20 A marking sheet helps reduce the amount of writing you have to do! Your final, summative comments should help the student understand why his or her paper deserved the mark it received. Include what he or she did right and what he or she should do to improve on the next assignment.

TA Marking21 A marking sheet helps reduce the amount of writing you have to do! Your final, summative comments should help the student understand why his or her paper deserved the mark it received. Include what he or she did right and what he or she should do to improve on the next assignment. End on a positive note (“I’m looking forward to reading your next paper.”)

Marking sheets and grade descriptions  To identify standards, objectives, and expectations for students (and markers!).  Consider providing students with self review sheets that correlate to the assignment and the marking sheets. TA Marking22 sd23

TA Marking23 Calibration meetings: Before marking, to discuss assignment and expectations. Early in marking, to recalibrate based on sample papers. After marking, to compare experience and discuss difficult or special cases. Seton.com

 If you suspect plagiarism or cheating …  Any papers that raise concerns related to academic integrity must be returned immediately to the instructor. TA Marking24

 If you feel that you are being bribed notify the instructor and clarify the issue with the student.  If you sense that a student is depressed or anxious notify the instructor, your unit’s administrative assistant, the Health and Wellness Centre ( wellness/welcome.html). TA Marking25

TA Marking26 Always discuss in private Be prepared to explain criteria If you have made an error, correct it Explain that the student should consult further with the professor

TA Marking27 This is his first semester at A&M, and Jeff is used to getting “A’s” in high school. He has just received his first “C” ever on the midterm in the course you are grading. He has ed saying the test was unfair and asked to meet with you. What do you do?

Careful planning and assignment design can help students, streamline marking, ensure fairness and accuracy, and reduce questions and queries. TA Marking28

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TA Marking30 Grading Resources Walvoord & Anderson (2009) 2 nd ed. Effective Grading: A Tool for Learning and Assessment. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass (1998) IDEA papers: resources/knowledge-base/idea- paper resources/knowledge-base/idea- paper Improving College Grading: Nilson, Linda. B. (2003) Grading: Tests, Assignments, and Course Performance. In Teaching at its best: A research-based resource for college instructors. 2 nd ed. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing p Edwards, N.M. (2007). Student self-grading in social statistics. College Teaching, v 55, no. 2, p Landrum & Dietz (2006) Grading without points. College Teaching, v 54, no. 4, p

TA Marking31 Comments en.hdyo.org