syllabus
calendar
blackboard
student.email resources

last.updated 8.7.09

 

Evaluation Simulation

Purpose

All of you will reach this point of the semester with different levels of experience at evaluating student work. Yet, like death and taxes, evaluating student writing is an unavoidable practice for writing instructors. Furthermore, it is the one practice that is probably most scrutinized by your students and various institutional administrators. Therefore, you need to be comfortable with the practice and be able to justify any evaluation you give and comments you make. This in-class assignment will give you the opportunity to practice evaluating a piece of student writing and justify your practices.

Instructions

On November 30, 2009 at the beginning of class, the instructor will hand you an assignment sheet and sample student essay that responds to this assignment sheet. You will then be given 60 minutes to evaluate the paper and write a 750-1000 word justification of your evaluation. Treat the paper as if it is the final draft of the third paper of four in a first semester composition course. This rationale should be both theoretical and administrative. Thus citing sources with just in-text references is required.

To prepare for this assignment, you should review and organize your readings and notes on evaluating student writing. You may bring these materials with you to class and refer to them during the timed period.


Criteria

Logistic:

  • in class assignment will occur during the first 60 minutes of class on November 30, 2009
  • the rationale should be between 750-1000 words
  • 50 points

In addition to the general evaluation criteria, the instructor will be looking for evidence of...

  • a sense of audience–The evaluated student should be able to understand your comments and the overall evaluation. Likewise the student writer should feel comfortable after reading your evaluation. An administrative audience should be able to see and understand the connection between the rationale and the marks on the student paper.
  • an evaluation that is grounded in composition, rhetoric, and/or literacy theory (at least implicitly)
  • cohesiveness between your evaluation and your rationale
  • a teacherly persona
  • appropriate use of conventions, including legible comments and MLA or APA citations (not included in word count)