Submit Feedback

Resource Book Home

Contents

Acknowledgements
Foreword
Using This Resource

I. Preparing to Teach
Planning a course
--Defining Instructional Objectives
--Teaching and Learning Styles: The   Academic Culture
--Choosing and Using Instructional   Materials
--Writing a Syllabus
--Syllabus Checklist
--Using the Syllabus in Class
--Summary of Course Planning
Addressing Students' Needs
--Importance of Knowing Your   Students
--Planning Considerations
--Getting to Know Your Students
--Students of Different Backgrounds
--Students with Disabilities
--Teaching Strategies: Non-Native   Speakers of English
--Creating a Learning Environment
--Dealing with Disruptive Behavior in   the Classroom
--Common Disruptive Student   Behaviors and Possible Responses
--Dealing with Apathetic Students
--Cultural Differences for International   Instructors
--Summary of Addressing Students’   Needs
Teaching Tips
--Organizing Class
--Ways to Be Accessible Outside the   Classroom
--Six Common Non-Facilitating   Teaching Behaviors
--Wireless in the Classroom: Advice   for Faculty
--Summary of Teaching Tips

II. Teaching Methods
The First Day of Class
--When the Class Meets You
--When You Meet the Class
--Diversity the Instructor Brings to the   Classroom
--Conversing with Students with   Disabilities
--Moving Forward
--Summary of the First Day of Class
Lecturing
--Strategies for Effective Learning
--Advantages and Disadvantages of   the Traditional Lecture Method
--Enhancing Learning in Large   Classes
--Chalkboard Technique
--Writing Assignments in the Lecture
--Engaging Women in Math and   Science Courses
--Formulating Effective Questions
--Summary of Lecturing
Discussion
--Brief Overview
--The “Nuts and Bolts” of Discussion
--Facilitating Discussion of Sensitive   Issues
--Encouraging Student Contributions
--Alternative Instructional Methods
--Potential Problems in Discussions
--Summary of Discussion
Expanding Teaching Strategies
--Practical Examples
--Show and Tell
--Case Studies
--Teaching with Case Studies
--Guided Design Projects
--Brainstorming
Group Work
--General Information about Using   Groups
--Group Work in an Introductory   Science Laboratory
Science Labs
--The Role of the Lab Instructor
--What Do the Students Need to   Know?
--The First Day
--Planning and Running a Laboratory
--Safety Procedures
--Summary of Science Labs
Teaching Outside the Classroom
--Tutoring
--Office Hours
--Teaching Students to Solve   Problems
--Advising and Extracurricular   Activities
--Summary of Teaching Outside the   Classroom
Overcoming Misconceptions
--Societal Attitudes and Science   Anxiety
--Misconceptions as Barriers to   Understanding Science
--Common Difficulties and   Misunderstandings

III. Teaching-as-Research
Assessing Student Performance
--Establishing Objectives for   Assessment
--Assessment Primer
--Formulating Effective Methods of   Assessment
--Helping Students Succeed on   Assignments and Exams
--The Why and How of Tests
--Grading Lab Reports, Problem Sets,   and Exam Questions
--Grading Checklist
--Grading Specific Activities
--Grading Writing
--Summary of Assessing Student   Performance
How to Evaluate Your Own Teaching
--Evaluating Your Own Teaching
--A Note on Teaching-as-Research

IV. Appendices
Inspirational Essays
--Mathematics: The Universal   Language of Science
--Transforming Quizzes into Teaching   and Learning Tools
--Teaching My Students to Fish
--Chemistry: The Other Foreign   Language
--Teaching to Different Modes of   Learning
--Notes from a Career in Teaching
Additional Resources
Websites
Graduate Assistant Handbook Outline
--Department- and Institution-Specific   Information
--18 Questions to Have Answered

Works Cited

Submit Feedback

The two most prominent ways of assessing student writing are analytic and holistic scoring. The analytic approach to grading considers writing to be made up of various features, such as creativity, grammar, succinct expression of concepts, and punctuation, each of which is to be scored separately. An analytic writing score is made up of a sum of the separate scores and is often a weighted sum developed after multiplying each score by numbers representing the relative importance of the features the instructor wishes to emphasize. Holistic scores are arrived at by comparing individual student essays to model essays representing good, fair, and poor responses to the assignment.

A third variation is a type of global scoring which assumes that writing is the sum of various features but assigns the final score without the use of a scale. This method, which is most frequently used in casual approaches to grading writing, tends to result in less precise assessment.

Analytic Scoring

Analytic scoring is the traditional approach to grading writing. Instructors who use analytic scoring view writing as a demonstration of many isolated skills that when graded separately and added together will come up with an appropriate assessment of the piece. Many instructors choose to use analytic scoring because of its strengths, some of which are as follows:

• It helps instructors keep the full range of writing features in mind as they score. An essay that is poorly punctuated may present a good analysis of a problem and/or strongly state a position. The punctuation may overwhelm the instructor to the degree that he or she fails to notice the strong elements of the essay and grades it too low.
• It allows students to see areas in their own essays that need work when accompanied by written comments and a breakdown of the final score. Its diagnostic nature provides students with a road map for improvement.

Some weaknesses of analytic scoring are:

• It is time-consuming. Teachers who score analytically usually are required to make as many as 11 separate judgments about one piece of writing. Furthermore, not all students actually make their way through the analytic comments so painstakingly written on their papers, nor will all be able to make profitable use of those comments on succeeding writing assignments.
• Negative feedback can be pedagogically destructive. Teachers who combine analytic scoring with confrontational or unclear comments – especially about issues of grammar – may actually inhibit student growth.

The following guidelines may be useful to maximize the effectiveness of analytic scoring:

• A written analytic scale helps to define grading criteria clearly and, if shared with students, can foster an understanding of what is expected and how it will be assessed.
• Criteria are weighted according to their relative importance. For instance, if the goal of an assignment is the assimilation of course material, then logic, ideas, arrangement, and resourcefulness are rewarded more than grammar and mechanics.
• Formative feedback in the form of marginal and end comments is most effective when the comments are balanced and both challenge and support students. Good writing is tough to do, and most students feel inadequate about their writing skills from lack of practice.
• Instructors can downplay the possible confrontational effect of grading by being sensitive to such issues as using sarcasm in their comments, obliterating students’ work with lines, and the like.

Holistic Scoring

Writing experts have developed a special process for grading called holistic grading, which is especially useful in grading large numbers of essays. Student essays are usually graded by more than one person. Using assessment criteria developed from the learning objectives for a writing assignment, an instructor selects several student essays that exhibit high, average, or low achievement. These models then become the standards by which the instructor and one or more graders assess a group of essays. Each person reads the student paper quickly and determines whether it is stronger or weaker than its closest equivalent among model essays. As with analytic scoring, it is important that students are made aware of the method of assessment and criteria in advance of their writing.

Holistic scoring has two advantages over other scoring methods:

• Reliability. Holistic scoring is considered by some to be the most consistent and reliable method of scoring writing available to date.
• Efficiency. Holistic scoring takes much less time to do. Each reader of a holistically scored essay reads the essay through quickly, matching its quality to that one of the model essays. With the models firmly in mind, a holistic grader’s first impressions of an essay are highly reliable.

Holistic scoring has the following disadvantages:

• While the score given will be reliable, the student will not necessarily know the reason for his or her grade on the writing. Most instructors go back and make some kind of end comment on holistically scored essays to give the student some idea of why the essay was better or worse than the model essays. Formative comments with regard to specific areas in need of improvement are not available to the student. Model essays can be given to the students for comparison.
• Holistic grading can be impractical for individual instructors. While an individual instructor could go through a stack of papers looking for high, middle, and low models and grade the rest of the papers according to these models, the best situation for holistic grading occurs when two or more instructors work together. Holistic grading is ideal for large enrollment courses in which two or more TAs are responsible for the grading.