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GSI
TA Talk Highlight
The Art of Grading
by Joanne Holladay
By now you probably found out that the majority of work that you will be doing as a TA focuses on grading. This is a big responsibility and can sometimes be an overwhelming task. Here are a few helpful strategies to get you through the mountainous pile of grading on your desk effectively, consistently, and in a practical amount of time.
Purpose of Grades
First it's important to understand the purpose of the grades you are assigning. I know this sounds funny, but grades can be used for many different purposes. Grades can communicate how well students are learning, but can also be used to provide feedback to students, encourage good work, and to describe the value of the work submitted. It is important to talk this over with the primary instructor of the class to see what your goals should be when grading.
Approaches to Grading
There are two main approaches to grading:
- Criterion-referenced grading - when a student's grade reflects his or her level of achievement on an assignment, regardless of how other students in the class perform. So, if everyone did well on a test, they would all receive high grades and the class average would be high.
- Norm-referenced grading - when a student's grade reflects his or her level of achievement in comparison to the other students in the class. This means that a certain number or percentage of students will receive each of the five letter grades, including F's. This is also what is known as grading on a curve.
There is no right or wrong approach to grading - it all depends on your goals and purposes for the class; although, criterion-referenced grading is usually more indicative of what a student has learned and is more consistent across semesters. Norm-referenced grading might not indicate what a student knows, but how he or she compares to others in the class, and your criteria would change between semesters due to the level of achievement in different classes.
Establishing Grading Guidelines
To really get started on grading, you need to designate the specific criteria by which assignments, tests, etc. will be graded. Ask yourself what is expected from an A assignment, a B assignment, and so on. This will give you a starting point from which to work. Remember that in college, just doing the minimum requirements is usually considered a C. From this information, you can create a grading rubric from which you can clearly and systematically grade all assignments. It's really important to put this information in writing. (Note: Sharing this information with your students can greatly minimize students' complaints about grading!)
Practical Tips
- Grading can require a large portion of your time, but in this instance, it is best not to break up the grading into small chunks of time (like you might for a large project you are working on). Try blocking off a few hours to get all the grading for one assignment done (e.g., one homework or essay #1 on the test). Usually when doing this, you can get in a rhythm and start grading assignments more quickly, the more you do. And you can also be more consistent in assigning grades when you do it all at once.
- Do break up the actual assignment. Don't grade the entire assignment or test for each person separately. So, don't grade Suzy's entire test, then Johnny's, etc. Divide up the assignment into pieces. Grade everyone's essay question #1 first then all #2. This will help you be more consistent as well.
- Try the pile method. Read each answer once and decide if you feel it meets the criteria of an A, B, C, D, or F and place it in a pile. Put all the A's together, all the B's together and so on. You can have more that 5 categories, like A- or in-between A and B, etc. After you have gone through all the answers, go back and re-read to make sure that each one in the pile meets your criteria for that pile. From there, you can put the in-between answers in a pile or even separate the piles to assign numeric grades (e.g., divide the A pile up into 100's, 95's, and 90's).
- As much as we might deny it, the grades we assign are affected by our mood - hey, we're only human after all. So, try to think about the mood you are in when you sit down to grade and if you are in a bad mood, you might want to think about doing something else or at least try to take that into consideration. By understanding the purpose and criteria by which you are grading, and by using a rubric and specific grading method, you can avoid the pitfalls of grading while in a bad mood.
- Students take grades personally. It's a fact that grades are very important in student's lives and so they will take anything less than a perfect grade as a personal insult. To avoid this, it is important to stress to your students that a grade reflects their work on an assignment, not a judgment about themselves. Clear grading criteria can also help with this. And if a student is angry or upset, ask them to take a day to cool off and then come to your office hours (or make an appointment) to discuss it. This will help any discussion be more productive. When a student does come to see you about a grade, it is best to listen, go over their work and the grading criteria with them, and have examples of good answers.
All in all, being organized and clear on your grading policies and procedures can make the daunting, yet awesome task of grading more successful.
REFERENCES
Davis, B. G. (1993). Tools for teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
McKeachie, W. J. (1999). Teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers. (10th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.