Gradebooks Feedback Drafting and Revision Grammar and Usage
Plagiarism Grading Strategies Grading Rubrics Final Grade Calculations

Grading

Gradebooks and Attendance

Teaching Fellows must take attendance and keep a gradebook. According to the university lawyer, instructors are not allowed to discuss specific grades in email, so use GeorgiaVIEW or face-to-face conferencing.

 

Paper gradebooks are available in the department office, or you can set up GeorgiaVIEW to keep track of grades, or you can use spreadsheets to store individual assignment grades and calculate final grades. Here are sample gradebooks:

Feedback

While informal writing like journals may be graded with simple checks, you must provide feedback on formal papers. Return graded papers within a timely manner; no more than one week is the best practice for paper return. We recommend a combination of writing in the margins and composing an endnote. Do not simply assign points or a letter grade; explain to your students what they've done right and well, and what is ineffective and/or unsuccessful. It’s a good idea to put what you’re looking for in your assignment prompt, and develop your grading rubric from there. If you peer review, which we encourage (see below), you can adapt the peer review questionnaire for your grading rubric. Besides providing discursive feedback, you may also conference.

Drafting and Revision

English 1101/2 should teach writing as a process, not simply the finished product. Walk your students through the stages of the writing process─from the invention stage of freewriting and brainstorming, to constructing a working thesis, to organizing ideas into an outline, to developing an outline into complete sentences and paragraphs, to sharing a draft with peers and instructor, to incorporating feedback from others as well as their own self-criticisms in the second draft or even third draft─and have them practice those phases in informal writing assignments and drafted and revised formal papers. Because drafting and revision are core outcomes of the course, at least two of the four formal papers must be revised, which means that two papers may be graded in the "standard" one-draft way. Because midterm grades are mandatory, you cannot use the pure portfolio method in which instructors provide feedback only (sans grades) until the final draft. However, you can devise a midterm and final portfolio system. Another possibility is using two drafts, both of which are graded; you could average the two grades, have the second replace the first, or have the higher grade stand. We recommend that peer review also be incorporated in the process so students can see receive feedback from multiple perspectives as well as practice evaluating others' writing.

 

There are a number of ways to grade revisions. While you should teach, encourage, and reward revision, be careful not to equate effort with excellence.

Grammar and Usage

Although grammar should be taken into account, it should not be the main focus of your grading. For example, if I mark more than five grammar errors on a first draft, I penalize the paper 1/3 of a letter grade, points which can be earned back in the second draft. I often refer to page or section numbers in the writing handbook for students to learn how to correct their mistakes; I usually don't correct it myself, but simply circle or highlight it.

Plagiarism and Originality Courseware

GCSU has a license for the originality courseware TurnItIn.com. Follow this handout when dealing with a case of plagiarism.

Grading Strategies

Do not tolerate grade campaigning. Develop your rubric and stand by it. Regarding grade distribution, we recommend a bell curve: An A should stand for excellence, therefore give them sparingly, say four or five per course. Because of the drafting and revision process, B’s will probably comprise most grades. Because everyone does not have the same above average competence, you need to assign some C’s and perhaps even a D. As with the grading feedback above, you should contemplate (and share with your students) the characteristics of effective writing, and adapt those characteristics to the letter grade scale. One way to get more revision effort out of your students, even the ones who come into the class with exceptional writing skills, is to grade more harshly on the first draft. Do not conflate or confuse revisionary effort with an A.

 

To find your (or any instructor/course/department's) official grade distribution, go to PAWS > GCSU Reports > Grade Distribution. Suggestions for better grade distribution:

There are two activities to help you to think about your grade distribution and rubric:

Grade Rubrics

It's a good idea to provide your students with a description of effective writing, of what constitutes an "A," "B," or "C" paper in your class. Here's mine, along with a walkthrough of how I calculate grades.

 

Before you grade a batch of papers, develop a rubric, a template from which to assess the essays. Here's the generic rubric I use based on an A paper being worth a 4.0. For instance, if a research paper is good overall (answers the prompt, has a thesis, analyzes the primary text, and is well-organized), but has no conclusion (worth one-third of a letter grade in my rubric) and misuses secondary sources (worth one-third of a letter grade), it earns a B+ (4.0 - [1/3*2] = 3 1/3 = 3.3 B+).

 

essay element grade weight
introduction and thesis 1/3
addressing/answering the assignment prompt 3/3
analysis 2/3
incorporation of primary textual evidence 1/3
incorporation of secondary textual evidence 1/3
internal paragraph coherence 1/3
organizational coherence 1/3
voice/diction and grammar/usage 1/3
conclusion 1/3
total
12/3 = 4.0 A

 

This is my particular rubric. Here's another, designed for a Writing about Literature course. As you grade papers this year, decide for yourself what you value in papers in general and an assignment in particular.

 

While some instructors prefer to give wholistic feedback that responds to an entire paper in discursive/paragraph form that assesses the various elements of writing, other instructors implement a point system like the one above, add comments, and give it to their students, like this:

 

essay element
points possible
points earned
comments
introduction and thesis
10
10

 

 

 

addressing/answering the assignment prompt
25
25

 

 

 

analysis
15
15

 

 

 

incorporation of primary textual evidence
10
10

 

 

 

incorporation of secondary textual evidence
10
10

 

 

 

internal paragraph coherence
10
10

 

 

 

organizational coherence
10
10

 

 

 

voice/diction and grammar/usage
5
5

 

 

 

conclusion
5
5

 

 

 

total
100
100
A

Final Grade Calculation

These instructions explain how to calculate final course grades. You can set up a spreadsheet to do this for you.

Instructors Who Assign Number Grades on Assignments

First, weight assignment grades. Multiply the numerical grade for the assignment by the percentage of the final grade. For instance, if a student earned an 85 on a paper that was worth 25% of the grade, multiply 85 by .25, which equals 21.25.

 

Assignment Grade
Weight
Final Value
Paper
85
.25
21.25

 

Second, total the weighted grades. For instance, if each of the four graded assignments in the course are worth 25% of the final grade, and a student earned an 82, 89, 91, and 95, respectively, on them, then the final, numerical grade would be 89.25.

 

Assignment
Grade
Weight
Final Value
Exam 1
82
.25
20.50
Exam 2
89
.25
22.25
Paper 1
91
.25

22.75
Paper 2
95
.25

23.75

FINAL GRADE
89.25

 

Third, use the following numerical range to determine the final grade. For instance, 89.25 equals a B in the course.

 

Grade From To
A 91 100
B 81 90
C 71 80
D 61 70
F 0 60

 

You can set up spreadsheets to automatically make these calculations. Here are sample gradebooks by Alex Blazer in Quattro Proand Excel. Here are sample gradebooks by Rachel Marsom using the points and percentage systems.

Instructors Who Assign Letter Grades on Assignments

First, convert individual assignment grades into numerical values using the following scale:

 

Grade
Value
A
4.0
A-
3.7
B+
3.3
B
3.0
B-
2.7
C+
2.3
C
2.0
C-
1.7
D+
1.3
D
1.0
D- 0.7
F
0.0

 

Second, weight assignment grades. Multiply the numerical grade for the assignment by the percentage of the final grade. For instance, if a student earned a B on a paper that was worth 25% of the grade, multiply 3.0 by .25, which equals .75.

 

Assignment Grade
Grade
Weight
Final Value
Paper
B
3.0
.25
.75

 

Third, total the weighted grades. For instance, if each of the four graded assignments in the course are worth 25% of the final grade, and a student earned a B, B+, A-, and A, respectively, on them, then the final, numerical grade would be 3.50.

 

Assignment
Grade
Grade
Weight
Final Value
Exam 1
B
3.0
.25
.750
Exam 2
B+
3.3
.25
.825
Paper 1
A-
3.7
.25
.925
Paper 2
A
4.0
.25

1.00

FINAL GRADE
3.50

 

Fourth, use the following numerical range to determine the final grade. For instance, 3.50 equals an A in the course.

 

Grade From To
A 3.50 4.00
B 2.50 3.49
C 1.50 2.49
D 0.50 1.49
F 0.00 0.49

Grade Distribution

PAWS > GCSU Reports