End of Term Reminder II

As that final stack of papers shrinks and the grades begin to fill in the empty spaces in the spreadsheet grade book, I start thinking about how I can make the whole process smoother, fairer and more efficient next time. So, I take out my grading rubrics and refresh the language, based on this term’s crop of papers. Several years ago, I had the pleasure of participating in a workshop on effective grading with Barbara Walvrood, co-author of the popular Jossey-Bass book Effective Grading: A Tool for Learning and Assessment. Every college teacher should own this book. What made it so enjoyable was the clarity she brought to the process. Here is how I currently frame the argument she presented. These are my words, not hers.
Grading is not very different from coding a set of interviews. In coding, you perform an initial “read” and use this to develop a list of distinctive features, words, phrases, or other qualities that indicate a separation or difference in the way the speaker understands something. Technically, this is called discriminant function analysis, but I have always called it coding. You then do a second read in which you apply the list of features to the transcriptions to discover patterns of separations and affinities across the interviewees.
In grading, you perform an initial read of the papers and use this to develop a rubric. This is Ed-speak for that same discriminant function analysis. In a rubric, however, the purpose is not really the discovery of inter-subjectivity across social actors. It is the determination of a grade based on the presence or absence of the features in an essay or research paper. These features occur in the students’ work in at least three different ways: readily apparent, inferred or implied, or absent. So, you can think of a rubric as a grid with the features listed on the left and with three adjoining columns that indicate how that feature might appear in student work if it was readily apparent (++), inferred or implied (+), or absent (-).
To apply the rubric, you first have to be confident that you have indeed identified the important features. Often, I change the wording as I read the essays to be more precise. My rubrics are always evolving. Eventually, I want to use these features as the core comments I supply the students through feedback on their work. So, I want these be as precise as possible. When I’m fairly confident that I have it right, I then read the papers with a blank grid, checking ++, + or – as I find or fail to find what I am looking for. Walvrood calls this criterion-based grading. Once you get used to your own rubric, it is highly efficient. You can go through a stack very quickly. It is also fair. By have some auto-text entries for each of the ++,. + or – possibilities, you can tell the student exactly what worked and what didn’t work, as far as you are concerned. It is actually quite easy to convert the assessments to a single grade. More importantly, it is the best antidote against grade inflation. Student with very different feature profiles are far less likely to get the same grade.
I have written these rubrics for all sorts of learning tasks. The ones for descriptive tasks start out as the longest and most detailed, as you might expect. But I’ve been surprises at how quickly the ones I write for analytical and interpretive tasks grow over time. Two years ago, my department decided to see if we could build a rubric we could use to help build the writing skills of our majors. You can see it at this address. It applies to interpretative and analytical tasks, such as interpretations of theory, research reports and comparative studies. We each add whatever features pertain to a particular assignment. And, we ignore features that are irrelevant to a particular assignment. It’s a good base from which to start.
Anyway, if you like to try it next term, now is the time to start. What are the features that made a difference in the way you graded your students written work this term? What did these features look like when they were readily apparent (++), inferred or implied (+), or absent (-). That’s it. You’re on your way to fairer and more efficient grading.
By the way, it's perfectly reasonable to put the rubric for the assignment in the syllabus. Students perform better when they understand the criteria for evaluation ahead of time.

End of Term Reminder #1

As I approach the end of term, I try to spend some quality time with my syllabus. I may teach this course next term, or I may teach it two years from now. When I do, there’s a good chance I won’t remember everything I wanted to change. The syllabus is where I keep those thoughts.
First, every syllabus I write offers me a detailed breakdown of the course design. I can comment to myself (in a different color or font) on whether the description is still accurate (did the student experience what I said they would?). I can adjust the language of my course goals, adding or subtracting them to reflect what actually happened. I can adjust my course policies (attendance, evaluation, etc.) to take into account anything that occurred this term where I had to make up a policy on the spot, or wish I had established earlier.
I can think about the amount of time I devoted to topics: too little, too much. I can look at my project descriptions to see if changes in wording could head off questions that came from the class. I can review the texts I chose for the course. Did they actually support the goals and projects I set for the students? Should I look for better ones?
I can look at the written assignments or tests? Were they described accurately? Did any students fall into wholes that I created through faulty or ambiguous wording? I’ll know more about how they in a few weeks, after I grade the last piece of work, but at this point, explaining the assignments to them ids still fresh in my mind.
What do you do as the term is winding down to prepare for the next time you teach the class?

Welcome!

At the suggestion of the membership at the SUNTA business meeting in Tampa, last March, I have initiated and will moderate a blog on university-level teaching. This blog is especially intended for our members, but contributions will be welcome from any university-level teaching professional. To stay abreast of what I hope will be a lively discussion, please add this blog (http://suntateacher.blogspot.com) to your RSS or Blog reader (Goggle Reader is a convenient for those new to the medium).

I hope that this blog will prove especially useful to graduate students, adjunct faculty, visiting faculty and newly hired faculty. While "old dogs", like me, still have much to learn, the discussion of teaching is particularly crucial in the first few years of full teaching loads. And no, you will not become a good teacher just because you were a good student or are a good researcher. It's a different skill set.

Every two weeks or so, I will start a thread on a different teaching topic. I'll tie most of these threads to what I happen to be doing at that point in time in my own practice. If anyone else wants to start a thread, that's fine. Do it. I'm merely trying to keep the conversation going, not dominate it.

Since most of the courses I teach are connected in some way to the research tradition embodied by the Society for Urban, National and Transnational/Global Anthropology, my threads will try to make the connection between research and teaching (and service) as often as possible.

Some of the newer members of SUNTA may not know who I am or why I would do something like this. I have been both secretary and president of SUNTA. I have also conducted several workshops on teaching, including one last November in San Jose that was sponsored by SUNTA. I am a member of the Professional and Organizational Development Network, the professional group for directors of faculty development centers around North America. At my own school, I'm a sort of ninja-faculty developer. That is, I do it, but I don't get the title. I also wrote a book on teaching for new professors and graduate students.

So, please visit the site: http://suntateacher.blogspot.com and subscribe. Then, contribute! This is the place to ask, answer, comment, vent, complain, celebrate, and share your experiences in the classroom; the site of the most complex, the most compelling intellectual problem you will ever face: teaching!