Reading Student Essays

Grading can be challenging, but reading through student essays might be even more daunting. After all the time and effort put in, you really want your students to be able to benefit from them. The article below provides useful tips and strategies for giving effective responses to student papers and an idea of what papers of different grades look like.

1. Harvard Writing Project Brief Guide Series: A Brief Guide to Responding to Student Writing.

Peer and Self-assessment

Although grades are primarily assigned by you, the course instructor; sometimes, there are merits to having students go through either their own or each other’s papers, as a complementary exercise to your grading. This might promote critical self-reflection as well as allowing them insight into what a reader or marker is looking for. Below are some self and peer assessment sheets for your perusal.

1. Dubnoff, J., Self-Assessment (Short).
2. Dubnoff, J., Self-Assessment (Long).

Yale-NUS Assessment and Grading Report

The Yale-NUS College Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) is delighted to see the release of Yale-NUS Assessment and Grading Report. The document, produced as of 25 Sept 2015,  reflects many hours of thoughtful discussion and hard work among the Yale-NUS community. The Report lays out the basic principles of designing effective assignments, communicating clearly to students the goals of a course and of their work, and learning about students’ learning performance efficiently from their assignments.

Based on the findings of the report, the Centre has worked on Grading and Assessment, a sourcebook intended to serve as living document that embodies the culture of teaching and assessment at Yale-NUS College. Hard copies of this booklet may be obtained from the Centre.

The following are recommended journal articles that provide insight into various assessment methods, the impact they have on students, and how they influence teaching.

Grading and Feedback
From Harvard’s Derek Bok Centre for Teaching and Learning

This is a great online resource that runs you through the nuances and steps of grading and gathering student feedback.

Assigning Course Grades
From University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Centre for Innovation in Teaching and Learning

This online resource provides a comprehensive and detailed discussion of various issues associated with grading and assessment. In each case, alternative viewpoints are described and advantages and disadvantages noted. Topics include Capricious Grading, Grading in Multi-Sectioned Courses, Grading Comparisons, Grading Guidelines, Course Grading Schemes, Grading vs. Evaluation, Evaluating Grading Policies, and What Not to Base Course Grades On.

How to Assess Students’ Learning and Performance
From Carnegie Mellon University’s Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation

This resource provides suggestions and strategies for assessing student learning and performance as well as ways to clarify your expectations and performance criteria to students. This website is especially useful for concrete examples of different assessment methods. Topics include Creating assignments, Creating exams, Using classroom assessment techniques, Using concept maps, Using concept tests, Assessing group work and Creating and using rubrics.

Other Policies and Guidelines

The following books are readily available in the Yale-NUS library as a resource for faculty seeking expert knowledge on grading and assessment.