Tag Archives: evaluating essays

• In-Class Essays: More Important Than Ever

Cover ICE shot

(This posting includes a PowerPoint which you are welcome to use with your students.) *

As I was reading Elio’s two-page essay, I was amazed at how good it was. In fact, it seemed too good, way better than anything he had ever written. Although I was sure someone else had written it or had given him extensive help with it, or it had been downloaded from the internet, I couldn’t prove it. When I mentioned to him that it was so different from his previous papers, he just smiled and said that he had worked very hard on it over the past two weeks.

It would be a travesty to pass a student like Elio based on his out-of-class essays (OCEs). From reading most of his assignments, I was confident that he did not yet have the skills to be successful in academic classes, especially English Comp. Also, our higher-level ESL courses would lose all credibility in the eyes of the campus if unprepared ELL students were being allowed to take their courses.

According to research, because of the ease with which all students (not only ELLs) are able to download essays and plagiarize, more and more academic instructors are basing a large percent of their students’ grades on their performance on in-class papers written under a time limit. Thus, instructors have recommended that we include in-class essays (ICEs) in our ESL courses.

Reasonable expectations for in-class essays.

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• Don’t Give Points. Give Green Instead. Save Time from Counting and Recording Points.

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Cover grade book shot

While working at my computer, I heard my officemate, Nadya, sigh. She had a stack of homework papers that she was in the midst of marking, counting points and recording. She told me that she was starting to feel burned out from all the paper work and wondered if I felt the same.

She showed me how she was evaluating her students’ homework. They had written 10 items, and next to each one, she had written points. For example, a ²/₂ meant that the student did that item correctly, a ½ meant it wasn’t completely correct, and ⁰/₂ meant it was completely incorrect.

That morning she was in the process of ⁽¹⁾totaling the points, ⁽²⁾ writing a score at the top, and ⁽³⁾ recording the scores in her grade book. She said that she didn’t have time to write anything more specifically about the reason for the points on the students’ papers.

I then showed her a set of papers that I had recently marked. I don’t write points next to each item, but instead, I marked each with green or blue. Then I explained that by doing that, I’m able to specifically reinforce what they did correctly or point out what was incorrect. At the same time, I don’t need to write and record points, which saves me a tremendous amount of time.

Here are samples of our different approaches to marking assignments:

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• “Read-Aloud” Method for Collaborating with Colleagues to Assess ESL Students’ Writing Level

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Traditionally, when evaluating students’ writing levels, the “evaluators” silently read the essays in their offices, oftentimes fill out a rubric and come up with a score. Most of us would agree that such a process is onerous and often results in students being misplaced.

The method that I’ll describe here has important benefits for teachers and the ESL program as a whole. I’ve used this in several ESL programs for two situations: (1) determining which students should be promoted to the next level at the end of a term, and (2) placement of new students. It’s especially helpful for determining the proper Writing-class level of borderline students, in other words, ones whose writing levels are not obvious.

To demonstrate how the method works, let’s look at those two situations.

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• Easy Editing-Awareness Technique for ESL Students

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Cover edit ICE shot

This can drive a teacher crazy. You remind students to proof-read their paper before turning them in. However, after class, as you read them, you continually see basic grammar mistakes that you are sure they should have been able to have caught.

It’s quite common for ESL students to have a distorted view of their writing skills. They think that they can adequately edit their papers as they are writing, and thus, feel little need to re-read them before turning them in. Little do they realize that a plethora of simple grammar and spelling mistakes on a paper can give the reader/teacher a lower opinion of the students’ skills.

I have found that the following little requirement has greatly transformed students into much more diligent self-editors.

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Common Sense Teaching ESL

English as a Second Language Teaching Techniques and Perspectives

Tag Archives: evaluating essays

• In-Class Essays: More Important Than Ever

Reasonable expectations for in-class essays.

• Don’t Give Points. Give Green Instead. Save Time from Counting and Recording Points.

Here are samples of our different approaches to marking assignments:

• “Read-Aloud” Method for Collaborating with Colleagues to Assess ESL Students’ Writing Level

To demonstrate how the method works, let’s look at those two situations.

• Easy Editing-Awareness Technique for ESL Students

I have found that the following little requirement has greatly transformed students into much more diligent self-editors.

Reasonable expectations for in-class essays.

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Here are samples of our different approaches to marking assignments:

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Like this:

To demonstrate how the method works, let’s look at those two situations.

Share this:

Like this:

I have found that the following little requirement has greatly transformed students into much more diligent self-editors.

Share this:

Like this: