Feedback and Evaluation for Writing

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Feedback and Evaluation Suggestions for Writing

A. Some suggestions for giving feedback on student writing:

1. Formative feedback may be given by the teacher on a first draft to encourage the student and assist him or her to revise or improve it by using comments in the margin such as: “yes I agree,” “great example,” “nicely focused topic sentence.”    Questions or comments may also encourage the student to rethink some aspect of the writing, for example: “Is this point related to the focus of the topic sentence?” How can you make the concluding sentence more interesting for the reader?,” “Think about the steps you have here – is something missing?”  This may also occur at the editing stage with comments such as: “Check your spelling” or “Be careful of s-v agreement.” Teacher/student conferences are an excellent forum for formative feedback if time allows.

2. Summative feedback is given on the final draft of an assignment or on quizzes and tests.  Here you may use the same type of comments to let the student know what they have done well or where they need to improve as well as a grade.  It is important that the student understand your expectations and the criteria you use for marking. 

B. Some considerations before you give an assignment:

1. What is the purpose of the assignment?
2. What are the students expected to learn or practice?
3. What is the focus of the assignment in terms of rhetorical structure, content, audience, organization, cohesion, unity, social/cultural/practical purposes, and vocabulary?
4. How will the writer be able to improve assignment-specific writing skills? What specific teaching objectives are involved?
5. How will the work be evaluated? (i.e. carefully considered grading criteria)

C. Decisions to be made before evaluating the first set of papers:

1. Will all written work be turned in for evaluation (or will there be a portfolio)?
2. Are first drafts reviewed by peers/teacher but not graded?
3. Are later drafts reviewed by the teacher and annotated but not graded?
4. If used, how are journal entries evaluated?

D. Methods of evaluation

1. Holistic

Holistic grading accompanied by a copy of a scoring guide or a list of criteria helps students understand expectations and reasons for a grade.  It can be as simple as writing your list of criteria on the board or giving them a copy.  One can give a holistic score for Content /10, Organization /10 and Grammar /10 and list the criteria for each.

E.G. Content: interesting, detailed, clear, responds to assignment demands

Organization: topic sentence, supporting sentences, concluding sentence, order of ideas

Grammar/Mechanics: punctuation, format, spelling, overall or specific grammar foci

2. Analytical

A separate score is given for each of a number of different aspects of a task. These can be changed to suit the task assigned and the level of the students.

*With either system grammar must be considered to have sufficient weight that the grammatical inadequacies of the paper are reflected in the grade.  Grammar problems that result in lack of clarity should also be reflected in the content mark.