Scoring Essay Question

Scoring Essay Questions

There are THREE types of Essay Scoring

Analytical: Primary Trait: Holistic:
Analytical Scoring

Example of Analytical Scoring Scheme
5. List three advantages of written reponse questions. (3 marks)
answer key: 1 mark each for any 3 of:
no guessing

faster to write

reduce lead time

more efficient if small class & teaching only once (half mark for "small class" or "only teaching once")

rich in diagnostic information

good for scoring larger number of short, specific items
"list three examples of" one mark per example
identify in advance what will be worth a point, how many points available for each question
- so you can tell students so they don't give more (or less) than necessary
- so they know precisely what you're looking for
- so you can be sure question works
  There is nothing worse than saying, "this essay is worth 30 points" and then discovering you can't find 30 points they could say on this topic. At this point, how do you distinguish between students if they range between 18 and 20 points?
if you say "one point for each example", it may be enough; but may have to be more specific
- name, date and signatories of treaty = 3 marks
- name, signatories right, wrong date = 2 marks
- name, date, right, signatories wrong = 1 mark
don't use 100 points in marking short essay because this degree of fine distinction is both more work, and fairly pointless
don'tuse three points for longer essay because then you won't be able to distinguish between different levels well enough
IF students come up with an unexpected but correct example
- give them the point
- immediately add that point to your answer key
- so next kid will get the point too
- so will have that idea for next year
- provides feedback on how to tighten up your question if you don't want that example next year
- you may have to glance back at previous papers to see if they had a chunk of that example, but you missed it until this paper spelled it out clearly enough to recognize as a correct answer

Primary Trait Scoring

PREMISE: All written communication serves different and identifiable purposes

postcard = friendliness, humour, description of events
instructions = clarity, organization, usefulness of examples
Grade 9 Achievement test, letter to mayor, primary trait was persuasiveness
- highly persuasive, fairly persuasive, unpersuasive

Example of Primary Trait Scoring

5. Write a letter to the editor of the ATA magazine advocating greater emphasis on the arts in the Alberta curriculum. (3 marks)

answer key:

POOR: NOT PERSUASIVE
attempt is made to answer, but position is hard to determine or is completely unpersuasive
ACCEPTABLE: PERSUASIVE
a position is stated, and supported with one or two adequate arguments
SUPERIOR: VERY PERSUASIVE
a position is stated, and supported with three or more strong arguments

Holisitic Scoring

most appropriate for longer essays
based on overall impression, not point by point
don't separate out each element

(A) Think of it as sorting into bins

high, medium and low

or high, extra high, medium, low, and really dreadful
can't be much finer than 5 divisions -- 6 at most

but Alberta Education uses 5 mostly, so might as well get used to that
have to re-read everything to ensure that all the papers in 5 piles roughly the same; all in middle pile roughly the same, and less good than top pile;
official version, don't mark these papers because circling spelling mistakes distracts you from overall impression

(B) Another version is simply to rank from top to bottom on endless continuum

bit problematic if paper is good in one aspect, weak in another

WRONG WAY TO DO IT:

as new teacher not sure of the standard you should be expecting from students, you will be tempted to take work of your best student and USE IT AS THE ANSWER KEY, start up here and mark down;

or even worse, take work of your worst student, and mark up

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT?

well, if you've already decided who's the best, what's the point of marking?

Holistic is more efficient than analytical if relatively few students in class

And then there's Alberta Education's version GRADE 12 DIPLOMA SCALE (OVERHEAD)

holistic, but on four scales
to control for spelling, etc
to make sure values got covered, control coverage
note that descriptors describe what we actually found to be typical of papers at this level

And then there's My Scoring Scheme