Thursday, 15 May 2014
My setup for grading papers against a rubric.
My schedule today consisted of two classes who meet for nearly the last time before exams next week. I do a few things in this kind of time: 1) allow the kids to check their grades with me (all grades are available on Moodle at all times), 2) answer exam review questions, and 3) allow kids the space and time to work together on exam review.
I had my own work during the lulls between them asking me questions which I filled with grading final papers for our rocketry project. The screenshot above shows how I set up to grade the papers against the rubric. Inevitably, I spot stuff as I grade that I really wish kids understood about writing a paper. Below is the running list I’ve created while grading these papers that I’d like to address next year. So far the list addresses many more mechanical details than stylistic. While there are certainly style issues to tackle with the kiddos, I must restrain myself or I’ll run out of time to teach any physics.
Tech Skills to Explicitly Teach in 2014-15
- Photography and diagrams in technical papers.
- Dem backgrounds.
- Sketching diagrams to illustrate how something is calculated or measured.
- Correct & quick MLA formatting.
- margins
- double spacing
- paper title
- the header section (with names and class)
- page numbers
- Ways to share numbers.
- tables
- bulleted lists
- Inserting symbols (º, etc) & writing equations.
- Equations go on their own line.
- Contextual hyperlinking.
- Using headings.
- Equations in Excel.
Physics180: A photo-a-day blog 