STEP-BY-STEP

 

1. Make overheads of sample papers. Hand out hard copies too, if you wish, but use an overhead anyway.

2. Read each paper ALOUD. Papers play differently to the eye and ear.

3. Discuss ONE trait at a time. This keeps students from making overly general comments, e.g., "It was a pretty good paper," or "This paper needs work."

4. Encourage students to be very specific, expansive, and articulate in their comments. What is "pretty good" about the paper? What "needs work?"

5. Return to a paper, if you like, to discuss another trait. Just because you've rated "a paper" for Ideas and Content doesn't mean you shouldn't also later score it for Organization, Voice, etc.

6. Share the original assignment/prompt if you wish, but don't let students get too hung up on this.

7. Ask students to score papers individually first, and to write their scores down on paper. Then, ask them to discuss their scores with a partner or in a small group (3 or 4), and to resolve discrepancies by using a scoring guide.

8. Following small-group (or paired) discussions, you can have a large-group (whole class) discussion of a paper, if you wish. Wait till everyone has voted to tell them how you would score the paper.

9. Put scores up on a chart like that shown in Anchor Papers section. This lets students see visually where their own scores fall relative to those of the class as a whole.

 

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