Concern #3:  Won't I be buried in paper grading?

Because they are informal and often impromptu, writing-to-learn activities usually aren't marked for correctness. Rather, teachers or classmates quickly read the writing for a general sense of what students understand and don't understand. Because most teachers cannot read through and comment on every writing-to-learn activity students complete, we suggest the following alternatives:

Quick Response/Summary Response.  Use an occasional writing-to-learn activity as a warm-up at the beginning of class as a "quiz."  Pick up a single sheet of paper and comment briefly on students' grasp of a reading assignment or key concepts. OR, for a large class, simply do a quick read (marking check, check plus, check minus) and then list some strengths and weaknesses during the next class.

Random Sample.  Pick up writing-to-learn material from five-ten students every day or every other day. Don't read every word, but skim quickly to identify tasks students might need  help with--a reading that bogged down in class discussion, a page that has very little written, a page that has lots written.

Color Code.  Use different colored pens or highlighters to note points in selected entries.  One color means "good idea," one means "consider pursuing this idea as a  paper topic," another means "come back to this idea again and explore it in more detail," and so on.

Impromptu Response. While students are writing at the beginning and end of class, walk around the room and read over shoulders. This technique is especially easy if you have students writing on computers. Stop to talk to or jot a note on the writing of 3-4 students. If students don't like having you read over shoulders, ask them to select a few recent writing-to-learn activities and put those to one side for you to collect and read quickly.

Students' Choice.  Ask students to select their best or most provocative writing-to-learn activities for you to review.

Peer Response.  Ask students to share writing-to-learn activities with one or two classmates.

E-mail Questions.  Ask students to send to you over e-mail any writing-to-learn activity that contains questions about course material.

Discussion List or Bulletin Board. Ask students to post provocative questions or  a summary/analysis of readings on an electronic bulletin board or Web forum for class comment.


Formal Response to Longer Assignments.  When you are responding to drafts of papers or to longer, formal writing assignments, try to make your evaluative criteria clear in your assignment.  Apply those criteria as a way of reading and responding consistently (and relatively quickly) to students' writing.

For more ideas on designing assignments and responding to student writing, please visit the "Teaching Resources" page on the Center for Writing Excellence Web site.

You may also want to take a look at the California State discussion "What is an 'A' Paper?"  In addition to presenting and explaining a C-based grading scale, this site includes criteria for writing well in a variety of disciplines.


Other Source:  Colorado State Writing-across-Curriculum FAQ: http://aw.colostate.edu/reference/wac-faq/page2.htm