Grading Assignments and Feedback for Chapter Reading Response Assignments

1) Grading Assignments
2) Feedback for Chapter Reading Response (RR) Questions


SPARTANS,

1) Cutter White e-mailed me asking about how students are being graded on the assignments:

You are being graded based on completion, quality of answers, and following directions. Those students who do not complete the assignment or have low quality answers due to a failure to follow directions, address the questions properly, etc. will earn lower grades. Students who do not have assignments to me by the deadline will earn no credit ("0") for that assignment.

2) I responded to about the first dozen or so of the Ch. 1 Reading Responses that were e-mailed to me, but stopped since I was essentially writing the exact same response to each student. I posted some feedback which you would all do well to heed (see 22 June post). Here are some more recommendations for your RR assignments:

a) Command Terms: Most of you are not following the Command Terms (see the last page of your Summer Learning Packet) properly. These directions are VERY specific. When an assignment asks you to "EXPLAIN" something, it does not to just mean to type out an answer. According to the Glossary of Command Terms, "Explain" means students must "give a detailed account, including reasons or causes". May of you are failing to follow directions. You are not answering the questions fully because, for example, you do not follow the command terms. These are critical directions because they are the same that will be used in your Papers 1, 2, and 3 (IB essay tests) at the end of the course. If you do not start using them properly, you will do poorly in the class and on the Papers.

Most of you had the hardest time with questions that began with "To what extent". These are not just words to vary the way a question begins. Think about the phrase. What does it mean? It does not ask if something happened or not. It does not ask how it happened. That phrase is asking if the impact of the person/event/thing was extensive, limited, significant, unimportant, et cetera.

b) Errors: Many of you have consistent typographical errors ("typos"), improper grammar, wrong spellings, or incorrect capitalization or punctuation in your assignments. There is simply no excuse for these mistakes. If there are one or two of these errors it is understandable. We're human. But to be consistently doing these things shows a lack of concern, laziness, poor work ethic and/or inattentiveness to the assignment. If you are doing the assignment on MS Word, Grammar and Spell Check should help you. Everything should be spelled correctly since you are writing about what is in your book (everything is spelled out in the pages in front of you!).

c) "Thus" and "hence": Many of you use transitional phrases such as "thus" and "hence" and other "smart sounding" phrases in your writing. Please make sure to use these phrases and other terms properly. I get the impression that some of you are sprinkling these words into your writing because they "sound" good. Keep in mind that if you use words incorrectly in your writing just because they seem like they will make your writing look "smart", they may be used incorrectly and do the opposite. Don't write the way you think you should to appear like Honors students. Just write well.

d) Do not write in sentence fragments. Write in complete sentences, restating the question in the answer.

e) Make sure you answer questions fully and correctly. You do not need to add information that does not apply to the question. It does not make your answer better. A long narrative is not necessary. Make sure to answer the question adequately and appropriately.

PLEASE take all of these points into consideration for your future assignments.

Mini-Research Paper Reminders

SPARTANS,

Many of you are already starting your mini-research paper on indigenous peoples of the Americas. Please keep in mind the following:

**Wikipedia does NOT count as a reliable source. (There may be useable links at the bottom of a Wikipedia entry page, however.)

**If you choose a tribe other than one listed in the Summer Learning Packet, please notify me by e-mail first.

**Make sure that you can find enough resources on the tribe you have chosen before getting too far into your writing.

**All papers should be written in MLA format (for now) with appropriate citations.

**All quote sources and citations must be printed/photocopied with the cited text highlighted (to be included with your submitted paper).

**Papers should be free of typos and grammatical errors. Please utilize spell- and grammar check tools while word processing.


Good luck.