Ideas for Grading Compositions in French 101

The following are some ideas about grading each of the compositions that our students will write in French 101. You are free to adapt these ideas as you like, or to come up with your own grading scheme.

1. Give a global grade (letter grade--A, A-, B+, B etc.) balancing the following criteria: grammar and spelling; style; interesting content, creativity; improvement from the rough draft to the final draft.  Here is a rough guide:

A= Excellent grammar, few errors; variation in syntax; well-organized paragraphs, easy to follow; interesting content, well thought out and creative.

B= Grammar comprehensible, some errors; some variation in syntax; organized paragraphs, mostly easy to follow--some isolated moments of confusion; generally interesting content, some repetition.

C= Substantial errors in grammar and spelling; errors in syntax, or too many simple sentences; few attempts at organization, run-on sentences, no development; hard to understand; content does not address the topic assigned; carelessly prepared.

D= Substantial errors in grammar, spelling, syntax such that you cannot understand what the student is trying to say; extremely hard to follow, no organization; content does not address the topic assigned--no evidence of thought or preparation.

F= Student does not complete the assignment, or attempts to give it to you late, with no prior arrangement.

You should also take into account good will and effort on the part of the student, the revisions they make to the rough draft, and their ability to follow directions.  

2. Analytical/Split Grade Scoring: Still using the above criteria, you can also assign each composition two grades: one for grammar/spelling and one for content and organization. Thus, a paper with many gramatical errors, but is interesting and creative, can receive an A for content and a C for grammar. (Which works out to be a B in the end, but the grades in isolation will help the student know what to focus on.)  

3. Primary Trait Scoring: Grade is assigned globally, as in #1, but certain features of the writing are emphasized. I have used this method in the intermediate level courses. It may be more appropriate when our students’ writing is more sophisticated, although there are certain aspects which will be useful to grading French 101 compositions.

Basically, as I read each composition, I fill out a short form with comments that will help me assign a grade (see attached sample form). This is similar to the analytical scoring in method #2, however, I will assign one holistic grade to the composition. The students receive this form with their graded composition. For the most part, my students in 201 and 232 liked the specific feedback and it helped them understand their grade and where they need to improve.

General notes on grading compositions....

                You will find that students complain about the composition grade being completely subjective. In a sense, this cannot be avoided: how you grade something may partially depend upon how you feel about the student at that moment (either mad at or sorry for them) or how you are feeling. The best way to keep your grading fair is to keep it consistent. Decide on the method you will use and stick to it for every paper. Ask yourself: if this student asks me why I gave him a “B” what will I say? What is my reason? If you can not decide what grade to give a particular paper, set it aside and look at it again with a fresh mind.

Other tips (that have worked well for me):

Do not try to grade all of the compositions in one day: split them up evenly across a few days

Take about a week to grade the final drafts. Try to return the final draft of compo 1 to students before they give you the rough draft of #2.  If your students bug you about getting their papers back, tell them it will take you a week to grade each one thoroughly.

As you read papers and comment them, do not assign the letter grade immediately. Group papers in piles: excellent; pretty good; not bad, but needs work, and poor. Then assign the letter grades all at once, deciding which papers deserve an A, B+, C, etc.  At this point I often take into account factors that may not be reflected on paper. If a student came to me for help repeatedly and really worked hard on the paper, I may advance the grade from a B to a B+; similarly, a B paper that did not follow directions (did not type the paper, for example) may get a B-.

Always make comments and suggestions about improvement, even if the paper is really bad, you can probably find one good thing to say about it. Likewise, if the paper is already excellent, write something that will encourage the writer to push him or herself even farther.

Before you return the graded compositions to students, briefly explain your grading criteria. Many students will be shocked and upset to get a C --explain to them exactly what it means, that it is not the end of the world, and how they can work to improve.

**If you give a D or F to any composition because it is unintelligible and the grammar is garbled, show it to Cheryl before you return it to the student, especially if this is a student who normally does well, or who tries hard.  Such work can be the evidence of a learning problem.

General Notes on the Rough Draft:

Give students clear guidance on how to revise their rough drafts: some examples include:

--verify spelling and accents

--check verb conjugations, article use, adjective agreement

--write what you know how to say! Many student will try to say things for which they do not have the lexicon or the grammatical knowledge. Steer them away from this. Tell them to rewrite sentences that do not make sense, using the vocabulary and grammar from the lessons we have covered in Voilà

--follow directions--complete the assignment as assigned. If a student misunderstood the task, you will be able to tell in the rough draft.

**It is a good idea to do a writing activity in class before or as you return the rough drafts: compile the most common mistakes you found into a sample composition and have students correct it in pairs or groups. This is a good way to teach them about revising their writing.