This past week was mid-term exam week at EP. I spent most of my time in the school correcting the exams. There was some multiple choice but the majority of the exam was made up of the essay the student had to write. The 12th graders were given a prompt regarding Frankenstein being a Gothic horror novel and the 10th graders were asked to write about a speech Eli Wiesel gave when receiving the Nobel Peace Prize ( they were asked to focus on language).
I was given a rubric that had 8 different criteria ranging from the fluidity of the text to the student's textual evidence and organizational skills. I had to give them 1-4 on each item listed. 4 meant the student went above and beyond (which I quickly learned from my teacher is not given out often), 3 is proficient (the students need a three to pass), 2 is not proficient but close, and 1 mean the student missed the mark.
I found that the hardest part for me was distinguishing between 2s and 3s. So many of the 12th grade students would start off really strong and then get lazy by the end. The 10th graders seemed to get caught up with writing about their personal feelings towards the Holocaust rather than focusing on language like they were asked to do....what they wrote was great...just not completely following the prompt. It was hard to say those students weren't "proficient".
I hate that word by the way, if someone told me I wasn't "proficient" I would be pissed.It sounds so cold. I also went to a department meeting regarding these exams where all the teachers were arguing about what it means to be "proficient". The meeting did not end with an answer.
My CT agreed with most of the grades I gave and she said that she was really excited that I was doing so well with grading. By Thursday she was letting me grade on my own. Even though she was happy with the way I was grading I still feel a little unsure when deciding when someone is "Proficient".
