What’s covered on this webpage:
Reminder: What Is the History Department Required to
Do with Writing Assignments?
Reminder: Minimum of 25% of your Course Grade from
Writing Assignments
How the Separate Grade for the Good Habits for
Evidence Results in a Higher Grade
The History
Department has responsibilities for students at WCJC. Click here for an explanation of the 3 Student Learner
Outcomes, including the terms primary and secondary.
(URL: http://www.cjbibus.com/GS_HistDept_Student_Learner_Outcomes.htm)
In history
classes, your writing grades are essential:
·
To your overall
grade
·
To your passing
the course
The History
Department requires a minimum of 25% of your grade from your writing
assignments. This course has that amount. Caution: To repeat the syllabus, given those percentages,
doing written work is essential to pass. Please ask if you do not know why or
click on this explanation.
(URL: http://www.cjbibus.com/GS_HistDept_25_Percent_Min_So_You_MUST_Write.htm)
Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary defines a rubric as “a guide listing specific criteria
for grading or scoring academic papers, projects, or tests.”
In this course,
rubrics:
·
Used before you work, let you know what the
instructor considers important
·
Used after you work, let you know where the
instructor thinks you are “getting it” and what you can do to become stronger
·
Let your instructor
mark consistently but quickly
This course uses
different rubrics when grading:
·
Your paper—and with
this one I also mark your paper according to the rubric
·
Your response to my
feedback so that I can tell that you understood what I had identified
·
Your peer review of
another student’s paper
·
Your response to the
peer review of your own paper by another student
In this
course, your assignments are meant to meet the student learner outcomes and the
requirement of 25% writing for your grade. This course also tries to help all
students to earn a good grade even though they may not have experience with:
·
United States
history
·
Reading and
writing with evidence about real things
(History is frequently the first
time many students have to write about real
things with evidence, not just
opinion.)
To make it
possible for all students to earn a good grade even if they are inexperienced
in United States history and with reading and writing with evidence about real
things, this course divides the grade for a writing assignment in 2 parts:
·
50% for the
content on the current writing—important to know but this set of facts is not
necessarily essential to your future
·
50% for whether
you worked ethically and accurately as measured by 5 very basic habits–habits also essential to your future in the
workplace of today
The Evidence Quizzes in the
course show you how the Good Habits for Evidence rubric works and can help you
practice necessary skills for the workplace (or an upper level course). This
section just provides an example of the way it lets you earn a higher letter
grade.
If you follow the 5 Good
Habits for Evidence, you can make a decent grade even if you are not skilled or
comfortable with writing. Here’s how the separate grade for Good Habits for
Evidence helps you. In the example, you:
·
Are doing a
40-point written assignment (and in this course that means 20 for content and
20 for the 5 Good Habits for Evidence)
·
Did read carefully
and wrote accurately
·
But did not cover
all of the issues nor give examples from the required sources so the rubric
shows that your written content is worth only 70%, a low C
On the other hand, you worked
accurately and carefully followed all
5 Good Habits for Evidence. Alternatively, if you didn’t follow the 5 Good
Habits for Evidence successfully this time, the instructions on the rubric tell
you an alternative way to earn the points.
If there was not a separate grade for the 5 Good Habits for Evidence, you would make:
28 For the content - 40
points X .7 = 28 – a C for this written assignment
Because there is a
separate grade and you followed all
5 Good Habits for Evidence, you make:
14 For the content – 20
points X .7 = 14
20 For following all
of the 5 Good Habits for Evidence or,
if not yet, for following the instructions on the rubric
34 – and 34 is a B for this written assignment
How is a 34 a B? 34 divided
by 40 = .85 or 85%, a B for this written assignment
Tip: Practicing a habit seems to take several times before
the habit is the new you. Try
following these habits with the 1st assignment so you can use these
habits any time you work with things that are real. The sooner you start, the
more points you will earn and the stronger you will be.
Copyright C. J. Bibus, Ed.D. 2003-2017 |
WCJC Department: |
History – Dr. Bibus |
Contact Information: |
281.239.1577 or bibusc@wcjc.edu |
Last Updated: |
2017 |
WCJC Home: |