The 5 Good Habits for Evidence Compared to Its Rubric and How Both Can Help You

What’s on This Webpage:

What a Student Said That Led to the 5 Good Habits for Evidence and its Rubric. 1

Seeing How the 5 Good Habits for Evidence Can Help You Avoid Errors in Thinking and Writing in Real Life (IRL)—and also make a good grade. 1

What the #Means in the Part of the Rubric Where the Content Score and the 5 Good Habits for Evidence Score Are Added. 1

Seeing the Rubric and Feedback Form.. 1

 

What a Student Said That Led to the 5 Good Habits for Evidence and its Rubric

Like many teachers, I had used a grading rubric for a long time. I was talking with a student and trying to help him. He was involved in sports and he explained what he needed in terms of his favorite sport. He said something like this: “You are telling me what I’m doing wrong, but you are not telling how to do it right—how to hold the ball and the racket.”

 

I felt he was brilliant and so I tried to figure out what my teachers in public school had taught me to do that made it possible for me to avoid big errors in figuring things out or writing about reality (or at least catch my own errors before I submitted the work). At first, I had 10 good habits but I began to reduce the number bit by bit. In the end, I had:

·         5 Good Habits for Evidence so you’d know how to use evidence in a useful and safe way

·         The rubric so you could see the quality of your work and—if you were not yet doing evidence right—what habits you still need to change
I also got permission from my Department to try an experiment to see if students could improve basic evidence skills and improve their grades by splitting the grade into two parts:
- Content
- Following basics of evidence

 

If you think the 5 Good Habits for Evidence are just about academics, click here to see if anybody would pay you for work that did not meet the 5 Good Habits for Evidence? If no one would pay you, then why not change to habits that match the future you want?

 

If you think no professor or boss can see these errors or prove them, click here for what I am looking at when I grade.

Seeing How the 5 Good Habits for Evidence Can Help You Avoid Errors in Thinking and Writing in Real Life (IRL)—and also make a good grade

This Rubric is color-coded so you can see which of the 5 Good Habits for Evidence is covered in the “F” and “D” columns:

1.       Reliable Sources Only 
Tip: Your memory or a late-night movie or what your cousin told you is not a reliable source. The question is did the page of the source you cited provide evidence that your statement was accurate as written?

2.       Factual Accuracy That You Verify with the Reliable Source Before You Write
Tip: Is this page about the question you are answering? Would a reasonable person who used a reliable dictionary and who compared your words with what the author wrote think you read accurately?

3.       Factual Accuracy That Is Verifiable for Every Statement You Make
Tips: Did you cite a specific (1 page) page for every fact in your own words and every fact in the author’s words (that is, a quotation). Would a reasonable person who used a reliable dictionary and who compared your words with what the author wrote think you read accurately?

4.       No “Half-Copy” Plagiarism or “Patchwriting”
Tip: Did you just type the author’s words without quotation marks (“”) and move them around or use the author’s sentence structure and just swap out a few words that you think are synonyms?

5.       Quotation Changes Revealed Clearly 
Tip: Did you place in quotation marks (“”) the author’s words but changed them without revealing those changes so that you changed the author’s meaning or made the author’s work look grammatically incorrect?

 

You must follow the 5 Good Habits for Evidence to have the possibility of making a “C” or “B” or “A.” This can help students who are trying to learn history but are inexperienced great writers:

·         If you do follow the 5 Good Habits for Evidence, you also earn the full points for Good Habits. This can raise your grade substantially. This link provided with the Course Plan shows you how the separate Good Habits for Evidence grade can help your grade and your knowledge and skills in critical thinking.

·         If you do not follow the 5 Good Habits for Evidence as marked in the “F” and “D” columns, you make only the grade for content.
Example: With a writing assignment @ 20 for content and @ 20 for the 5 Good Habits for Evidence, you get a 0 for the Good Habits and only the content grade. An “F” out of 20 points is 11.9. A “D” out of 20 is 13.9.

 

The top of the form shows in italic the words Writing Assignment and the symbol for number #.
Reminder of the colors: Habit 1, Habit 2, Habit 3, Habit 4, Habit 5 - As you can tell, Habit 2 and Habit 3 frequently occur together.

 

Name_________________   

Writing Assignment___ out of # points for content. Its Good Habits for Evidence __ out of #.

 

Requirement

"F" Paper Criteria

"D" Paper Criteria

"C" Paper Criteria

"B" Paper Criteria

"A" Paper Criteria

 

 

Reading FOR Evidence (60%)

1: Used an unreliable source.  2: Used an incorrect or incomplete part of the source required for the question asked.  

2&3: Assumed.

2: Misread or read passively.  3: Made errors such as cherry-picking facts or embellishing facts.

Accurately read the parts, but did not try to evaluate or to synthesize the interconnections.

Accurately read the parts and analyzed each one. Tried to evaluate and synthesize interconnections.

Accurately read the parts and analyzed each one. Evaluated and synthesized the interconnections.

 

 

Writing WITH Evidence (30%)

2: Did not answer all parts of the question. 
2&3: Wrote assumptions.

3: Did not cite accurately and according to the directions.

5. Used "" inaccurately and changed meaning.

2. Wrote passively.

4. Plagiarized or did “half-copy” plagiarism (also called “patchwrite”).
5. Used "" inaccurately, including making the author's sentences look grammatically incorrect.

Only summarized separately each of the parts of the question, but did not cover interconnections.

Revealed each part and covered some interconnections. Provided few examples.

Understood each part and revealed the parts’ interconnections. Provided clear and representative examples.

 

 

Following Directions for Evidence (5%)

Did not follow directions above or with the questions (such as maximum length).

Did not follow directions.

Followed the directions. 

Followed the directions carefully.

Followed the directions exactly.

 

 

Mechanics (Language and Punctuation) (5%)

Many mechanical errors.

Several mechanical errors.

Two or more mechanical errors.

One or more mechanical errors.

No more than one minor mechanical error.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Content

#

 

 

 

 

 

0 or full points for Good Habits

+

 

 

 

 

 

Total

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grade for its Good Habits for Evidence:

*  0 = If any marks in “D” or “F”

*full points = If no marks in “D” or “F” 

 

Grade for the content: Either “C” or “B” or “A” as marked

If you made a “C” or “B” or “A,” you also had no marks in the “D” or “F” columns.

 

 

 

What the #Means in the Part of the Rubric Where the Content Score and the 5 Good Habits for Evidence Score Are Added

# For the Content for the assignment, I try to record the maximum points for each student. Examples:

·         If all of the 4 Requirements (Reading FOR Evidence, Writing WITH Evidence, Following Directions for Evidence, and Mechanics) have the about the same level of grade (such as a mid-B),
then I enter a mid-B for Content. (An Excel spreadsheet shows the value for me to use and I provide that spreadsheet so you can check my math.)

·         If the 4 Requirements vary in the grade (such as an A for Reading FOR Evidence and a C for the other 3 Requirements,
then I use an Excel spreadsheet to enter a specific value for an A for Reading and a C for the others and then add the Total points for Content.

 

Seeing the Rubric and Feedback Form

Click here to see the combined Rubric and Feedback form. It also explains how the instructor only enters points after you respond to feedback. This form provides a quick way to respond and to help you focus on ways you can prevent any problem. I am also glad to talk with any of you.

 

Copyright C. J. Bibus, Ed.D. 2003-2016

 

WCJC Department:

History – Dr. Bibus

Contact Information:

281.239.1577 or  bibusc@wcjc.edu  

Last Updated:

2016

WCJC Home:

http://www.wcjc.edu/