Essays are often the most strenuous assignments high school students are given. With so much work and time going into essays, students have to wonder how their teachers decide what a “good essay” is.
“The longest essay gets the highest grade,” jokes history teacher William Colglazier. “Just kidding.”
Colglazier’s jest raises an interesting point: grades. Are simple letter grades an effective enough form of feedback on essays? What does getting an “A” on an essay mean?
For sophomore Spencer Walling, an “A” is a testimony to effort. Explains Walling, “Getting an ‘A’ on an essay means all that hard work and preparation paid off.” Senior Kathryn DeWitt agrees, saying “Getting an ‘A’ means everything.” But is just getting an “A” enough, or is more feedback needed?
All freshman Jeffrey Song needs is the “A.” Says Song, “[Just getting a letter back] is enough if it’s an ‘A,’ but if it’s a ‘B’ or below I want feedback.” Junior Kevin Bai prefers more specific feedback. “The best kind of feedback is when [the teacher] gives specific instances of where I should do better,” he says.
But getting specific feedback is often a lengthier process for teachers. To many students, the timeliness in which they get their essays back plays a large role in their improvement as writers. Knowing what went well and what needs work when the assignment is still fresh in one’s mind can be invaluable to one’s growth as a writer.
But for many students, how feedback is delivered is just as important as when it is delivered. “The best kind of feedback is when teachers talk to you and tell you what you can work on instead of just giving you a letter,” says junior Quinn Bredl. Other students agree that face-to-face communication is key. Says junior Matt Nagel, “Email and meeting in person with teachers works really well to get feedback.”
Essay grading is different from just grading a math assignment, as there are so many more considerations than just checking for correct answers. Subjective grading like this is bound to cause disagreements between students and teachers. Song claims, “Some teachers’ grades are based on how much they like you, but others are more fair.” However, junior Ria Patel disagrees with this. According to Patel, “The grading system is fair.”
So how do teachers decide how to grade subjective assignments like essays? For freshmen English teacher Genevieve Thurtle, essays are graded based on the rubric she makes for them. Says Thurtle, “I identify standards, like idea development or structure, that guide the grading.” And as for being biased because of the overall grade a student has in the class, Thurtle explains, “Each piece of writing should be taken on its own terms, so you really have to work against the preconceptions.”
Fellow English teacher Jennifer Wei corroborates Thurtle’s process. Says Wei, “There’s a rubric for everything I do, but sometimes I comment on things not on the rubric, or on continued mistakes.” Both Wei and Colglazier agree on the value of giving verbal feedback. Wei adds that “Meeting one on one with students can target what needs working on. I always try to debrief essays and show a good example.”
Colglazier agrees, saying “I not only want to give a grade, I want to provide feedback. Using turnitin.com, the audio comments are the best way to give feedback ever, as they let me more effectively give feedback to what the student needs.”
Verbal feedback is even more important when the overjustification effect is taken into account. The overjustification effect is a psychological phenomenon that says there are two kinds of motivation: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is self-motivation, or doing something purely for fun, while extrinsic motivation is doing the task for a general, unspecific reward. Studies have shown that when rewards are offered for completing tasks that were previously fun, the test subjects stopped doing the tasks because they were no longer internally motivated. This effect can happen in high schools as grades are given for writing, which can stifle creativity and take away the love students had for writing. However, verbal feedback has been shown to not have this negative effect, as verbal feedback informs rather than rewards, so giving verbal feedback is a way of giving grades without taking away the intrinsic motivation for doing the assignment.
While getting an “A” is excellent, it’s even better if it’s accompanied by some real feedback. Everyone agrees that the best kind of feedback is verbal, but any kind is better than none. However, while making a rubric is a great way to quantify a subjective assignment like an essay, it’s not a great way to provide feedback. According to Bai, “The rubric is useless for feedback.” As senior James Garcia puts it, “Verbal communication works best.”
